How My Graphic Design Class Helped My Photography Business

In high school, I took a graphic design class one semester at my co-op. I like designing things and it sounded like fun (plus one of my favorite teachers was teaching it). One of the things I learned very quickly was that most of my favorite fonts were "no-nos" in graphic design. Drat :)

It was a fun class and I did learn a lot. What I didn't know was that it would prove very useful years later in my photography business.

When you are starting a business, you don't have a lot of money. I also am a pretty frugal person so if I can do it myself for free, I will. This and every past site I've had I have designed myself. I have friends give feedback and such, (I even had another photographer give me feedback on an older site), but the work is done by me. I'm choosing the colors and fonts wherever I can make changes. I shudder to think what it would look like if I had no concept of graphic design.

See, colors and fonts and pretty things are my weakness. I like design elements and fun fonts and lovely colors in abundance. I have four other blogs that are basically now defunct and collectively they probably have about 10 different fonts represented. When it comes to these kinds of elements, I am not drawn to simplicity. That is what graphic design taught me.

When I was creating a logo, I remembered the lessons on logos and how it should not be too complicated, easy to make out if it was small, and easily reproducible. When I am choosing fonts, I want them to be easy to read, even if they are fancy. And when it comes to colors, I need ones that fit my photography style and the look I am going for. 

Not all of this came just from my graphic design class but that was the baseline. Knowing what my blogs look like, I can only imagine what my very first site might have been. I have grown in my tastes and styles, but I still tend toward wanting a lot of things going on. A knowledge of graphic design reigns me in.

I am not an amazing graphic designer by any stretch of the imagination. I enjoy the process of building and designing my brand but it's not my strength. I've had a lot of help from my friend Molly to get to where I am. It's quite possible that I'll hire someone one day to do design for me. But for now, when I need to spend my money on other things, it's nice to know I have the tools to make things work and work well. That, and having amazing friends :)