Photography Studio Logos - Photography is both an art and a profession. As such, photographers must walk a fine line between pleasing their customers, remaining true to their artistic impulses, and marketing themselves in a way that maintains enough business to pay the bills. These photography logos are interesting and original, very different from the images that you would see in any other type of logo. They are the cornerstone of each photographer’s brand, a hint at their personal style and the type of product that a customer can expect from the business.

While many photographers use their own photographs in their logos, this is in general a bad idea. First, there is a good chance that many customers who would like several of your photographs might not like that particular one. Second, a photograph usually doesn’t work well on paper and stationary, giving your business a lower case look. For an appropriate, inviting, multipurpose, and yet intensely personal logo, you will need to talk to a professional logo designer. Here is a small sampling of the attractive and interesting photography logos we have seen around lately.

Amber Rogers, an extraordinarily talented photographer approached Logo Design Works to create a stunning photography logo for use on her website and as watermark on photos that she publishes online. We took a quick look at work and instantly realized that she was highly skilled. Our task was to come up with a design that was elegant and slightly retro (60s) as requested by Amber.

Amber told us that she envisioned an original camera shape maybe appearing offcenter. Legible. Classic. Gender neutral. Classic like the 60’s. Not too loud, but bold. This logo will be used on white backgrounds and black backgrounds. With these keywords and requirements, our logo designer came up with 4 different logo concepts showing abstract camera lenses, a little retro and bursts of flash. Amber immediately like the concept you see above and finalized it.

Creating photography logos is quite challenging because the designer has to capture the personality of the photographer. These are usually highly skilled and creative individuals and a corporate or stuffy looking design would not help them at all. The usual inclination would be go for cliched ideas showing camera shapes or photo frames. These could work well, some times, if the treatment is perfect. However, it is very easy to make them look cliched and clip art like.

Drawing inspiration from the work done by the photographer is a good way to start. A quick look at the photography portfolio would reveal the style of the photographer – usually. Are the photos bright or dark, are they colorful or moody, does the client focus on portraits or groups etc. If the designer can form an opinion based on these observations then it is easier to come up with concepts that reflect the client’s style.

Herrell Photography Logo Design

Logo Category: Photography Logos
Logo Type: Iconic Logos
Client Location: Chesapeake, VA 23322

Project Summary:
Shane Herrell is a photographer who shoots high school seniors, portraits, commercial products for small businesses, and some weddings (in that order). Most photographers use their name as their logo, but Shane needed something they can recall when they see it along with the name.

Shane said that he liked “Capturing Life” as his business philosophy. He also believes that one can not go back in time to recreate pictures, so take them now and cherish them forever.

Shane wanted to convey a calm, classy message yet in with today’s crowd.

Design Review:
We came up with a few concepts that included elegant icons and text based designs. We tried to use intertwining initials, emblem based design concepts and camera lens shaped abstract ideas. Shane selected the elegant icon and text based concept and with a few minor tweaks we ended up with the final logo design that you can see above.

When designing for photographers, it is especially challenging to come up with the right kind of logo design. Photographers usually try to brand them selves as well as a company. This leads to ambiguity in the message that we can communicate visually.

Ailesaway Photography Logo Design

A wedding photography specialist, this client came to us hoping to get a simple yet elegant logo design that would talk to their upscale target market. Before starting work we took a look at the various galleries of photos this client had taken in the past and understood that this client was not just a photography company but one that considered wedding photography an art form.

We decided to stay away from the regular imagery that most photography companies use. We have been guilty of this too but because the client specifically ask for such imagery. But with this client, we had full creative licence. From the start we decided to focus on typography and the least amount of graphic element that we can get away with.

We played around with many design concepts and finally decided to use the two “A”s from the name as a base and then connect them to form a pseudo-icon. During the revision process we added the little design elements (ornaments) on either side of the icon. The logo color choice was tricky too since initially the client wanted us to use either red or black both of which, we felt, would not sit well with the target market. After trying 4-5 different color schemes we settled on the magenta kind of shade.

Logo Design Style and Category

Text Based Logo Design in Photography Logos section

Target Market

Wedding photos for Upscale clients