What can I tell you about Courtney Tompson? First, she is a bundle of sunny energy. Second, she is a very talented photographer. And third, I had a blast working with her on her new visual identity!

Courtney is just starting her business, so she needs a visual identity that is going to stand the test of time. As she said to me, it needs to reflect who she is now and where she is going. So we stayed away from trends (that’s my general approach) and focused on developing a visual identity that was fresh, young and modern but sophisticated enough to appeal to, well, a sophisticated clientele.

And here’s the logo:

Now, I’m the first to say that I think the icon portion of a logo can be a lot more than initials in a circle… but in this case, that design approach just fit perfectly. Courtney is blessed with initials that take a ligature so beautifully. Look at the c-t connection! And connection is the name of the game when it comes to making images with impact. So we both felt this was a perfect solution for her logo.

The type is Futura; Courtney loved the round shapes and spare feeling of the type, and it is a great alternative to the very over-used Century Gothic that we see so much of!

Courtney specializes in three kinds of photography, so we developed a main logo (above) themed for weddings, and two secondary logos:

On the left, a spicy magenta for Courtney’s boudoir photography; on the right, a fresh green for Courtney’s seniors photography. Overall, the palette is bright and energetic and very positive.

Next we tackled Courtney’s blog. She wanted to implement a combined portfolio-blog, so ProPhoto was the way to go (their templates are just terrific, and the customization options are endless!). Here’s what it used to look like:

And here’s how it looks now:

Love that fresh blue! The blog feels so welcoming, now.

You can see it for yourself, here.

See that grad cap icon in the blog post? It’s a little hard to see, I know. We developed a set of mini-illustrations that Courtney can use in her blog posts and in her other marketing materials. There’s a little something for weddings and engagements; a little something for boudoir (spicy!); and a little something for graduation.

Once the site was done, we did some work on Courtney’s client guides. First we did a wedding version: fresh and airy and just a little bit romantic:

For Courtney’s boudoir clients, we spiced things up a bit with some punches of magenta and lots of feminine touches:

Courtney, thanks so much for letting me help you tell your story!