I thought long and hard about this post, as it is my first blog post after rebranding. What should I talk about? What should I say? I thought that the best place to start with our first blog post is at the beginning of our story.
In October 2015 I got to marry the man of dreams, my best friend, my everything. A month later, as I was doing all my paperwork to legally change my name, I started to think about my business name. Do I keep the name that I established so many years ago, even though it's a name I no longer go by? Or do I start something new? I would like to say the decision was easy, but I wavered back and forth so many times. Would people still know who I was? Would they know where to find me? Would my clients still come back to me? All these thoughts raced through my mind for months. Throughout this time of uncertainty I came to the conclusion that if I could come up with a new name that I could truly identify with as strongly as I did with my old name, I would change it.
Photo by Matt Kennedy
Months went by. I talked to a number of friends and other photographers about it and one friend told me to make it personal: listen to music that I liked, read different quotes, and think about my own wedding and how I felt on my big day. Then in February 2016 in a Facebook conversation with a client of ours it happened. She started off our conversation congratulating me on my wedding and said “It looks like it was a fantastic day”. There it was my response: “It truly was an Amazing Day.” I knew it as soon as I wrote it. I immediately said it out loud about a dozen times and then texted Erin, my assistant and right hand woman. I had a new name!
With the name now figured out, it was time to find a designer to help bring my vision to life. Through a photography group I was in someone mentioned the name Leesa Dykstra Designs. I knew as soon as I looked at her portfolio she was a perfect match. In June 2016, we started the design process. We started with a mood board. What colours was I drawn to, and what look did I want. We ended up drawing a lot of inspiration from my own wedding photos and came up with the framework of where the design would go.
Next we moved to the logo. I knew when I saw it that I would know it was the right design. We went through about 10 different designs, and while they were all beautiful it still wasn’t quite what I wanted it to be. One design spurred an idea: I wanted to use my own bouquet from my wedding somehow in the logo. But how? I have a friend that does the most amazing watercolour paintings and asked him if he would be able to turn a photo of my bouquet into a watercolour painting. And there we had it! A truly unique element that made my logo even more personal.
Photo on Left By Matt Kennedy / Water Colour Painting by C. Ouellette
After the logo, the next few weeks were all about writing bios, doing a few stylized sessions, and picking the photos that would make up my new website. This was a hard process. In 10 years of doing photography I’ve taken so many photos that I truly love. But then to make matters even more challenging for Leesa, I kept wanting to add images from the sessions that I was doing throughout the summer. However, I love looking at these new galleries. They are a true reflection of the photographer I am today!
So here we are. Launch day! A new us! Over the next few days we will be doing some more blog posts and talking a bit more about who we are and what we love about photography. Tell us what you want to know and we will share as much as we can!
To the clients that have allowed us to be part of their memories over the past 10 years, thank you! Without you we would not be here today. And to the clients whose memories we haven't yet captured, we can’t wait to be part of your Amazing Day!
Morgan
