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.

I love the smell of fresh printed ink. It's such a good feeling, and an even better feeling now that it's for my own work. When I was a graphic designer, it was always great to see your work coming off the press, but now it's even closer to me since it's for my own photography work. It was a big reason I got into photography in the first place was creating great images to implement into my design work.

That said, I just got the first run of my direct mail campaign for next year. Shot a few images of it coming off the press at Westcott Press.

Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi wrote a book called Lovemarks: the Future Beyond Branding. They’ve since then developed a website: http://www.lovemarks.com It creates a discussion of why some brands become inspirational while others struggle. I love concepts like this that break down the psychology of branding. It directly applies to my story(former graphic designer) and current business. The lovemark concept talks about the emotional tie between love and respect for a brand that people grab a hold of. I just ordered the book.

I’m currently in process of writing a marketing and business plan for my photography business(something I should have done a year ago). Branding is an essential concept to deeply consider in the creation of these plans because the it is a visual manifestation of the plans. Creating a lovemarked brand as a commercial photographer can be a bit more of a challenge since it’s not a consumer based market. So I’m hit with that question. How does one create a lovemark in the b2b world of commercial photography with AD’s and AB’s getting so inundated with promotions (open for discussion)?

Have you thought about your brand and the message you’re sending? How does your brand compliment your imagery and the imagery you want to shoot?

I’ve just teamed up with my boys over at We The Media. As you’ve probably gathered, I’m big on good design and branding(hence my 5 years of being a graphic designer before my photography days). We The Media is now the boutique non-agency that I will direct any design and branding requests through. (as now I am a part of the movement). We will have full branding, web, print collateral, viral film content, and photography capabilities.

The reason I say non-agency is because we are a movement of talent under one umbrella working together to create kick-ass passionate work and showcase the talent creating it. Our vision is to create a movement and keep the vision strong in our work.

So onward. My homie George does amazing custom blogs. I know there are a lot of photogs getting custom blogs done and I have to say they all look the same! (I’m dying for a redesign here myself here soon.) WTM has a different way of seeing design in the web 2.0 world. Here are a couple examples of some Nike blogs they’ve created.

I love how Obama has been the only political figure that I’ve ever seen to use modern design in his campaigning propaganda. Coming from a branding and design background, I truly appreciate his direction.

It’s great to see a candidate appealing to the younger generation by using strong branding, and a web 2.0 approach. The company Obey Giant created these posters. They have a fantastic design style.

Check them out.
http://www.obeygiant.com

It’s always great to see what other photographers are doing for portfolios, promos, and such. I just had these custom portfolio bags created that I’m pretty excited about. We’ll give ‘em a whirl and see how they fair through fedex and being manhandled over time. My favorite touch is the nickonken tag to tie in my brand continuity.