I have been working feverishly on the design/code for this blog site. In the meantime I have been struggling what colours I want to use. I just wanted to give a quick plugin n to ColourLovers! This site is great. I can browse through thousands of different colour schemes for inspiration.

For other colour inspirations I look at paint chips, and of course nature itself.

At the moment I am loving muted colour tunes. I do have an affinity for greys…so I wouldn’t be surprised if the layout for the site reflected that.

Above is a quick image (sorry for the quality) of a starting phase of how where I want to go. Honestly, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, so this probably doesn’t capture the essence of what I have in my head. I need to keep in mind that I need both a graphically but functional site. I need to be able to showcase large images in an organized fashion. Here are a few things that I need to keep in mind:

• Needs to be simplistic.
• I will be using a light/soft colour palette scheme.  (Just because I don’t tend to favour a darker screen…) I like greys and whites, and touch of red for some punch.
• I’d like to keep the graphics minimal since I don’t have time to come up with new graphics.
• I have to keep the coding extremely simple and easy. I need to work with wordpress and its capabilities
• I need to make each post distinguishable from each other. Good CSS coding is key!
• I will be designing for min.  screen size of 800×600. Concerns for other screen formats will need to be placed on the back burner for now.

There are plenty of articles out there on why branding is important. There are plenty of great articles on the web, so I would like to focus on one practical way branding is recognized – the Logo.

I opened this post with a quote from Jeff Bezos because I think he captures the essence and importance of brand. However, I would push the concept to be more than just the reputation, but the embodiment and personality of a person. The logo reflects this concept and is tangiable means of your brand. It is especially important to me because not only am I selling my photos; I am selling who I am.

In my last post I said I would discuss a bit about my logo. If you go to my flickr site, you will notice that I’ve gone through at least 2 different logo changes. I created these images because I wanted to watermark my photos quickly. I didn’t really give it the proper thought, time, or consideration it deserved. I knew that I always wanted something that would be easily identifiable, but I was unsure where I wanted to go.

On the left is my new design. Unfortunately, I do not have the original sketches of this design concept. However, I can tell you about the thought process into this creation.

The criteria: After creating the last two logos, I knew I wanted something that was completely different. First I created a list of likes and dislikes of the last two logos I created. It went something like this:

Dislikes: Size, Shape, not easy to use, colour, font

Likes: font as graphic image, name, identifiable,

The research: Next I researched what other photographers were using for a logo. Many simply used fonts as their graphic image. I knew I wanted to push this a  bit further. (I wasn’t exactly sure how yet…) I liked the idea of using the font as a graphic image (I obviously used it for the last two designs!), but I didn’t like the proportions and shapes. I felt that the circular look almost dated the logo …(I think I even said that looks so late 1990s!)

Brainstorming: I knew that the design I created had to be identifiable and synonymous with me.  I started by writing down some key words about myself and my style. (I know it sounds silly…who knows me better than myself?)  It was important for me to have a logo that reflected my work. Some keywords included: simple, elegant, and creative.

Finding Inspiration: Even after looking, thinking and processing how I wanted to design this logo, I still didn’t know exactly what I wanted. The biggest challenge of designing a logo for yourself is that you are your biggest critique. You come up with an idea and you scratch immediately because you don’t think it is good enough. Trust me, I think I went through about 10 different designs before I came up with this.  My biggest issue was the shape. When I created the last two images, I felt that I need to incorporate both my first and last name. However, designing with an “A” and a “Q” was causing me a headache. The decision to drop my first name gave me more flexibility, and did not change the essence of feel I was looking for.

Despite dropping the “A”, I was still left with a circular Q. I hated the circle/oval look that my last two logos embodied. For me, it just looked dated and followed many trendy logos. I needed something that said more. As I thought about this, I was thinking more about my cultural heritage. I happened to be looking at a few images of Chinese calligraphy and noticed the standard way the artist left his/her mark – a stamp in red ink. The stamp contained the artists name enclosed in a rectangle. I knew right away that I wanted my logo to have this feel and look. There are many different kinds of stamps, but I like the way Wiki states it: a distinctive mark or impression made upon an object.

The drawing board: Sorry I don’t have the sketches, but I began with just trying to figure out I wanted to place “Quek and photography”. I knew I was going to be using available fonts that came with my Adobe Illustrator. In short, I looked through every serif font I had. I picked serif fonts because I enjoy the way they look. When I designed this logo, I kept three things in mind: scability, proportions, and color. I pretty much solved the scability and propotion issue by inclosing the graphic image in a rectangle. Since I knew that I was going to use the logo as a “watermark” on my images, I made sure my design looked good in some form of transparency. I didn’t want a colourful logo to take away from the photo.

Final Product: I originally wanted to use artistic lines that looked more like a stamp, but I realized quickly that it wouldn’t work well in different mediums. In the end I chose clean simple lines. After I created the image, I waited 6 months to see if I still liked it. I also tested it on different images to see how it looked. Overall, I am happy with the final product. There are a few adjustments I’d like to make, but I think those can be placed on hold for now.

click on image for larger preview

As for the site – I will divide the site into three. One for clients that are interested in the wedding/engagement/family/portrait work. Another site that will showcase the “other” … which will enable more creative freedom. Finally, a site that will be this blog. I will then use the flickr as a means to gauge feedback from other photographers to help improve my work.

Some foreseeable challenges are:

1. Creating a cohesive theme amongst all three sites, but each with a distinct look and feel.
2. Finding an easy back end product that will allow maximize workflow and ease for updates
3. Creating something and not being terribly self critical of my work