She wasn’t over-the-moon in love with her brand. In my humble opinion (and not speaking specifically about Andrea, but rather more generally), when you talk to people about you business and your brand - if you don’t love it and aren’t passionate about it – then that creeps into your voice and clients pick up on it.

How can you expect clients to have an emotional connection to your brand, if you are ho-hum about it yourself?

I am sure there are perfectly successful businesses that run very well without this kind of logo-love, but for a small business, trying to do Big Things, surely it must come into the equation. In my ideal world, I want my clients to love their brand so much that they want to slap it on some toast and eat it for breakfast! Or better still, get it printed on a t-shirt and wear it out in public.

I’ll get off the soapbox now and leave you with the final designs for logo, business cards and email footer. Thanks Andrea, I hope this is the start of great things to come.

It was something different for me, so I got to play a bit with some cool graffiti backdrops and some urban landscapes. Audrey looks just a cherub – complete with blonde curly hair, chubby cheeks and an adorable pout. It took her a while to warm to me, but we managed to coax some smiles out of her towards the end. I know Audrey’s extended family will be waiting patiently to see the photos, so without further ado, here they are…

I wanted her look to be about scorching hot days at the beach, ice-creams that melt too fast and scratchy transistor radios. I really got into the retro groove with this project and was just about to don my afro wig and flares, when I came up with this concept. Bec said:

“Love, love, love!  It’s fun, it’s full of sunshine and retro, it’s all about summer… I just wanted to let you know that I am so, so happy with what you’ve done.  Thank you so much!”

  So without futher ado, here it is!

With a business name like hers, there is a automatic gravitation towards making the most of the ‘chilli’ component, but Philly (as she prefers to be called) wanted to stay away from all things hot and spicy and tone down her brand to match her niche and target market. She wanted to maintain her name as she found it was working well and clients remembered her.

To be honest it was a very challenging brief and we didn’t want to use an icon that was irrelevant or random. So after much brainstorming I decided to focus on the initials of her biz name and develop a seal or crest somewhat like a cameo, that could be used as part of her packaging as well.

One of the very first concepts I did had included the notion of some dubious looking supporting brand elements in the shape of a few animal characters (dubious due to my dubious computer illustration skills). After much refinement, and a few epiphanies to boot, the final range of ’sweet’ animals came to be. They include a puppy, a cat, an elephant, a solemn looking bear, a ladybird and an egg in a nest. If you didn’t notice, each of the faces of the little guys are based on the shape of the logo – in fact the outline of the logo was used to create their little heads. These little characters will support the SCP brand and appear in her marketing and promotional material.

This family was going to be my last official portrait session (but I’ve scheduled another next week for a family who were given a gift voucher and of course I will still be honouring all gift vouchers).

I got to photograph Jed and Abbey whose gorgeous blue eyes you can see below. Abbey was a delight, such a bubbly and fun child to photograph. Mr J was a bit more serious, and it took him a while to warm up to me, until we started playing peek-a-boo and then it was all good!

Some photos from the session…

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I don’t often get to photograph newborns, and the fact that Jamie is the daughter of one of my closest friends made her even that much more special to me. I was pretty happy with the photos while at the same time being so scared that Enjel and her husband Ray wouldn’t like them! Thankfully they do, so all is well!

Congratulations Enjel and Ray, she is just the sweetest thing and I hope to capture many, many more photos of her as she grows up!

The Australian Community of Child Photographers (formerly known as the Australian Charity of Child Photographers) is a volunteer organisation of child photographers from all over Australia who have come together to form an organisation dedicated to giving the gift of photographic memories to families that have experienced stillbirths, premature and ill infants and children in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units of their local hospitals, as well as children with serious and terminal illnesses. The ACOCP is dedicated to providing this gift to families in a caring, compassionate and heartfelt manner.

I was recently contacted by Sharon Mallin who is also an ACOCP photogapher in NSW. She had recently photographed baby girl ’A’ who had had a nasal tube. You can see the images on Sharon’s blog here. A’s parents had wanted the tube removed from just a couple of her photos. Digital retouching is never, EVER something suggested by our photographers, it is only ever at the request of the parents of the child. It is part of the free service we offer and are very grateful to the family for allowing us to share the images of their baby girl.

You can find out more about the ACOCP and their services by visiting their website www.acocp.org.au. If you, or anyone you know ever has need of you services, please contact the ACOCP rep in your state, contact details available on the website.

The final file handover was just before Christmas, and Renee has worked incredibly hard applying the logo to all her marketing material and to get everything up and running by the start of the new year. Congrats on a phenomenal effort Renee!

here they are…

The more people see and hear about my design work, I suppose the more they are willing to let me develop their band. I use the word ‘develop’ here with emphasis. It’s not about just having a great idea, its about how it is implemented across all the marketing - it’s about how flexible the logo and branding are so that they can be carried from the screen, to a print brochure and back to the screen as a website. It’s about making the brand work from day one.

But enough of my soapbox! I wanted to say a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to Nic for entrusting me with her ‘baby’ – it was a ton of fun and I am absolutely stoked with the end result.  In an unrelated request, I put the word out for some client feedback recently and Nicole wrote this passage which I shall post here as it speaks directly about this project.

Working with Netra has not only been an honour and privelidge but it has also been the turning point in my business. Netra has the professional and brilliant ability to take your vision and turn it into something that is beyond what your imagination could have dreamed. Netra is thorough with her knowledge in the industry but what makes her stand above the rest is that she puts her whole heart and soul into creating what is right for YOU. She is a true artist in her form, a beautiful person and someone I am looking forward to working with again in the near future.