Last year I had the opportunity to work with a wonderful photographer on a new identity for her business. “Simply Ania” already had a pretty fine site and look, but Ania wanted something even better, more customized, that would express her personality and the quality of her work. Ania specializes in portraiture of babies, and after seeing her portfolio I couldn’t wait to see what we could create for her.

After reviewing her inspiration file and gathering styles from my site we established a general parameter. I would focus on her name, “simply” would remain set in type, and I would explore a range of directions, from informal to elegant, blending femininity and strength.

Above, the final choice, as it appears on the Simply Ania website. One of the unique challenges of this project was the very shortness of the name involved. Also, repeated letters. It can take many tests and variations to balance out repeated letters so they look different in a way that looks intentional. An upper case A would have given more variation to the logo, but the choice of lowercase adds approachability. When a logo is signature based there is always a key question to ask: is the main goal of the logo to amplify the identity and image of the business so that it becomes aspirational by association? Or is it to open a door and create a relationship with prospective clients? When I work on celebrity logos we usually take an aspirational approach and put the focus on expressing the celebrity brand. In a service business, particularly one where relationship is as important as it is in portrait photography, a quieter approach can be more appropriate. It is a subtle difference, and is one of the elements I love working with in creating custom logo design. You can see more examples of custom calligraphy logos in my handwriting portfolios.