Logos. To pay or not to pay.

Q: WHEN IT COMES TO LOGO AND BRANDING, DO YOU RECOMMEND TO GET IT DONE PROFESSIONALLY OR JUST CREATE SOMETHING SIMPLE YOURSELF? HOW MUCH SHOULD BE INVESTED IN THIS FOR SOMEONE WHO’S STARTING OUT IN PHOTOGRAPHY?

A: When you get started you’ll probably do it on your own at first, and it’s probably going to suck unless you are a talented graphic designer. As soon as you can afford to hire someone, do so, but you’ll probably have to live with your own work for a few years.

As you are starting, your craft is more important than your brand. Work on your craft. You don’t have a brand yet. You have no idea what your brand is at the start. Even if your “brand” is “you,” you still have a lot of growing to do. You also don’t have a brand to support or defend when you start because...you just started. You aren’t a “brand” yet. You’re barely a photographer. Work on the craft. The craft of photography is king. In time, your craft will begin to help you understand who you are. Knowing who you are, what you do, why you do it, and how you do it will slowly build a brand.

You can expect to pay $2,000–$5,000 for professional branding. That’s a decent budget for it. Some are less. Some are more. Expect to pay another $3,000–$5,000 for a professional web site if you go that route. Again, some are less. Some are more.

For those of you emerging professional photographers coughing and choking at those prices and saying that they’re outrageous—please go find another profession to work in. Please hang up your camera and walk away.

Photographers are notorious for bitching and moaning about getting undercut by everyone with a DSLR who thinks they can be a photographer. You’ve run your numbers and know what you need to live on to survive, and let’s say you’re charging $4,000 per wedding or whatever. Then you want to turn around and go to the $99 logo web site? Or try to get a student to do it for $100? Or better yet, you have Photoshop. You’ll make your own logo and web site. Why hire a pro? Your clients most likely have a camera. Why should they hire you?

We all want a deal until someone wants a deal from us. We like to hunt through the bargain bin but we hate it when the bargain bin takes work from us.

Karma, as they say, is a bitch.

If you’re going to be a professional photographer charging professional fees, then hire professionals and pay them professional fees. A good photographer is worth what they charge. So are a good designer and developer. Expect to pay for good service and great work. Be the client you would want to hire you.

If you are broke, then you have to make due with whatever you can. Just keep it really super simple and don’t use cheesy-ass fonts. If you are not a designer, don’t pick something that “looks cool,” and don’t do this: “Ooooo. Look what I can do to text with this filter in Photoshop!” It might look cool to you but it looks cheesy to the rest of us.

Clean and simple. Clean and simple. Simple fonts like Helvetica or Arial. Simple colors. Simple, simple, simple. Pick no more than two fonts: one is for your name or for headline information; the other is for basic text. That’s it. Simple.

Ten years from now you’re going to be embarrassed by your first site, first logo, first portfolio. It’s okay. You have to start somewhere. Just keep it clean and simple and you’ll be able to get to that 10-year mark.