First try at watermarks ... C&C please! Lets figure this out :)

Todd Lambert wrote in post #10675241
Honestly, you're approaching this wrong. A watermark is either just a textual copyright, or it's branding. If it's more than plain textual copyright, then it is essentially a logo and all the effort and troubles that come with logos, is at play here.

You should design a logo on a neutral background as you're focusing on getting the brand right, which has nothing to do with how it looks superimposed over a photograph.

Anyways, I'd stop worrying about the photo part and treat it more like the logo mark that it is instead.

That said, I don't like any of the font choices so far, and certainly non of the color combos.

Keep trying though... or, in the end... do yourself a favor and hire a professional.

Hikin Mike wrote in post #10675303
Thank you....the voice of reason!

Well, terminology can change, but the idea is the same.

Why don't you like any font or color schemes? An explanation would help me more.

There is no point in hiring a pro. If, every time in life some hard came along you asked for help, you would never learn. That would be like buying a Ferrari and paying someone to drive you around. Sure it looks bad ass, but it would be better to learn how to drive it, even if you burn through a few transmissions.

So unless either 2 of you is gonna whip up something amazing for free, just keep the critiques to how I could make it better.

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How about these ... I took your thoughts on creating a logo ....
any better? Still hate all my work?
any smirks from the peanut gallery?

1)

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If all you want to do is post snapshots on Facebook, flickr etc and look "professional", then any of the fonts will do the job....as long as it's legible.

If you are trying to start a professional photography business, then I suggest hiring a professional graphic designer. A good graphic designer will know how to brand you using color, fonts, graphics etc.

I agree with the above, it really does matter who your "reaching" and what your doing with it. ...with that said #3 apeals to me, but I think I would ditch the photography word as it should be obvious and you want your name to stand out.

copenhagen69 wrote in post #10675528
How about these ... I took your thoughts on creating a logo ....
any better? Still hate all my work?
any smirks from the peanut gallery?

Getting close to having something good ... or just another step in the wrong direction?

I think the monochrome bothers me - and the fonts. (but I just prefer classic sans serif fonts) Not saying that to discourage you. I went through the same thing recently and ended up doing something similar with creating a bunch to look through and picking from there. Check out dafont.com - they have a bunch of good free fonts free for commercial use.

It comes down to what you like though - it's your brand. If you hate the color red, don't use it even if everyone else thinks it's great.

Here's what I ended up doing. I am in no way a graphics design person so take this for what's it's worth - not much.

What I ended up doing was sitting down and creating as many as I could. That was the key - I probably made 40 different ones, and picked the most unique ones and presented them to a couple people. I then put them away and didn't look at them for a couple days. Went back and took another look. I made them out Business Card style so that I could get some color schemes and feel of the structure. Still haven't decided if I like any of them, but I am swapping a few in and out on the blog to see how I feel about them. Meanwhile - I just put my web address on the photo's.

My Attempts (not that these are great, but it's where I started)

p.s - and yes my site appears to have went down while writing this post. Thanks a lot CloudFlare.

thanks Chavis! ... Glad to see I am not the only one who is struggling with this

Your thoughts did help. Gonna hit the drawing board and try and come up with different types instead of the same with different fonts .... hopefully that helps.