logos anyone?

A young, fresh out of school student emailed me a few years back and asked to see what my invoices looked like. She was new, had no clue how to bill someone, had no marketing materials set up, etc. She had the good graces to email a copy of what she’d come up with. Except for the name in the logo, it was exactly the same.

I (kindly) wrote her back and said as much. I told her it would probably look fishy to the clients we shared if she started to use that format. Likewise, I told her logos, letterhead, websites should be unique to you and your personality. Mine makes sense because the red in my logo is on the “Rose” part of my name, etc. In the long run, I explained, it would work out better if she came up with her own ideas that would set her apart from me.

She did and is currently still coming to me with advice and I still gladly give it.

After being sent the link by another LS, I read about your troubles with this photographer with, frankly, very poor taste and little common sense. (http://davidhonlphoto.com/pages/logo.html)

As basic design theory goes, logos should represent your personal vision/talents. He seems to shoot concerts and sports. You seem to be more travel and news. Ergo, your logo as a passport symbol makes sense. For him, it just seems out of place. Yes, the photos matter more but the marketing materials shouldn’t be THAT identical. You came up with your vision and he’s infringing on your creative output. Plain and simple.

And if nothing else, this just seems to go against the unspoken photojournalist commandment: thou shalt not stab in the back those who try to help you. It’s just bad karma.

I’ve got a logo on my website which I designed myself after much thought. Not everybody likes it though, but at least I do and it’s more meaningful that it is me who had the idea than if a designer suggested it!

For now I haven’t bothered using it on my letterheads or businesscards. I’m not sure why really.

By the way David, your businesscard design with the photo and the notes on one side is spot on, I’ve made a set of cards and my clients really like them. Thanks for putting the idea on your blog. I must say, there’s never been so much info available since the net has existed and it really means we can all share and improve work, business methods, experience, support etc etc

i made myself a logo, it looks like an upside-down Northwest Airlines logo, but in grey-scale, forming an N and M. I would use it on my promo material but it would be more of a pain to put it onto my website… so i just stick with a wordmark, which is simple and clean. I think a nice wordmark (like on Jaime’s website, and what most photographers use) is sufficient. It is sad when people go to more experienced photographers for advice and then turn on them, it makes it harder to get straight advice when generous people have been burned.

I think logos are important component in defining the look and feel of your business brand / identity, along with the design of your cards and stationary, website and anything else that you want to look official. As such, the design ought to be appropriate to the kind of work you do – so if it’s documentary black and white then maybe Arial Bold will suffice whereas wacky commercial extreme-sports shooters may want a hip/slick graphical logo. Ultimately, I think integrity in the over-all design scheme and consistency of use is more important than nit-picking the aesthetics of the logo itself.

I also have recently had another photographer call me up for advice about business and cameras and web galleries, after which he not only stole my logo but my entire web-site design! We happen to have the same last name and this guy had the nerve to not only rip off my branding but actually put up a site under a very similar URL. I asked him to change it and he hasn’t (yet).

PLEASE check this out (it’s funny and weird) and tell this guy he’s bad:
http://www.lenkfoto.com

My site for reference:
http://www.lenkphoto.com

Jack, that is HORRENDOUS! I am flabbergasted by this guy’s lack of scruples. What a d*ck.

Jack, my god, that’s crazy. As for my logo fiasco, Mr. Swist removed it from his site, and sent me an apology.

I work with logo design and brand identity and such. I think that for a photographer, the important thing is the name. not necessarily a graphic logo. a wordmark would be the best. the reason for this I think is that a photographers name is what always will be bylined the picture. not the graphic logo itself. people remember the name.

for huge companies a graphic logo can be important. people associate a graphic logo with a brand. for example the M of mc donalds. everybody know what that M is. that is one successful logo.

There are tons of free fonts available online for download. To set yourself a little apart from others in the arial league (this is not a dis. arial is one of my fav fonts;), try one font that is slightly different. it’s not that much of change in a font thats necessary to differ a little bit from the others. find a font you feel is in harmony with your work, and your feelings in the pictures you take.

http://www.identityworks.com
this is a very very good site regarding logos and such.

to jack: that is total ripoff. incredible how much guts he must have to just copy your site like that.

to all of you. If I can be to any help with logos and stuff. just pm me, and I’ll answer as good as I can.

Jack-I’d be straight on to the lawyers. This guy needs to be taught a lesson-preferably an expensive one. And as for the other guy-well at least he eventually realised his dodgy situation and pulled ‘his’ logo. Its his amazing bloody cheek that gets me though.

Jack, that’s the worst… just dirty.

and after a little adjustment for it’s current website, soon to be revamped;

I shrank the R a little.

Let’s see some more.

This thread was a little surreal for me, since I’m reading stuff by people who’d jump down a tiger’s throat if they thought their copyrights were being stolen, but who seem to be doing nothing when their trademarks are ripped off. Jack, if you were the first one to use that logo, then you have common law rights to it. Go to the United States Patent & Trademark Office home page http://www.uspto.gov/ and go to the trademarks section. You dont have to put up with this clown ripping you off like that. Copyright is not the end all and be all of intellectual property, folks.

I agree with Marius about the name being the thing, not a graphic logo. Don’t you want your identity as a photographer projected by images with your name tied to them, not something drawn? Sometimes I think graphic logos can take away from what’s important on the page and just make the design cluttered.

...but…I think a good favicon for address bar/bookmarks is useful.

just opinion.