Photography Logo Design

What makes a successful photography logo?

Whether your specialty is children’s portraits or business photography, it’s important that, at a glance, potential clients can tell the tone, nature and profile of your photography business. In a strong, eye-catching logos, colors, typefaces and graphics come together to convey your business’s unique story.

A real estate photographer should have a logo that distinguishes him or her from a wedding and event photographer. A fine art photographer’s logo should be different than a school photographer’s. These distinctions can be implied in many ways, one of which is color palette. Green is commonly associated with nature and, accordingly, would be perfect for a nature photographer. Black, which is often used in high-end fashion logos, would be an obvious choice for a fashion photographer.

Color can also hint at some of the intangible qualities that might make your photography business attractive to a potential client. For example, are you especially personable? Do you have a way of getting even the most camera shy people to relax? Yellow is cheerful and warm and could allude to the upbeat, amiable relationship you try to forge with clients. Picking a color scheme based on personal preference is certainly acceptable — this will be yours, after all, and you should love it. However, when you choose colors that conjure up positive emotions or align with your company’s mission and voice, it will be more compelling.

For the graphic element, illustrations of filmstrips, shutter apertures and of course cameras are common for photographers and photography studios. If you choose to use one of these recurring images, don’t forget that there is always room for reinterpretation. For instance, you may want to incorporate an abstract version of a camera into your logo or consider a negative-space design, in which the empty space of the logo is cleverly used to create an image.

When choosing a typeface, you must keep your company persona and target audience in mind. A wedding photographer wishing to convey a sense of elegance may opt for a script or cursive typeface. If you have multiple areas of expertise and are perhaps a studio photographer as well as a street photographer, you might consider a clean and simple typeface that isn’t heavily stylized, so that your logo appeals to a broader audience.  

As you begin your project, remember that your design should be composed with the same sort of thoughtfulness and care that your photos are.