Watercolor-Style Wedding Photographer Branding
New logo for an established photographer
When Hannah reached out to me last winter about designing a branding suite, she told me that she’d been running a photography business for 13 years. Her business, Hannah Collier Photography, was already an established and successful presence as a wedding and family photographer in Colorado.
Because she already had an effective brand, Hannah wanted a logo that fit what she’d worked so hard to cultivate – something that would convey her years of experience and professionalism, as well as the personal, nature-centered focus of her business.
During our initial consultation, we talked about the direction for Hannah’s new wedding photographer branding suite. She told me she was picturing a handwritten font and nature imagery, and was drawn to sunset colors and earth tones.
Nature-inspired branding moodboard
After our consultation, I started assembling a moodboard that would guide the design for Hannah’s new branding suite. This step is super important because it helps me brainstorm some of the themes and art styles that I might want to explore. Plus, it helps me confirm that I understand the client’s inspiration before I start designing!
For Hannah’s moodboard, I focused on botanical imagery like flowers, leaves, and trees in a slightly whimsical, hand-drawn style. I included some handwritten fonts and color palettes with warm yellows, pinks, greens, and tans. Finally, I found a few examples of watercolor-style artwork. We hadn’t discussed this style in our consultation, but I thought it might be a great fit for this wedding photographer’s nature-inspired logo.
Finding the right design
Hannah loved the moodboard – and like me, she was inspired by the watercolor art style. So with that in mind, I started working on the first round of logo mockups. My process for designing a branding suite starts broad, and then refines through each round of mockups. That means the first round typically includes a variety of different directions as far as artwork, fonts, and colors. My client’s feedback helps me narrow down those options and choose the best elements of each for their final branding suite!
As we worked through a few rounds of potential logo designs, Hannah was drawn to palettes with golds, greens, and blues. We quickly narrowed down the font choices as well, to a bold handwritten script. The artwork, however, took a bit more tweaking. We started with several potential ideas – floral motifs, sunrises, and mountain peaks – but nothing felt quite perfect. It wasn’t until I presented the idea of a watercolor-style sunflower that everything clicked into place. We eventually paired the sunflower with a stalk of wheat – two botanical icons that represented Hannah’s home state of Kansas.
Perfecting a wedding photography logo
One of the final steps in designing this wedding photographer’s branding suite was to perfect the placement of the text and artwork in the primary logo. We played around with a few iterations before we found the right balance.
Hannah’s branding package included two logo iterations in different orientations. That way she can use her new branding across social media, on printed products, and wherever else she needs a logo to fit perfectly.
Assembling a photographer’s branding package
I delivered a package of final to files for the new Hannah Collier Photography brand – including image and vector files for the logos and artwork, font files for desktop and web use, and a custom color palette.
Hannah’s new branding is colorful, nature-focused, and friendly – everything she wanted her logo to convey about her business! And like with all my branding packages, the artwork is completely hand-drawn and unique, so you’ll never run into another logo quite like yours.
Whether you’ve already got an established business, or you’re just getting off the ground, I’d love to help you design a one-of-a-kind suite of branding materials!
