I love it.
It reminds me of how Starbucks de-cluttered and simplified their logo a few years ago.
I am a part of an online photography community called: ReStart. It is a community of photographers that are committed to making the most of their photography business. Jasmine Star, a photographer and overall awesome person, is the leader of this "movement." She teaches a series of online classes called ReStart that help photographers look at their businesses with a critical eye and make the changes needed for them to be successful.
I recently posted in ReStart's Facebook group, my old logo:
I was asking for feedback about what people thought about it. The first couple of responses were a bit depressing. I was told that I looked like I only do real estate photography. Yea, that is not what I am going for. So, I turned Facebook off and tried not to slip into complete defeat.
Later that night I turned it back on, and noticed I had received a post about my logo from the Web Designer that helped teach the last installment of ReStart. My heart stopped, she is about to really rip a part my logo, I just know it. This was her post:
I literally (you can ask my husband) jumped up off of the couch and pumped my arms in the air, and then went in the bathroom and cried. Happy tears. I just felt like I had been given this incredible gift. I critique from an AMAZING web designer, and then a REVAMPED version of my logo! I was speechless for a good 30 minutes as I finished my Scrabble game on the iPad with my hubs.
I finally calmed down enough to respond to the post and thank this woman for the generous gift of her encouraging words and help.
This business is so personal. My logo was hand drawn by me. The 3 windows on the front of the house represent my 3 kiddos. The 2 windows on the side rep me and my hubs. And the door is drawn after this awesome red door on a little chapel in the Paseo district that I LOVE. My logo is personal, every photo that I take is personal. It is my art, a part of me.
It is hard for me to not take the negative as a personal attack. It is really hard. I try to keep perspective, but somedays it is hard. This day was hard for me after putting myself out there with my logo for the critique of over 8,000 people. But, at the end of the day I was given the only critique that mattered. A trusted voice supported me and I was over the moon.
This SO translates into real life for me. There are days when I feel like every voice is against me. And all I need is to listen to the One, True, trusted voice. The only One that really matters. Can I hear an AMEN? ;)
Man, so this blog turned out to be WAY deeper than I expected when I started it. But, it is what it is. Thanks for reading and coming along with me...
...Heather
Wow, Heather! I'm proud of you. It's very scary to open yourself up to critiques when something means so much to you. You sit and hold your breath. I take criticism too personally too. The difficult part is to find the true heart of the message. An honest first impression can sound brutal, but we have to learn to remove ourselves from the equation to find the nugget of wisdom that buried in the message. Sometime people are just negative and don't offer anything helpful to fix the issue. It's wonderful that you found someone to offer professional feedback. I loved your logo before, and I love the new simplified look now too.
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