Wow! The entries to our scholarship have been overwhelming and amazing. The work is so impressive.

The selection process will work like this. While at WPPI, there will be a selection committee of myself, Justine Ungaro of Justine Ungaro Studios and Nicole Wolf of SOTA Dzine two of our favorite absolute favorite photographers. We will be choosing the best 3-5 entries, which we will be posting on the blog and FaceBook to be voted on the week of March 15th. The entry with the most votes will win an identity for your photography business, created by us worth $3000.

Best of luck everyone!

This was some of the inspiration we received to help us understand what resonated with them. Notice, the rooms and fashion. You can start to feel their look starting to brew. The final brand felt very much like a magazine, including the layout of their site.

Words to describe their style, work and brand:

sophisticated
classic
fashionable
a little sassy
1960’s
subtle
friendly
boutique hotel
european
spunky
crisp
fun

We decided to keep the moon shape (for goddess Diana), as it had been a recognizable representation of her business for over 20 years. We then streamlined the type giving the moon more importance as it now replaced the O. We also created a separate Weddings and Portraits logo. Below is the before and after.

Their extensive custom portfolio blogsite was custom designed with their collective needs in mind. Author driven blogfeed with silhouettes taken from the inspired photo shoot by Nicole Wolf of Sota DZine. It includes separate sections for weddings and portraits and multiple galleries for each photographer. They also include a “People We Love” section, so their brides can experience their extensive wedding expertise when visiting the Studio Diana site. Visit Studio Diana here.

We are honored to be a part of their new brand. Beautiful digs for some gorgeous ladies. On a side note, since launching their new custom portfolio blogsite last month, they have booked twice as many weddings as the same time last year. And that is just the beginning.

We’re giving away an identity…because 40+ is how many business identities we have created for photographers, photography studios or photography related, since 2008. We are so grateful to be embraced in this world of creatives and entrepreneurs, who are nothing short of amazing. We’ve been to your seminars, sat in your forums, read your periodicals, followed your blogs and tried out your products. We humbly thank you for accepting us into your fold, and appreciating our work, and keeping us employed.

We would like to take this time to give back to the photography community that has given us so much. We will be giving away a scholarship of 1 identity ($3000 value) to an up and coming photographer. Photographer must be in their first year of business; wedding, portrait, or commercial. Submissions of: contact info, url and 3 sample photos (saved for web please) must be sent to info@identitykitchen.com. Feel free to nominate someone you know to be inspirational, phenomenal and on their way to be the next… Deadline for entries is March 1, 2010.

It has been a long time coming, our very own custom blogsite, and we couldn’t be more excited! All these bells and whistles. Blog feed, social media links, SEO opimization…it even has that new car smell (should I be worried?) It has been a group effort and a year in the making, so a special thanks go out to Mandee (our Design Sommelier) and a big, big thanks to Marty (our Gourmet WordPress Chef and Code Connoisseur). Without his genius, none of this would have been possible. Also, big props to some close friends of IDK – you know who you are – who took the time to check out our site during the soft launch phase. If you find any mistakes, I’ll be happy to give you their emails ;) Seriously though, thank you so much for being part of our virtual team!

Our site is built entirely in WordPress. What’s that? “Doesn’t look like a WordPress site”, you say. This is what we have been cookin’ up over at IDK. Custom portfolio WordPress websites that have all the updateability and findability benefits of an open source site, but the look and feel of a flash site. Plus, we customize each site to maximize your social media marketing.

What has your site done for you lately?

PS: WE’RE GIVING AWAY FREE STUFF. Starting with 3 free set of marketing templates – your choice from Identity Cafe. Enter by leaving a comment. Extra entries will be given to anyone who tweets about it. Are you following? 3 winners will be selected at random. That should be about one per reader…perf.

PSS: I want those shoes!

We are particularly excited about our latest additions to Identity Cafe, which is our Branding To Go store. We are selling 6 new collections of marketing templates for photographers, that you can customize, update, take apart, print and generally use to promote the daylights out of your business.

I often ask clients to send me visuals that speak to them. I’ve received photographs of interiors, paintings, photographs, furniture, even shoes. These are so telling, even more than the words I ask to describe their work and/or business.

ARTIST SERIES – CARA OBER from drury bynum on Vimeo.

I saw this video by the artist Cara Ober and her work was something I felt as if I identified with. Then I saw this painting on her home page and it completely made me smile. It actually made me laugh out loud at myself. Think I may give myself a break from all this strategy and planning and go with my gut a little more this week.

What resonates with you?

Because of the dynamic person and photographer that Justine is, we wanted to really make a statement. She wanted a clean, sophisticated, one-of-a-kind, boutique look. We designed a custom font for her name and created her brand in white, white, white with whispers of pink and grey. Her cards are blind letter pressed, long and thin with rounded corners. Carrie at Anemone Press did a gorgeous job, we joked that she had to print them with white gloves on. In the end they were so perfect I believe she may have.

Next up was here new Web/Blogsite. Together with the amazing Téa at LinkArtist we created the next generation of photographers blogsites. It looks like a flash site, with all the update-ability and all the SEO ranking benefits of a blog. Wrapped up in one professionally streamlined looking package. The homepage has both a blog and twitter feed. We are most pleased with the results. Thank you Justine!

The best part of this project has been seeing where Amy took everything. I supplied her with the two logos and colors and business card design and she developed her packaging, her website and blog. Thank you Amy!