Thread: Photography Logo

This weekend I worked up a design for a mate who primarily takes BMX photography.



He's happy with the design, I'm feeling like it's not quite there yet, and I'm struggling to find a typeface that suits the concept.

As mentioned he focuses primarily on BMX photography but occasionally gets commissioned to take wedding pictures, portraits, special occasions, etc, and wanted something that was simple but still personal to him (hence the gear) but doesn't immediately say 'BMX'.

I think I need a typeface that is quite informal but also shows professionalism, but I don't know, I've been looking at this for a couple of days and am getting tunnel vision.

Any suggestions?

I like the concept and think you've done the gear very well and I also like the main text, the only bit that I'm not completely sure about is the 'photography' part. There's something that I can't put my finger on - whether it is because it is centred, or that there's no capital, or the font... not completely sure but aside from that I like the rest.

Thanks. I too feel it's the bolted-on 'photography' part that's bugging me. Ideally I'd like to remove that but I'm worried that the photography part won't be immediately obvious. Perhaps I could leave just the mark and the name and then include 'photography' or a tagline on other stuff like business cards?

Argghhh, I really dread identity design! :P

I reckon a dotted typeface, something like Procyon Regular,
Try it!

Originally Posted by Paul Murray

Thanks. I too feel it's the bolted-on 'photography' part that's bugging me. Ideally I'd like to remove that but I'm worried that the photography part won't be immediately obvious. Perhaps I could leave just the mark and the name and then include 'photography' or a tagline on other stuff like business cards?

Argghhh, I really dread identity design! :P

Yeah I wouldn't say the photography part is obvious really in anything apart from the word!

Your idea though would make it obvious in the context of where the logo is used I guess, I just like the icon in the way it represents an aspect of his personality and, although you could make it out to be related to a camera lens/shutter type thing, I don't think that's really recognisable without some other inference.

I'd look at what he specialises in and work from there. I was recruited to design a logo for a female photographer and she specialised in architecture so I worked that in with an actual camera. She got it straight away and loved it. I'll try and dig it out so you can see what I mean.

Good job so far though!

Perhaps the black cog around the 'gear/aperture' icon could be put into a grey/silver/foil (depending upon application) to knock it back slightly to help bring the 'aperture' forwards.
The silver/grey as well as being metallic also feels a little more 'wedding'-y/special occasion.

I have a think about titles/descriptors in logos and I know this one is borderline.
Perhaps it needs to be slightly bolder to sandwich the name between the cog and 'photography'?

My thoughts anyway! :)

Paul

Should read 'I have a thing about...not think...'

Also, what do you think of aligning the photography either left or right?

The shutter/cog device is great and, although I don't have any suggestions for a replacement font, the one you have at the moment is horrible (the lowercase T and M in particular look awful to my eyes): it's also a bit thin and weedy beneath such a bold image.

I don't know what limitations you're working to but I think I'd go for 'Martin Balman Photography' as a full trading name rather than adding it as a descriptive term underneath.