Designing New Watermarks for My Photography Artwork

Oh what a dilemma. A headache...that's fun & addictive. When it comes to design, branding & editing photograph, I slip into creative quicksands so darn fast and get reeeaal stuck. It's because I love all the possibilities and I thrive off of the freshness of switching things up regularly — when I was a kid I would rearrange my bedroom at least once a month — nothing's changed. When I first started my photography business I wasted days of my life switching between logos that in retrospect were pretty terrible. Now I've made some progress and things are lookin' a little classier but I still love the thrill of updating my 'look.' 

Last week I spent a couple hours playing in Photoshop. Having guidelines that keep my brand identity consistent really helps because it gives me room to play within a defined box. I know I'm not going to go adventuring with completely random fonts. I ALWAYS and ONLY use Century Gothic & Garamond. I have the flexibility to just use my name, combine my name with my job description (Women's Portrait Photographer) or website or signature. I can use a border around my photographs of paste my watermark logo directly onto the image. I can have the typed name in the border and the signature on the image — this makes it look more like painted artwork. 

I do struggle with the choice between using the pretty swirly signature that looks gorgeous and artsy but is hard to read AND the less interesting but very legible typed name. At the end of the day the whole point of putting my name on the photo is to help the viewer identify the artist and be able to find me if they want to hire me, right? I like have words on the image but I also don't want the words to distract from the subject.

Oh the possibilities will drive ya completely bonkers but ever since I set some rules for myself I've found designing things for my business is more enjoyable and less stressful. Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming images that will have my new watermarks!