After an inspiring conversation with my homie Jeff Holt about finding things that inspire you, and putting them in once place. Being inspired is a huge piece of being creative, and being creative on a consistent basis.

This whole conversation inspired me to create http://inspired.nickonken.com, which is really a public scrapbook of imagery, videos, quotes, and other things that inspire me. I’ve talked a little bit about this in my Vision Board post a while back. Curating imagery that inspires you is a way to help you hone your visual style. I think it’s a great exercise that teaches you to see. Curating is similar to editing in the fact that you are culling together images that are appropriate for a certain outcome. This outcome being “what you’re inspired by”. You can then break down what it is you like about this palette of imagery and integrate elements into the way you see your for your work.

Jeff showed me his tumblr blog, and the tumblr blog engine finally made sense to me. It’s an extended version of twitter in the fact that you can follow people, reblog their posts, add your own posts, and search the tumblr databases. I had my tumblr interface custom coded by my friends in Mexico, GL Pepper. I wanted a mood board/magazine style format that has a lot of images on the page so it creates a feeling. The great thing about tumblr, is you can scroll through your past posts, and one of my favorites is viewing your archive. http://inspired.nickonken.com/archive It thumbnails everything (like this screenshot). You can find the archive here: http://inspired.nickonken.com/archive. Doing this in a public fashion will allow me to find imagery through the tumblr community, and be able to access it anywhere. I really found it great on this last editorial shoot we just did this weekend, in the fact I could pull it up on my iPad and have the images as reference right there for the team. I think it will be great to see as an ongoing log and evolution of what inspires me, and in turn, share that with a community.

http://inspired.nickonken.com

Naturally if you’re read any of my posts on branding, you’ll see that I’m a big believer in the importance of it. It’s a key component to a business and once you realize that for yourself you’ll be much further along. You should always hire a trained designer/agency to develop your brand on the graphical side, but we all know that takes a good chunk of change. A brand development like mine can cost anywhere from $5-10K. There is a whole process behind the development and it’s unique to who you are. Its one of the most important things you can do for your business next to taking pictures. Perception is reality(in the visual branding sense), and that is what people take you for on a first impression. Unless you are a trained designer, you should never do your own brand. If you have that kind of cash to spend on developing your brand that’s awesome, and is a great investment, but you should also have shot for a few years and have a good sense of who you are as a photographer because that plays into your visual brand.

That said, I know how hard it is to come up with that kind of cash to hire a designer to create your brand during the first few years of your business. Trust me, I lived off of peanuts and ramen for the first few years of my photography journey because every penny I had went back into my business. Buying equipment ain’t cheap! That’s where your initial investment should reside because that directly makes you money, and you need to have a product before you can build a brand around it. My friends over at Brand Envy have just come out with a great solution for people starting out without the capital to invest in a custom brand package. It’s called BE by Brand Envy. It’s basically an e-commerce branding package where you can choose your design template, and logotype, etc and have a higher quality execution. The great thing about it is you can have a tight designed brand for a price range of $625-$2000, which is very affordable. It will be hands down better than anything the untrained eye. The drawback is the same as any template driven, you may not be the only one with that design.

Check out BE by Brand Envy’s packages here: http://bit.ly/BEbyBrandEnvy

Next to launching the new website, which has been getting some rave reviews I’m excited to launch the new blog, Shoptalk. My boys over at We The Media did a rockin’ job. They’ve done some killer work for big brands in the blog department. Definitely recommend them. It’s got some new features that were thought through from a usability standpoint, and some design features I haven’t seen done yet in a photography blog, namely the scrolling content under my logo tag in the top left, and the static footer that allows all the navigation to be done in a pop up nav box. This feature makes it easy to browse the blog by topic or time of posting. We’ve also included live search so you can see the archive of posts pop up as you type a keyword. Also integrated is a pop up nave for my social media profile links.

Naturally as the nature of Shoptalk is to share the things I’ve learned and thought about along this artistic journey of a career. It’s to serve as a resource and to give back to the photography community. Many people have commented, and emailed in about how much they’ve learned from the blog, and that’s my hopes for what it may be, so thanks to you for reading and being a part.

I also thought I’d take a second to highlight some of my favorite and most read posts over the last couple of years

1. Only You Can Make S#%@ Happen!
2. Expanding Your Default
3. ABS Theory
4. Two Rules of the Photography Game
5. The Importance of Branding
6. The Secret is Seeing…
7. Your Own Branding Imagery

Feel free to comment some of your favorite posts to share with other readers.

Today is the official launch of my new website that I’ve been working for the past 7 months, and I’m super stoked. It was designed by my peeps over at Knowawall who designed a number of talented photographers. My background in design influenced many logical points that were thought about going into it. I thought I would share some of those with you.

The first perspective was the state of the industry and where it’s headed. As this website was a pretty penny, and a huge investment for me I didn’t want to take it lightly. I have a feeling that the printed portfolios will diminish in 5 years. Right now the printed portfolios are still very much in play and website portfolios are creeping their way in. Will printed portfolios completely go away? I doubt it, but photographers are getting booked more and more straight from their websites. Why not make it easy for potential clients to see big images, and fast?

Taking that into account, we broke it all down to those objectives(big images & fast). Having that design background has given me the ability to look at it from an Art Director/Art Buyer’s(my target market) receiving/viewing perspective. I do it all the time when looking at other photography sites. There are so many sites that my adult ADD quickly vetoes(chasing thumbnails, single loading images, crap design, etc.) I’m sure most AD’s & AB’s have the same issues. The first thing I took into account was my target market. Art Directors, Art Buyers, and Photo Editors at ad agencies and magazines. They are super busy people, and they don’t have much time to make their way through a site that is hard to navigate and slow to load. They are typically working from a fast broadband connection with at least a 20 inch screen. Sometimes smaller, but a majority have at least that. And the last thing, who doesn’t want to see HUGE images?

In my brief to the design team, we created the site to that target market. The site is a combination of flash and PHP scripting which allows url linking to specific galleries and parts of the site. The flash allows the images to be scaleable based on the viewer’s monitor, whether it’s a 13 inch laptop or a 30 inch cinema. (which is awesome when you land on the home page and click the full screen button. The site becomes a screen saver with full screen images) The developers created a special algorithm to have the images loading ahead of the viewer, and following them where ever they go in the galleries. We developed the horizontal scrolling stories because it compliments my story driven work. The design is intentionally minimal visually because it is really all about showcasing the images. The navigation shows in every part of the portfolio website.

Here are a few features I’d like to highlight and why we did them.

•Full Screen(button top right next to search, subtly there without being distracting)
This feature is a definite must with flash capabilities. It creates a dynamic user experience not having to view it in a browser window. Try it out. It also works as a great branded screen saver if you leave the site on the home page in full screen mode)

•Keyword search
Including a keyword search, is partially for my own use in addition art directors and art buyers. There is a database of 2400 images on the site that can be searched through. This was a huge undertaking in that my whole library had to be organized and keyworded. Even at that, we still ended up having to blanket shoots with certain words pertaining to that shoot.

•Lightbox
The lightbox feature works in conjunction with the keyword search. It’s for both me and clients, and anyone for that matter. You can create your own lightbox of images to send to a friend, or for art buyers to send their art directors, etc. I can create front end lightboxes to send certain potential clients looking for certain images.

•Easy navigation
Simple navigation is the most key thing you can integrate into a website. Make it EASY for your viewer to get through your site. Have it static in every page, don’t make them chase things, and make it intuitive for a 3 year old) In the gallery nav, we included many options. You can click the next arrow, which snaps to the next image, you can use your arrow keys, you can click anywhere on the thumbnail bar, or grab the box as the scroll bar without having to chase it. You can also click on the “view all” to see all the images in the gallery. Click on any image and it will take you directly there.

•Social Media
As Social Media is rapidly integrating into our web 2.0 world, I wanted to integrate into the functionality. You can now tweet, facebook, stumble upon, and/or email any link within the site as well as tweet any image. I’ve also included links to my facebook public profile, and twitter pages.

•Image Download
Many clients like to comp ad mockups with your images if they’re considering you for a campaign. Regardless of how you do it, people are going to snag your images whether that’s saving them or screen shotting them. I’ve made it easy by including a download option that lets the viewer download a watermarked image for comping purposes. I’m not a fan of watermarking images on websites. It takes away from the image.

•Image license request:
Licensing images is another great source of income. I want to make it easy for people to inquire, if they are interested in using an image. Clicking the “license” link will create an email to me with the image ID info. I can then have my agent negotiate the licensing if it’s an advertising use. (if the image is licensable, the word “license” will appear in the image rollover nav.)

•Video galleries
As we all know, video is creeping into our little photography world. As I’ve only done a few stop motion projects at this time, I wanted to make room to grow and integrate video into the brand.

•News, Behind the Scenes, and Profile
I wanted to create a news section to showcase any press or exciting new endeavors that may come about. Behind the scenes are always fun and a great way for clients to see what it’s like to work on set with you. It’s also a great brand extension. The profile page has a great new cheeky bio written by my copywriter friend Dave.

•Blog
The new blog has new functionalities, that I will specially highlight in an upcoming post. It was created by my homies over at We The Media in Portland. They can do some insane things with Word Press.

•Backend Content Management System(CMS)
The biggest asset of this site, is the part you can’t see, and a majority of why it costs a pretty penny. The whole backend allows me to have a database of images that I can create galleries on the fly, update and change content, add new news clips, behind the scenes videos and pics, etc. It’s all keyword searchable and makes it so I can update all the content myself without having to get the developers to do it every time I want to add something.

•iPhone Website
As we all know, so many creatives out there have iPhones, and I wanted to make my new site iPhone friendly. I hired my friends over at AG Design in Mexico to cook up a special iPhone website that draws the galleries from the main website. It’s great because all I have to do is change the galleries in one place. When you hit my website from an iPhone it automatically redirects you to the mobile site.

Nothings ever perfect, but I am super excited to have this site working for me. Think ahead, take your target market in to account when building your site and make it easy for them to understand what it is that you do.

I've had many of conversations with different people lately, and I'm starting to see a trend. New School vs. Old School. The biggest thing I've realized over the last year is that the times are changing. Technology is changing, and changing the game. Social Media is blowing up. Twitter and Facebook are becoming household names. Which by the way if you haven't seen this video on the Social Media Revolution, check it out, the stats will blow your mind. The internet has created a gateway for anyone to be an expert at what they do. It's created a platform for anyone to enter the the world of getting their work out there. This IS an amazing thing… IF you use it to your advantage.

New School vs. Old School. There is a ton of truth to both, and you need a fair amount of the old school to carry into the new school. In the Old School photography world it's about having amazing work and creative, which in turn gets you jobs. Which is 100% true. Hone your craft and do it well. Make amazing images, and someone will recognize you. Ten years ago, hell even 5 years ago it was much harder to get in the game. The internet didn't exist(with the capabilities it does now) which meant to get your great work into the eyeballs of the right people, you had to send physical portfolios, post card promos, prints, and be seen in printed magazines. A rep that was hitting the pavement with your portfolios all the time. This is all VERY expensive. Getting into the game COSTED a lot.

This is exactly why the "Greats" don't all have websites(or have terrible ones). Annie Leibowitz, Ellen Von Unwerth, Patrick Demarchlier, etc. EVERYONE knows who they are (that hire them at least). They've been in the game for years. They ARE established. Being published in all the major magazines is their portfolio. (don't get me wrong would it benefit them to adapt and spend of their cash reservoir on a web presence? of course.)

Now enter the New School: Getting someone to recognize honed craft. With all the benefits of the digital revolution and the ease of putting your work out there into the world wide web of eyeballs, we've encountered a downside. It's made it extremely cheap to get into the game. Let me rephrase that. It's made it FREE to get into the game. In turn, the downside is the volume of people that are doing it creates white noise. Everyone is a "photographer" these days and images are flying around the web like nobody's business. Having amazing work has now just become the entry way to getting anywhere. Anyone not at the "greats" level are struggling to adapt to the times. The older folks who choose not to learn the digital media opportunities. The ones in the game for probably 5-10 years that started in the filmic old school world and just got used to it before it changed. These are the ones that are getting left behind should they not choose to adapt.

Creating your "Personal Brand" is the key to getting anywhere. Create a voice that people remember your work by. Not only graphically, but what you project through social media outlets. The content you put out there to the world creates people's perception of you. Consistency of brand creates longevity.

What am I saying with all this? Move with the current of technology. Adapt, and try to get ahead of where technology is moving. Then use it to your advantage. Use social media and internet connectivity for your business. "Old School" is also a mentality. It really comes down to a choice as all things do. Only YOU can make S#$@ happen.

It's where the world is moving and if you don't get on the train, you may get left at the station. Be a game changer.

The more I look around at successful artists, the more I see the common thread of their success. Maybe it's a secret, and maybe it's not. To me the secret IS, there is no secret.

But really, it all lies within that. The secret is "SEEING", which essentially is having a strong refined vision for. Definitely in your craft as an artist, but in other facets of life and business. If you can't see quality, details, and all the little elements that fit together to make a great photograph then maybe it's time to rethink. Success starts from the top. It starts from the decision maker's "Vision" because every decision that is made to execute that vision gets filtered down to the team that comes together to create it. You see this all the time in corporate companies. Look at the successful companies and the CEO's that have taken them there. Apple and Steve Jobs. He has a strong vision for the products and company, therefore that strong vision gets imprinted and controlled into everything the company puts out, including it's branding and advertising. Hulu & Jason Kilar. This month's issue in Fast Company talks about how Fox hired Jason Kilar to revamp what is now known as Hulu.com. He came in with a strong vision and turned the company around. Fired and hired a new crew. Implemented his vision, took risks and now Hulu is rapidly growing and successful. Nike & Phil Knight: Nike is one of the strongest brands in the world. Phil Knight created a great well designed product and had the vision to create a brand that matches and elevates the product. The vision to venture into new medias and try new things, but everything aligns with their vision.

How does this parlay into photography? It has everything to do with it from taking pictures to the business. You have to be able to see a good photograph to be able to make it. The WAY you SEE is WHAT you are hired for as a photographer. Seeing photographs is just one facet of the business, and if you want to make money at photography, you must build a business around it. You have to be able to "SEE" what it takes to have a successful business, so you can make the decisions and execute the elements of that. You must have the vision to hire people that are the best at what they do to make your business better. That especially goes for executing a photograph. Hiring people that do amazing work, only makes the photograph better and close that creative gap between what you "SEE" and what you produce. Seeing also comes into editing and retouching. Choosing the right images and having a vision for retouching is also key.

I have to admit, my technical knowledge is just now catching up with what I envision in my photos. Even at that, I'm constantly working on "SEEING" at a higher and higher level. If you can "SEE" at a high level and produce what you see, you'll get hired for those types of jobs. If you feel you have a hard time "SEEING", then practice. Practice by looking at magazines and good photography. Break images down to the details of what goes into them.

"SEEING" in business is similar. It's a learning and growing process. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to take a business class or connect up with mentors. This field is probably 80% business and 20% photography, that is if you actually want to make a living off of it. You have to be able to "SEE" all assets of the business, especially branding and marketing.

I've talked a lot about branding and design, and the importance(Importance of Branding post) of it. As you grow and have the resources to work with great designers your brand gets tightened up. I had my friends over at Brand Envy, http://www.brand-envy.com design these fancy letter pressed business cards for me that fits to my branding scheme. The cards are 2 colors on one side with hand painted edges on 220lb paper.

They have branding packages for different levels, so I would definitely recommend connecting with them to create a branding scheme for you. Just tell them you heard of them from me.

The actual letter pressing was done at Dolce Press.

It’s funny how as photographers a lot of times we neglect to pay attention to our own advertising and branding. In the advertising world, we are constantly creating branding imagery for our clients, so why don’t we ever think to create branding imagery for our own photography business. After all, we are in the business of selling our specific vision and style to potential clients. I’ve always been an advocator of shooting your own work all the time for many reasons. (see ABS theory) The best reason is to create branding images that resonate with your personal photographic vision. Images that convey who you are, what you shoot, and how you shoot it that you can put out into the world to tell them how they should be seeing your brand. Branding is constantly conveying a message to the viewers on how you want them to see you. Perception is reality, so its our job to create and control that perception.

How much are you willing to invest? We invest in gear, graphic designers, promos etc. Investing into producing our own photographic vision is just as important. (Sometimes you can convince a client to fund your personal creations. We did that with our Santi project with Nike.) Or, sometimes you get a job that is exactly your creative vision, but usually you don’t get those unless your creative vision is strong, and that happens when you’re showing the work that you want to be shooting… And to do that, you have to be shooting it yourself.

Found this over at ISO50, Scott Hanson’s blog. It’s very fascinating to hear the process that went into making the Obama Logo. More importantly, I think it is a great insight into the branding process at high levels. It goes to show you how important branding is, and what goes into it. In these videos Sol Sender walks us through the creative process that they went through to create the Obama logo. Even as simple an iconic logo can be, we don’t realize how much work goes into creating them.

Check out this 2 part video. The first part is about 8 minutes, and the second part is about 5 minutes.

I was just asked by a reader about branding and whether I think it's worth spending the money, and I say 100% yes. Branding is such a subconscious yet, important thing to consider if you want to have a business and make money. I spent 5 years as a graphic designer branding and creating identities for companies, and is actually what I went to school for. If you think about your business as any other business, then branding is huge. Think of Coke vs the generic cola brand at a store. Most people want a brand they can trust, and will pay more for that. That's why most people make the subconscious decision to purchase a can of Coke over genera. We buy into brands a lot of because of the visuals that they portray, with the extension of how the brand lives up to those visuals. That's why advertising is such a huge deal these days. Most people without a design or advertising background aren't trained to see visuals and breakdown, so it becomes subconscious to the untrained eye. I wrote a post on Lovemarks.com a little while back. A great website by Saatchi on how we rate certain brands and why we love them. Most small businesses (especially photographers) make the mistake of trying to do these things themselves with no formal training.

Perception is Reality.

Branding yourself is creating they other people perceive you, which becomes their reality. All you have to do is live up to that perception to make your brand successful. Deliver a product that in line with your brand. It's especially crucial in Commercial & Advertising photography since our clients are the ones creating those brands visually.

In consumer driven businesses like Wedding photography, it's extremely important as well. Us consumers choose brands that we love, that portray the things we want, personality, product, service, and a visual brand that tells us that's what we are going to get.

That said, the process of hiring the right designer/agency is very similar to the way an agency hires a photographer. Here are a few tips:

1. Make sure you're ready. Have you come to grasp with your visual style, what you like to shoot, how you like to shoot, what you WANT to shoo? Have you developed a plan to get there? This all plays into your brand.
2. Prepare yourself to spend enough money. Good designers/agencies from $3K-$10K for an identity design. It's a process, and good agencies will take you through the process asking you questions to find out who you are and how they can play those elements into your brand.
3. Do your research. Look at different designers/agencies that suit you. That will give you the style you want to represent your brand. Just like hiring a photographer, their portfolio says what they can do. You can see the quality of work from their portfolio.