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Did you know there are over 155,000 professional photographers in the United States? More than half of those photographers are self-employed too! The number of professional photographers is expected to grow 12% by 2018, making the photography industry one of the fastest growing (and desired) occupations in the United States!

With new photography businesses coming to life everyday, it’s more important than ever to ensure your business stands out from the competition. While talent is important for any successful photographer, having a unique brand will allow you to connect on a deeper, more emotional level with your potential and current clients. So, what exactly is a brand? Simply put, a brand is you! It’s your story and your passion professionally designed into a custom logo, website, blog, and marketing materials.

As you probably know, template websites and do-it-yourself-logos are very popular in the photography industry because they are so inexpensive and quick make. However, when you and your competitors have a similar website or text logo—what makes you stand out to a bride or mom-to-be? Your photography alone isn’t enough to make you stand out, especially when your competitors are talented too!

Along with selling your talent (your photography), make sure you are also selling an image or lifestyle too (your brand)!

You want your clients to feel like they not only snagged the most talented photographer but also the one who they feel most connected to. Custom design can achieve this exact feeling.

For instance, think of how wonderful you felt when you purchased a Shootsac or Kelly Moore Bag. I bet it made you feel fashionable, excited, inspired, and maybe even cool too! These are emotions you should be evoking through your clients as well. Whether you realize it or not, you feel these emotions because the Shootsac and Kelly Moore Bag brands are professional, unique, and creative. You are buying a lifestyle as well as a product, and custom design created that connection!

Every photographer has a different market they are trying to reach, and each market can be as unique as your business. Do you shoot newborns, children, and families? Do you only shoot weddings? Are you a pet or nature photographer? Think about the market you are trying to reach for a moment. Does your brand have the proper colors to attract that market? Does the font within your logo capture that high-end clientele you are after?

Overall, custom design captures the essence of your business, makes you stand out, and helps attract and capture your ideal clientele. And although custom design is an investment, if you are looking to gain clients and increase your sales, it is definitely a must either now or in the future!

If you would like to know more about creating a custom brand or design, feel free to send your questions to hello@ribbonsofred.com and I can help! You can also check out these photographers to see great custom brand examples: Pobke Photography, He & She Photography, Michelle Moore Photography, and Flory Photo.

Want to read it on the blog? GUEST AUTHOR: RIBBONS OF RED

Lots of people talk about their branding and dog on how ‘simple’ or ‘boring’ or ‘low-key’ it is.  They complain about how much their logo doesn’t reflect ‘who they are’ or ‘what they feel’ or ‘how they shoot.’

Okay.  Let’s take a look at Apple.  Most popular products on the planet, at the moment.  Go to their website and look at their logo.  Simpler than simple.  The logo in no way captures all the incredible and fabulous things the company produces, but it gives us a peek at their sleek style.

Try to imagine a logo that screamed ‘cutting-edge inventive geeky hipster wearing retro, tight-tight eighties throwback jeans and an Ed Hardy t-shirt’ is our target market. It would be…a hot mess.

Again, think of all the things for sale at Target.  Everything from clothing to dental floss to vitamin water.  Imagine a logo that said all those things.  Hot mess city.  Same goes for Wal-Mart.  Adobe.  Any grocery store on the planet.  And your business, too.  No symbol on the planet can capture everything you do!

A strong logo rarely includes doodads or thingamabobs.  The earth’s best logos are fairly simple.  (Golden arches, anyone?) So think simple.  And simpler, still.

Stop trying to commission a logo that screams YOU AND EVERYTHING YOU DO.  It’ll be out of date in no time.  Find one that whispers of your essence but allows room for growth across the years.

Oh, and the business therapy winner?  Xander of Photographing Sound. E-mail me to claim your prize, love! Thanks to all of you who signed up for the Merit Badge mail, left comments, and tweeted about the giveaway!

Want to read it on the blog? LOGO TIPS AND TRICKS

You see, my old website was built entirely on trying to one-up other photographers in the U.S.  (Not my region or the state, mind you, but THE COUNTRY.)  And to one-up the whole country, to ‘do what’s never been done,’ well…

You have to pull out all the stops.  You have to have bells and whistles.  Flying chandeliers, tweeting birds, blinking text, the works.

Photographers went NUTS over my old website.  Seriously.  Batshit insane. Just today, someone told me it was their favorite photography website of all time.

But clients?  You know, those people who hire me and pay the bills?

They weren’t big fans.  Inquiries dropped.  Web traffic dropped.

To potential clients, I was the kid at the holiday concert who plays air guitar and stagedives during the class rendition of ‘Silent Night.’

The kid who’s oblivious to awkward silence.  The one wearing Grandma’s reindeer sweater while rocking the imaginary mosh pit.  That kid.

(Or I was Smelly Cat. The jury is out.)

I was too busy looking sideways to see my clients.  I was so worried about other photographers that I forgot to be worried about my clients’ needs.  The current Essential Imagery website is a result of sincere reflection on my part.  It educates them about my brand, outlines the needs I can fill, and provides only a dab of personality aside from the portrait images.  In other words, it’s exactly what they’re looking for.

How have you been held back by looking sideways?  Who do you compare yourself to, and how can you stop the comparisons?  How can you fulfill the needs of your clients today?  How can you get yourself on the road to looking forward — right into the eyes of new clients?

Want to read it on the blog? LOOKING SIDEWAYS

And then, my Hip Slip arrived.  Doug and Chenin know I’ve been lusting after one, and it arrived without warning today.  Squeal!  Double squeal! The product itself is fabulous, but the branding is just as remarkable.

First, the box.  Even the UPS man commented on the loveliness of the box.

Then, the paperwork.  Yes, it’s that good.  A postcard with tips for taking better photographs, as the Shootsac line caters to professional photographers:

A little information about the Hip Slip…And consistent use of the logo:

Oh, and the bag itself.  Chosen to match my studio colors, of course!

In the space of a box shipped from across the country, Shootsac delivers an experience.  A little information, a lot of pretty, and a heap of usefulness.

What about your brand?  How can you create an experience with your product’s delivery, whether it’s being picked up or shipped thousands of miles?

Want to read it on the blog? BRANDING HALL OF FAME: SHOOTSAC

Let’s start with Vital Tips for Effective Logo Design.  It seems so simple to have a simple logo, but simplicity is…hard.  The rest of the article provides us with iconic logos and — better yet — how their design principles can be applied to your own logo.

Want to go the custom website route?  You’ll need 8 tips for working with web designers.  I love that one of the guidelines is to be honest without being nitpicky.  Genius!  Now go read the other seven.

If you’re in the midst of figuring out what to share with the world in the way of a bio, try Problogger’s ‘how to write an about me’ page.‘  Quick, easy, helpful.

Spreadsheets make the biz world go round, and if you’re in need of a quick and simple solution for keeping tabs on $$ so you can follow your biz heart, try the Think Bakery blog.

Once you’ve brushed up on these topics, try a little search engine optimization tuneup through the LiveBooks blog: 10 things not to do.

Finally, challenge yourself: define your style in three words or less.

Want to read it on the blog? SIMPLE WAYS TO STRENGHEN YOUR BRAND.

“So, short of me hiring a branding professional (which will be something I’ll do in the distant future) what’s your advice about melding your favorites into your brand. i.e. I have my logo, but I love Anthropologie but I also love the mini boden catalogs and old school hip hop and R&B and Gershwin. I love jeans and t-shirts but I also love a classy pair of black heels and a mini dress. All of my loves are no where represented in my logo, aside form my favorite color orange. I am soooo confused. Am I over thinking this?”

I have to be honest, here: I like all those things, too.  Without vision and planning, my brand would look like the lovechild of a Florida tourist, a punk rock flea market vendor, and a snobby Parisian barista.

While knowing what you love is a vital part of the branding process, the next step is deciding which of those elements to play up in your brand.

Hip hop and the little black dress?  Vintage clothing and Gershwin lyrics?  Jeans and black heels?  There are endless combinations of nifty elements that could create fabulous brands.  What will YOUR brand represent?

Perhaps an easier question to help narrow your focus, here: which of those elements you love would your ideal client like to see included in your brand?

If you’re going for the modern mom who sports designer handbags and vacations in Cape Cod, your brand won’t look the same as when you attract the ultra-hip Senior or the posh but quirky bride and groom.  You’re the same artist with the same interests — but your ideal clients determine the way your brand looks, in many cases.

Working backwards from your ideal client, then, can determine which aspects of your personality and your style will translate into a strong, cohesive, and distinct brand.

Want to read it on the blog? LAYING THE FOUNDATION

Letterpress printing has been happening since the mid-15th century, and involves relief printing of text and images.  In other words, if you run your hand over it, you’ll feel the words and dents and dings that create such beautiful invitations, announcements, posters, and other such stationery frippery.

The ultimate letterpress roundup, Brand Camp Blog style:

Hello Lucky

Hello Lucky Screenshot

See how everything about their website is quirky, bright, and screams ‘I’m not boring, yay!’  That’s the foundation of a fabulous brand.  Innovative illustration and fun products, including the creation of a book — Handmade Hellos — reinforce their status as a letterpress leader.

Old School Stationers

Old School Stationers Screenshot

If you’re doing something old school, and you call yourself old school — well, at least your sense of humor makes you worthy of a second glance.

Old School Stationers proves that letterpress makes for awesome, frame-worthy prints and posters, too. Their offbeat-retro prints of family camping trips are worth checking out.

Truly Smitten

Truly Smitten Screenshot

Cherry-picked examples of letterpress goodness, movable type, and other such finery.  An excellent example of extending your Etsy shop by providing a stream of content for lovers of your work.

Fugu Fugu Press

Fugu Fugu Press Screenshot

Humor. Humor gets me every time, and this quirky funny card got Fugu Fugu Press on the list.  Of course, their practice of printing only on 100% post-consumer recycled paper & envelopes doesn’t hurt, either.

Smock

Smock Screenshot

An excellent example of positive and deliberate greening of a business, Smock has built its brand on creating sustainable paper goods.  Their goods are elegant, slightly old-school, and aimed at the discerning letterpress consumer.

Studio on Fire

Studio on Fire Screenshot

If Scarlett O’Hara left calling cards, they would have been produced by these guys.  Studio on Fire marches to the beat of a badass drummer.  Hit up their studio site or their blog, and your jaw will drop at the sheer levels of rad that have been unleashed on the paper that ends up in their studio.

I’m such a sucker for doing what no one else does, and doing it incredibly well.  Vibrantly, even.

That’s it — six of my picks for peeps doing letterpress right, reinventing the old-fashioned in a tech-savvy, web 2.0 world.  Please check ‘em out — and better yet, buy some of their wares!

Want to read it on the blog? ULTIMATE LETTERPRESS ROUNDUP

Entering a Target for the first time made it okay for me to boycott Wal-Mart forever.  Target was so…CLEAN.  And so…PRETTY.  Yes, they’re a big box store that sells crap that’s going to break in six months, but I FEEL like it’s going to last longer.  Because hey, there’s aisle after aisle of eye candy.  And well-stocked shelves. And products available at reasonable prices for a limited time.

What can we learn from Target?

Little things can be big things. A clean, open working space doesn’t cost much to maintain, but can cause a big boost in client (er, ‘guest’) perception of your company.

Improve on what’s out there, if only by a slim margin. Target isn’t 1,000 times better than Wal-mart, and you don’t have to be 1,000 times better than your competitor to nab more business.  Just improve on the status quo.  This could be a handwritten note to your project manager after finishing a freelance job or a quick phone call instead of an e-mail when handling customer service.  Nothing revolutionary, just an improvement; win the world over in baby steps.

And uh, get rid of that mullet. Or you’ll be branded a Wal-mart shopper for life.

Want to read it on the blog? BRAND HALL OF FAME: TARGET.