Defining your brand is probably one of the most difficult task as a business owner/entrepreneur. You first have to understand what a brand is, then find and define YOUR brand. That may leave you with the question, well what is a brand? A brand is many things, it’s your visual presence, marketing strategy, client experience, and of course your craftsmanship. Since your brand will evolve with your skill/experience, this year I found myself outgrowing one brand and molding into a new one (I’m no branding expert, so these are just my personal notes on branding).
I once read, “Your website is your hand shake and your blog is your voice”. I didn’t really understand what that meant until I created my first website last year. For a long time my blog was both my ‘handshake’ and ‘voice’; I didn’t separate the two. But after creating my first website through a customizble template, I quickly learned just how powerful that handshake can be. My website created a place for clients to view my portfolio, learn about my purpose, and get a sense of who I was as a individual and photographer.
Since this year has been about growth at VMP, I figured it was time that I polish my handshake. In the beginning of the year I decided to collaborate with a fabulous graphic designer, Ravyn, from Three Fifteen Design to help refine my brand. I use the term ‘refine’ because I like the direction that my brand is heading — naturally there were some areas that needed attention to help make my presence and experience stronger. Thankfully with a fresh pair of eyes, Ravyn saw my vision and we worked together to create a new look for VMP!
I am beyond excited to share that Vanessa Marie Photography has refined its brand!!! Here is the initial inspiration board Ravyn created (I can just stare at this all day):
Ravyn did an amazing job putting my vision into the site and made it look even better than it did in my head. I’m so grateful for her! Thank you, Chica! Because I’m all about sneak peeks, here’s a little peek to my welcome page (eeeeeek!):
Please join us this Tuesday at 12:30pm as we launch VMP’s new website! There will be bubbles (champagne, heyyy) and a fiesta going on at casa de Malave. I’m SO excited. I will be counting down the minutes! Until Tuesday!!! :)