Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Newborn Shoot....Ain't she Sweet

I had the pleasure of taking this little one's photos on Sunday. What a lucky little girl she is...she has the sweetest mom and dad! Here are a few sneak peek photos for you Christin...

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Sharing the Love

Since I made an offer to the contest winners blog readers and since it is Valentine's Day, I thought I would do the same for you (is there really anybody out there).

For the next 2 weeks, if you are in need of a brand identity of your own (like the ones shown below), I am offering a massive discount of my branding services! You get your very own, shiny, new, logo based on my branding questionnaire. As you've read from the contest winners, this process with help you define things in your business that is bigger than what your logo will look like. It will help you develop your image, make you look at your customers, and who you want your customers to be, and more so that the logo we develop reaches that clientele with a true vision of you and your services!

So act now...$250 for your new brand! That is a whopping 75% discount of my usual fee!

3rd Contest Winner: Carrie Hasson

Carrie Hasson was our 3rd and final contest winner. She was great to work with and we have even struck up a little Facebook Friendship making it all the more fun to watch her put her logo into action!

I thought I would show you the evolution of a logo. Carrie's answers to the branding questionnaire were very good, she shared her love of the ocean, the colors related to it and that she had envisioned the C in Carrie as a wave... so we started with this..
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knew designing it that there would be some tweaks...I just didn't feel it was perfect yet and Carrie did ask that I modernize the logo a little with sharper points, a more silvery color and only 1 font and we got here


I knew it still wasn't right but this is often how these things get worked out, Carried loved the color, and the new modern feel but she still wasn't feeling it. She asked that I make the waves closer to each other like in the first one and we got to this version of the logo...as you can see not a big difference.


At this point, Carrie was happy but not thrilled and I want my clients to be THRILLED. I realized that the "sticking" point was making the C in Carrie a wave. So even though I try never to do this...I scraped what Carrie wanted and designed as if she had left that detail out our information gathering session. I revisited the questionnaire and took the elements that I knew Carrie loved about the first designs and came up with this logo
Here's what Carrie had to say about this version as we were chatting on FB:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I am on the verge of tears. This is it!

And this is what Carrie says on her blog:

Anita knows her stuff. She sent me a questionnaire that asked just the right questions and really made me, for the first time, define my business and how I see myself as photographer, as a brand. And it wasn't hard. It was almost like she was asking trick questions, questions you're actually excited to answer but secretly give her a lot of meaning into who you are. After I completed the questions, it wasn't long before I received in return an amazing logo. When I opened it I was like WOW! Really, WOW! A few tweaks later, and she came up with just what I had in my mind (but I didn't even know it myself!). The telling part of it all is that I truly would have been lucky to have any of the designs she presented to me. They were all equally creative, special and somewhat a part of me. But the last one, it was a perfect fit. Kinda like finding the perfect pair of jeans. Which we all know is so hard to do. Thank you Anita, for being such a perfectionist, having an amazing eye for detail, and for really listening to my vision, and actually helping me take what I had in my head and making something concrete and fluid out of it. Forever grateful!

Thanks for being so great Carrie!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Contest Winner #2 - Toni Johnson Studios



Toni was the 2nd winner of the new logo contest...so without further adeiu here is her new logo




As you can Toni has 2 creative yet diverse disciplines so we had to work out whether there was a way to combine both into one logo (where there is a will there is a way!) one we consulted on that Toni's answers to my branding questionnaire allowed me to quickly deduce what she was about. So combining her love of trees, the colors red and blue, chocolate (the color and the candy) along with what I determined was a playful (she concurs) personality and voila!
Here's what Toni had to say about her new logo:
I was very fortunate to win a free logo on Anita's blog and was so excited at the opportunity to develop an identity for my new business. Anita sent a questionnaire to complete that would help her in creating the logo. I had some personal business decisions to make before answering the questionnaire and Anita very patiently talked me through my decisions. I completed the questionnaire and two days later Anita delivered the perfect logo, in which she thoughtfully incorporated my answers and personality. Anita is "da bomb"! She will definitely get my business when it comes time for my future marketing needs. Thank you again!!

Friday, February 6, 2009

First Contest Winner's Logo - Cider Press Studios

Julie of Cider Press Studios was one of the winners of the new logo contest...so without further adeiu here is her new logo



Julie was quick to get me her answers to my branding questionnaire and her thorough answers allowed me to quickly deduce what she wanted her brand to be about.

So let me know your thoughts! And I still need the branding questionnaires from you other two fab winners!

1000Markets Staff Pick!

I just was informed that Matt at 1000Markets made Anita Roach Studios his staff pick and featured me on the site. So go on over there, peek around and see if you agree with Matt that "my photos are a joy to view."

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

New Online Shop at 1000markets.com

I have launched a new online store for my fine art photography at http://www.1000markets.com/users/amrstudios.


This online store will be growing over time as I include all my fine art photography. For now I will be concentrating on my remnants work of old barns, dilapidated signs, and other rural scenes as well as my macro flower work and my urban landscapes collection which features a lot of windows and walls from Italy, France and the United States.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

11 Years in Business!

UPDATE: Here is the email address to send to anita at anitaroachstudios dot com

past and that I am still lucky enough to work for myself. When I started out I was under contract with my old company, Turner Construction, and little changed except that I had a little more power over my schedule and I could work from home. Which was extremely important since my daughters were still young and I often worked 20 hour days. Today, TriadDesign is part of Anita Roach Studios and I have added photography to the mix -- everything from product photography and headshots to weddings and newborn portraits, and of course my fine art photography. I love design, I really do, but photography is a passion so I am thrilled that it is now part of my business!

There have been ups and downs of course, and once I even took another marketing job out of fear that the business would not survive...only to quit the day before I was supposed to start! I just knew that I need to keep on going and after considerable prayer knew that I couldn't let my dream die...and I'm so glad I trusted God on this one!

So as promised, I said I would announce the winner of the logo contest...and because each woman has a dream of her own to start her own thing...each of the commentors is getting a logo! (Good thing there aren't a lot of readers to my blog yet :))

So ladies, send me an email and I will send you a questionnaire that I use for my branding clients and we will get started on designing your logos which is a great building block for making your own dreams come true...and hopefully in 2020 we will be celebrating your 11 year anniversaries of being your own boss!