I drew this illustration when I was working on a logo for my portrait business.

When I started my etsy shop, I spent alot of time reading the message boards on etsy looking for tips on how to make my shop look cohesive. I hired a graphic designer that my friend had used to create a postcard I could use for marketing material, and the first thing she asked me was if I had a logo. A logo?

I didn't have a ogo and frankly I felt a bit panicked about trying to think of one, never mind create one.

So, I decided to hire her her to create 3 logos for me and decided on this one:
For visual purposes, I liked the border because it signified a ttv border. At the time I was doing a lot of ttv photography. The emotional and symbolic reasons are here in my profile for my jewelry etsy.

Some things I wish I had known at the time I chose this logo.

1. Monarch.com was already taken. As was monarch designs.com! My husband is a bit of a computer wiz and had shared with me that I probably wanted my website to have a simple, easy to remember address. I was distressed when I found out it was taken, but it gave me the opportunity to think about having a business name that made it clear to all what my business was. Now there are many very successful businesses with cool names that don't explain what the business is, but for me, a single woman, beginning business owner, I wanted a name that didn't require a heavy long explanation. Monarch symbolized a lot for me, and it wasn't an easy quick soundbite.

2. That the height of a logo is relevant when you will be using the logo as an avatar, blog banner, stamp, or small sticker. This logo did not work well in any of those instances. Everything became so small you couldn't read it.

So I stuck with this for a while even though it didn't work in many instances. I mean geez, I had spent a chunk of change on it.LOL.

I spent months pondering a web site name, that would work for me, and that was available.

I decided on www.theacoughlin.com

I edited the above logo to be Thea Coughlin Photography and opened a second etsy store, just for my photographs. I kept Monarch for my photo jewelry and used the new etsy for my prints. I had found that my store looked strange to me with both. I was also trying to get my etsy store featured in shopping blogs and it seemed like maybe having both in the same shop made my store a bit harder to pitch.

I then started fiddling around with fonts I found at www.dafonts.com
to create a logo that would work in all sizes.

I began to feel less panicked to get something, and started to have fun. I looked up tutorials on how to make vector images from images I purchased on istockphoto. I started to look at the colors that were prevalent in most of my images, so I could have a color theme for my website and blog. I went to twopeasinabucket and purchased some digital scrapbooking kits. I emailed Rhonna Farrer and inquired about purchasing commercial rights to one of her kits that I thought I would use for my logo (beautiful design but didn't end up feeling like me). I also emailed a blog author that I admire the most, in terms of design, and begged her to do a trade with me. I didn't want to hire someone again to create my logo, because I realized that the process of developing my own, was really helping me get a sense of what I wanted to convey to my potential clients. I wanted to feel it in my bones-to have it evolve from my journey of identifying myself as a business owner.

Finally after many many trials. I decided on this logo, because I loved the femininity and movement of the font (from the original logo) , the colors were the four that I found I focused on in many of my photographs, and the dots were simple and easy to use as a favicon.
I will be back to share more about my process in developing my business. It is finally starting to show movement and I am getting far enough away from the beginning to reflect back and share some of the process for any of you hoping to venture into something new.

I am off now to substitute at my sons Montessori school, in the toddler room. My son moved up to the 3-6 year room this year. I would much rather have the day to myself, but I am trying to focus on being of service.