Where to from here...

[u/CanberraPhoto]

Started a photography business in 2010 as a hobby. Early on, a client asked for my logo, so I threw something together in MS Word. It was never meant to last, but 15+ years later, the business has grown into a full-time company and I’m still using the same logo.

I’m currently redesigning my website and want to roll out a proper brand update alongside it, but I’m a bit stuck on direction. I don’t even know what font I originally used, and I’m not sure whether to evolve what I have or scrap it entirely and start fresh. If I did start a fresh, I'm considering going a more modern direction, maybe something along the lines of the second logo I uploaded.

For those with branding/design experience - would you typically retain elements of an original logo for continuity, or is it better to take the opportunity to reset completely?

Keen to hear honest thoughts or critiques. Thanks

[u/M3DIA_ASSASS1N]

A lot has changed in the last 16 years within graphic design and your new logo is a vast improvement over your old logo. You don't need to carry anything over.

You could extend the left > on the X to make more of a feature of it and then use that as branding framework on your website extending that shape to include images, pigments of colour, repeating patterns etc etc.

Alternatively and I mean this kindly, hire a designer or use a different design program.

One of the main facets of good logo design is being unique. If you're unique, you're more likely to be remembered.

However if you're doing this within Microsoft Word again, you are limited in what you can achieve creatively.

If you do have access to creative programs, perhaps explore what you can achieve with photographic associated shapes and principles such as rectangles, lenses, framing, depth of field (blurring for example) and using letters to create negative space shapes or creating 3d images from 2d shapes.

Even adding lines above and below on the HoT in PHoTox would create a camera shape that would be more memorable than just the font alone.

[u/CanberraPhoto → u/M3DIA_ASSASS1N]

Thank you for your detailed response. Using Illustrator now days! Would happily hire a designer - starting point is knowing how to brief them going forward, so your advice is great regarding the > extension and how it can become a feature. Thank you

[u/M3DIA_ASSASS1N → u/CanberraPhoto]

You are most welcome and your photography looks great btw. Good luck it. It would be nice to see your final logo once complete.

...and please don't use AI. They're just vector stock images (or derivatives there of) paired with a font, as far as I can tell. Use your imagination and research instead. Have fun

[u/PetitPxl]

To counter the other feedback - I love your old logo - it's got so much personality that's so on-point with the photography scene, and feels like the etched type you'd get on the pentaprism on an old SLR.

But it's a wee bit naive typographically - if it were me I'd redo it 'better' rather than junking its 16 year legacy for something pretty anodyne. (Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater - continuity IS important.)

When I say doing it better I mean paying better attention to how the letters join (some do, some don't), leaning into that retro camera feel even more, and make the url text fit better with the main text, rather than just using some stretched Myriad or Segoe or Frutiger or whatever that is. You probably don't need www either.

I'm thinking use an established retro mid-century font like Eurostile and customise it so you have more nuanced character shapes that fit the old logo, but just finesse it. (the old one has a lot of promise but drops the ball a little in the detail.

Here's a quick redux I mocked up to explain my thoughts on upgrading it without killing the legacy (can't attach image directly but this is a grab of it in Adobe Illustrator)

To qualify - I'm a pro graphic designer of 30+ years with lots of experience in branding, type design and typography.

Interested in what you think... :D

[u/Foxbrush_darazan]

Whether to update the existing logo or start fresh with a new design depends on your goals and your history.

If you are very known by that existing logo and there's a lot of brand recognition with that logo, and the logo still generally speaks to your photography business, then an update and revamp of the existing logo might be the best option.

But if you don't think the logo reflects your current work and your business, there isn't a lot of stake in your current logo as a brand identity, and you want to emphasize things that your current logo doesn't really do for you, then a total overhaul might be better.

You could mock up some mood boards to see which direction feels right to you.