Adventures in rebranding – Check out the brand new “me” – Toronto Newborn and Baby Photographer

It has been a long time in the making, and considering how simple and clean it is, you’ll probably say, “THAT took you so many years to create?”, but I’ve been looking to rebrand and get a new logo since about 2007….more seriously since 2010.

Which fonts do I like?
Which fonts does my name look good in?
Do I want a graphic element alongside the business name
Do I just want the business name alone?
What colours should I go with?
How do I combine the elegance of the upscale experience I aim to provide, and the kids concept of my target subject?

The hardest part, for me, was finding a font I like.  I’ve poured over hundreds, literally HUNDREDS of fonts, and although I may have loved the sample wording in that font, I didn’t like MY name in that font.  The way the letters looked together, the way it flowed….it was always wrong.  I’ve probably driven logo designers mental with my concepts, never knowing what “ME” should look like.  I’m sure some photographers are much more decisive, and can say, “I am fresh, fun, colourful, wild, and love trees”, and they would get a wildly colourful tree with roots of rainbow, and crazy limbs, but with clean lines.  DONE.  Me, not so much.  For me, it wasn’t so much about WHO I am, as it was about how to marry KIDS and ELEGANT.  Kids aren’t elegant…kids are messy a lot of the time, and not sophisticated little creatures…yet.  So, that combination was hard.  I knew I wanted some pink in my logo because as a mom to three boys, we don’t have enough pink, and frankly the colour has grown on me since having my third boy.

Many of you will know that I lost my mother this past fall.  She was an avid gardener and lover of all things flowers.  Although I am not a flower person, and cannot stand floral patterns on anything, I decided a lone flower would be a good graphic element.  Something clean, simple, and elegant, but not over done, too fancy, or too whimsical either.  Hand-drawn for sure.  The flower would represent new life in the newborns I capture, but also the love that my mother brought to nurturing all things gardens….she really had a green thumb (it didn’t pass on, by the way).  So, to keep her, and the things she loved close, I incorporated her love into my logo with a single stemmed flower.

The font needed to be easy to read, handwriting-based, scripty, but not too overdone.  It needed to be elegant, but not stiff.  Nothing Victorian or French.  Just…..pretty, and simple.

With all of that in mind, here is what I designed, and what will now be the new face of Heather Rivlin Photography.  I hope you like it as much as I do.