When I started to get into the professional photography arena, I had no idea that a brand was so important. I struggled a great deal to come up with anything coherent to say when people would ask me about my business and why it was different from other studios. What’s worse, my response was never consistent and I always found myself scrambling for what to say. I just thought that a nice logo made a brand and had a friend do one for me, but that is not the case.
So when my wife and I decided to start a new photography business that would focus on modern and edgy senior portraits, we decided to do things right and “know” exactly the image we wanted our studio to portray. From participating on photography forums and attending a photographer get together in Indiana, I met Kevin Swan, and his ideas on branding that he would talk about and share on the forums really struck a nerve with me. His ideas were so simple and yet made so much sense. So when I found he was doing branding for photographers, I signed up with their company to do the branding for us, and boy was I in for a surprise! I though we were just going to go back and forth on logo designs and such, but to my surprise, the logo was the last thing on the agenda, and the agenda was 3-4 months long.
The process is long but necessary and every bit is extremely valuable. I always looked forward to the calls with Kevin and Patrick because they have so much insight and experience. Kevin even sent me a book about marketing so I could understand the many concepts we were discussing. Kevin has a way to get to the root of what you are looking for and define a position for your business from where everything is to flow. What I struggle with in my other venture, is rather simple and natural with my new studio, precisely because Kevin took the time to dig deep into my thoughts and ideas and help me find who I was as an artist, what my strengths were, and bring out those strengths to define my position. Now, when I need to create a brochure, an ad, I always go back to my copy platform and positioning statement. That way, no matter if it’s something for print, something for the site, the blog, or facebook, heck, even my studio management software, the image is consistent, the wording is familiar, and the message as to who we are, what we do, and why we are different, is clearly apparent.
After the position was established, then Patrick gets to work on the logo design, and the logo design flow from all the conversations, inputs, and ideas that went into creating the position in the first place. In other words, the logo design is a logical progression of the same business image and position that was already developed. And in every single design, just listening to Kevin describe the rough draft, I couldn’t be more excited with the whole experience to see a business position interpreted with very simple and clean designs. Kevin and Patrick are truly amazing at what they do. Although Patrick made the choices a bit tough to decide on, when I heard Kevin describe the logo that we chose, I just felt that everything was falling into place and both my wife and I were amazed at how beautiful our logo was.
In contrast, after working with Kevin and Patrick for a few months, I no longer have trouble with what to say about my studio, and what I say, or what my wife says, or what our signage says, or what our products say, the statement is always consistent. I couldn’t recommend Kevin and Patrick at F22 enough. If you have a photography business that is struggling to find it’s identity and place in the marketplace, you owe it to yourself to contact Kevin and sign up for their branding service, you will not regret it.
Ramiro