Contemporary Children's Photographer Needs Logo

clearingthevision.com

I'm a successful family photographer in Santa Fe, New Mexico in need of a new logo to accompany a new website and other new promotional materials. I was a web designer for years, so I'll be working on the site, but the logo is key.

The goal of the firm is to help create more good kids' photos in the world. We do that with our own portrait sessions, through workshops which help parents to take better photos themselves, and through the site's blog which offers tips and training to people who aren't local to us.

The style of photography we do is contemporary and casual - we don't pose the kids in their best clothes in front of a bad backdrop. Instead we chase them around the house or yard and try to capture more authentic representations of them.

The logo needs to communicate warmth (photographing children is about warm family emotions), professionalism (we're not just cousin Bob with his new DSLR) and some hipness - most of our clients don't like traditionally staged portraits and have a more contemporary aesthetic.

Why 'Clearing the Vision'? it's from a quote by famous landscape photographer Ansel Adams: "“Through the art of brush, pen, and lens … we possess a swift and sure means of touching the conscience and clearing the vision.”

In other words, we see so much – especially of our kids growing up - but we should pay a bit more attention.

We're targeting our existing audience of portrait sessions which is predominantly female, 30s - 40s, upscale. They are university educated with a family annual income of $80,000 and above. They are often more design savvy than their husbands, and might well read Dwell magazine or Real Simple (as well as Vanity Fair and/or The Atlantic). They're well travelled, quite foodie and might well drive Volvo or Audi wagons or SUVs.

The audience for the workshops and blog is more male, however. Similarly wealthy and educated, but less design savvy. They're photo enthusiasts and want to feel like they're hiring someone who really knows what they're doing both creatively and technically.

The words in the logo should be 'Clearing The Vision' - feel free to use caps or lowercase however you prefer.

You can incorporate a shape or image as part of the logo if you'd like, so long as it has some conceptual link to what we do. Basically, aside from the palette I'm attaching, I'm flexible as to the exact form and shape of the logo - it absolutely need not look anything like the current logo.

The logo needs to communicate creativity, expertise and passion, while still being approachable. I fear being too cutesie - too many family photo logos and sites look like they sell baby clothes.

We've developed a palette for the new identity (attached), and I've roughed out a draft website homepage and subpage to give you an idea of what I have in mind for the broader look. But I'd be happy to make adjustments to the site to accommodate the logo better, and you are not required to do any work on the site.

I chose a sans-serif typeface (Univers Light) for most of the navigation and display type to produce the contemporary clean feel the audience like, but you're welcome to use any type of font in the logo if you feel it will meet our needs, and I'll be happy to change the site to use a different font if that would work better.