If you ask anyone that has ever branded themselves before, I imagine that they would tell you that it's pretty dang hard. Ever since I started seeing myself become something that resembled a business (my senior year in high school), I started dreaming up logos and tried to make myself look as professional as possible. Goodness, I even ordered 250 business cards with the most horrendous logo for Fuchs Photography that are probably still somewhere in my house and need to be burned ... Needless to say I have come a long long way.
While photography has always been my first love, I have a special place for design in my life and am studying both Graphic Design and Photography at Indiana Wesleyan. I love good brand design, and while I've never had a knack for it, I was pretty determined to brand myself or at least create a logo. I tried for 4 years and went through 3 name changes ( Fuchs Photography >> Miranda Fuchs Photography >> Miranda Coralyn Photography )! I would get TONS of inspiration from places like pinterest, designspiration ,and even the graphics classes that I was taking. I gave up last year and actually hired someone else only to feel like it was still not 100% me. One thing that is hard about logos is that they can hop on trends SO easily. (Brush scripted, retro, badges, all that stuff that I LOVED but knew that eventually a new fad would come and go). I really wasn't interested in giving myself a new logo every year so the question became.... how do I find a balance between what I love and something that is timeless, classic, and still a good representation of me? GREAT question. I still don't know if I have the answer, but THIS is what stuck. I came up with three logos ( no one needs three logos haha ) but they will all serve different purposes for what I use them for.
The one at the top of the page is my primary logo. In the 8 months that I really have worked on this project, it this has been the one that stuck the longest, and I constantly went back to it. Kinda like prepping for a tattoo...you put it in a place where you can stare at if for a long enough time and if you still love it after several months you're probably okay to get it. ANYWAY I love even though it's brush script, that it's my own writing and adds a personal touch paired with a classic elegant serif type. My second and third logo coordinate really well, one for more formal things and the other to better represent who I am as a photographer. The clearer more defined type emerges from a raw and real surface, and that sums up a lot of what I like to do in my photography. I enjoy seeking out and finding what the Lord already calls beautiful in the the most raw of places.
I'm a pretty indecisive person so I really can't tell you how long this will stick around or if the colors will change, but I just know that I have a good start. As much as the process has kinda sucked getting to this point, I love the finish product.
