Wairarapa photographer: brand update!
This Covid-19 lockdown period is an interesting time. Everyone is in a different situation and deals with those situations in their own way. One thing I've been able to do is update my Wairarapa Lucalia Photography brand. Which I'm delighted to share with you here.
One thing you may not know about me is I used to be a graphic designer. I absolutely loved being able to distill down the essence of a company, service or small business, and communicate that effectively. I was lucky enough to be able to do all the design work for my brand update myself. Which is both a good and a bad thing! We are our own worst critics and asking yourself tough questions can be challenging.
There's so much more to a brand than a logo, so I thought I'd go for a deep dive here for you. As well as sharing my design process, more about who I am and my photography.
Business Name
Whilst my business name hasn't changed, it's the basis of the brand. Here's an article that explains where the name "Lucalia Photography" came from. Hint: it's based in family :)
Tagline and Copy
Have you heard the saying "a picture tells a thousand words"? Whilst that is often true especially of a photographer, words can communicate more precisely (and talk to Google!). I wanted to craft a sentence that effectively and eloquently states who I serve, with what, how and where.
My tagline is "I provide outdoorsy people who want to avoid fake poses, with documentary-style wedding and family photography in the Wairarapa and Palmerston North, that can be passed down the generations."
Copy throughout my website has also changed. There's more emphasis on who will benefit most from my photography and how my documentary style can help them.
Logo
Previous logo versus new logo
Most people are surprised to learn a company's logo is only a small part of their brand. It represents who they are and what they do visually, when combined with the other elements here. A logo cannot exist in isolation.
My previous logo is from 2016 when I started Lucalia Photography. I wanted something simple and it came with the website template I chose (shhhh don't tell anyone!). So this upgrade was definitely overdue!
I started by brainstorming what my business values are, who I love to work with and what I provide.
Then I did some doodles and took some photos (they're actually Ben's walking boots!)... To me the well-worn walking boots communicate that my ideal clients love hiking in nature. Hopefully the camera is obvious in that I take photographs of people doing just that: being together enjoying the great outdoors.
Then I took things digital... I wanted to communicate my documentary-style of photography with loose, free ink lines. As opposed to perfect vector lines from the computer that you might see in a tech company logo. I sketched over the photographs and coloured them in with watercolour (very theraputic!) digitally.
...and then chose a font. This is often the hardest part of designing a brand. There are so many fonts out there to choose from, finding the perfect one can be quite a challenge. I wanted a font that complimented the ink lines and watercolour paint in the logo. It needed to be bold and legible at small sizes. I wanted it to be organic and natural just like my photos.
I was lucky to find Mountain Brush font by Rachel Litzinger. Rachel is a freelance graphic designer and watercolor artist based in the forests of New Hampshire. PlaidGecko is how she shares her outdoorsy and whimsical artworks with the world.
Colour
When you paint your house you choose a collection of colours that compliment each other. The walls might be ivory, the ceiling and skirting boards might the white and you may have a feature wall of duck egg blue! It's the same when designing a brand. A suite of colours are decided upon to give a cohesive look moving forward. I went for a dark green (most often seen in my photos as they are taken in forests), light leathery brown, a darker mud brown and black.
You can see the brand come together on my website. I hope you've enjoyed this peek behind the scenes from this Wairarapa wedding and family photographer!