Beth and I must have spent ages on the phone…. and what great conversations! Beth Agresta Photography specializes in fine art photography that captures the connections between people and their animals – particularly horses and dogs. Being an animal lover myself (also used to ride back in my college days) …..
I spoke with Beth at great length about her vision and passion for her photography and storytelling and made lots of notes. Some of the key elements were:
- budget needed to be kept reasonable
- she sees inner beauty of life through her lens
- spirit of healing through relationships amongst people, animals, nature
- creativity and how it can express love, grief and gratitude
- being a witness to others lives
- capturing the essence of those she photographs
- documenting stories
- she had an idea of incorporating the constellation of Canis Major “the great dog” somehow
- she needed a website, and help setting it up
- she needed a logo
- she needed business cards
- she needed a promo piece template that she could edit herself later
We brainstormed many taglines involving ideas revolving around ‘the spirit of your story’ … with a healing element.
Due to her budget, she was looking at templates to buy to get her started from Design Aglow. However, she felt that nothing was really ‘perfect’ for her image and she really wanted a soul to her brand. She did pick a stock logo and just wanted me to use it for her business cards. As I design by intuition I couldn’t help but feel that she really needed to tweak this generic logo (that anyone could buy and use) and truly make it her own and fit her brand. After I showed her my sketches, she understood completely and we ran with it.
Here is how the logo evolved…. from a logo that sort of just looks like bunches of wheat around a globe – called ‘Poppy Lane’ to something a lot more Beth. At first I was doing as I was told and just played with different fonts and colors for her, but something wasn’t gelling. Just kept seeing bundles of wheat – or maybe a spider!! When I started rotating them a more earthy, angelic wing, nurturing shape started developing. I saw the globe of dots as more of a universe…. or a lens with reflections in it. Tried ‘cupping’ to ‘flying’….
The she got excited and maybe a little wild with wanting to see a human, paw and horse hoof element in there… and change up the colors to be brighter, some more playful fonts ….. we knew it might be cheesy….. yup. Then back to ‘dots.’ Fonts and colors were too much. Too youthful. Back to friendly.. but professional. She wanted earthy natural colors with just a pop or natural warmth.
She was loving it… and I knew what the final touch was that had to be…. no more random dots! The universe is reflecting in her lens… she’s capturing the healing / creative stories of people and their animals and they are free from bondage. I looked up CANIS MAJOR… and put in the bright Sirius Star… and the rest of the exact constellation in. She LOVED it ! There is no better feeling than an excited client who sees a vision of what they wanted in their minds eye but couldn’t explain and create.
Next step…. the business cards, website and promo card.
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