Marketing Your Photography Business With A Logo

Marketing and branding are key to any business.  You are already a creative person so why not put some spunk in your logo?!  You don’t have to pay someone to do it, you probably own the tools to do it yourself. 

1. Develop your logo using editing software such as Photoshop or Elements.
2. Open a new canvas (File – New)
3. Usually logos are rectangular but certainly you can make it any shape.  I always start on a very large canvas so that I can put many words on the canvas and then see what I like.  Make your new file size at least 4000 x 4000 px … you will crop when you get what you are looking for.
4. I always choose to have it on a white background so that don’t have those annoying transparent gray squares messing with your view.  Don’t worry, we will save it as a png later to make it transparent.
5. Put just your words on the canvas by using your typing tool.  Make each word a different layer.  For instance, when I started designing Rock My Photography logo I typed the word “Rock” then clicked off using my move tool and then grabbed the text tool  and typed “My”, then clicked off using my move tool and then typed “Photography” – this is important so that you can have the spacing you want and not that of the font’s default and also so you can make the words different fonts if you so choose.
6. Now go through your fonts library “character” palette to choose some fonts that interest you.  Watch this tutorial to use a great shortcut!  Have your words very large on the canvas … when you are done you want it to fill the entire space so you have a large logo.  Click here to find awesome FREE fonts
7. Don’t worry about color just yet … let’s get the fonts chosen – when designing Rock My Photography logo I had the words “Rock My”  as thick bold letters because I wanted the emphasis on it.  The word “photography” I wanted soft and flowy (is that a real word?) so I knew it would be some type of script.   There is no rhyme or reason here just place the words on your canvas and start moving it around.  Don’t be afraid to use two fonts, actually my logo has three (the tag line is a soft, rounded, light font)
8. Tip:  Make a duplicate of your word layer so that you can have that word as a couple different fonts so that you can choose easier with a side by side comparison.  Watch video here for quick shortcut to do this
9. Tip:  Make your word have a drop shadow by right clicking on the layer in the layers palette and choosing blending options.  Then click on the “drop shadow” checkbox AND the word drop shadow to bring up the menu.  Choose an opacity and spacing to match your needs.
10. Now you’ve got your fonts chosen and its time for some color choices.  It should match your branding, your website or anything else you have.  If you don’t have a color scheme already now is a great time to choose one.  I love this site:  http://design-seeds.com/
11. Play with your layout, this is where you need to be creative.
12. Tip:  You can change opacities of layers so that they are just light in the background, this is great if you want to add your initials in the background of your logo.  Have the initial layer to the back and then change the opacity to a low number such as 30%.
13. Saving your logo – this is important!  Save your logo as three files.  A PSD so that you can make adjustments to your layers later if you need to, a PNG file so that you have a logo on a transparent background and a JPG for web use.  I also flatten the file before I jpg so that I can have it as a large jpg and then resize to a 250px width jpg for ad use etc.  It’s important to flatten logos before resizing because resizing fonts that aren’t flat can make them look strange.
14. Happy logo’ing
15. When you are done making your logo send me a jpg file via email at info@staciejensenphotography.com because I am going to make a little post with everyones links and logos – great way to network  Please send it at 300px wide (any height)

Colorvale Photoshop Actions For Photographers - Speed up your editing time and create amazing photographs with these digital tools