Stanley Au, the Founder of Acclaro Studio, also runs a freelance photography business on the side. Using his knowledge in Graphic Design and Web Development, he decided to construct a website where potential clients could view his work. He also needed a good brand for his business that would help him become more memorable than competing local photographers in his area.

Brand Identity

We first started with the business’s brand, which includes logo, color palette, and illustration style. Our goal was to create a unique brand that would convey the feelings of personalization while also being professional, in order to make customers trust that the service they received would always be unique and tailored to their special needs.

In our Brand Identity process, our main focus was to visually express the business values. For feelings of personalization, we began with hand-written cursive to express how the photography business would always begin with the customers’ needs instead of cookie-cutter photography service. For feelings of professionalism, we used a futuristic font to express how the delivered images would be high-definition and high-quality. Then after looking at the two values expressed visually side-by-side, we had a much clearer understanding on how to find the perfect balance between the two.

Business Logo

The final result of the business’s logo was a high-class cursive calligraphic script font paired with a strong bold slab serif font tied together with a structured geometric shape. “Stanley Au” was set to be the cursive font because we wanted people to associate the name with feelings of traditional personal service. “Photography” was set to the bold font because we needed anyone who looked at the logo to understand clearly that this was a photography business logo. Lastly, in order to signify modern photography technique and structured professionalism, we encompassed the text with a simple geometric shape. Two variations of the logo were created, one circular, the other rectangular - to be able to fit on the profile photo area of social media platforms and the other to match the shape of typical business cards.

Color Palette

Deep sapphire blue was the main brand color, as the color blue expresses trust, responsibility, and knowledge - perfect for getting potential customers to have more faith in his photography skills. The secondary (or accent) color was a brighter golden caramel brown, which paired with the deep blue, gave the effect of luxury and beauty due to their high contrast. The last color we chose was simple white so that text on his website would be comfortable and easy to read.

Illustration Style

Adding to the business’s value of personalization, we chose to include the use of hand-drawn illustrations that were themed towards flowers and leaves. We knew that including this illustration style would increase brand memorability on the potential customers who would visit his website.

Website Design and Development

Following the Brand Identity Guidelines stated above, we designed and developed a website, using Webflow, to showcase specific photography services and give more information on how to make bookings. A photo gallery page was also included to categorize the businesses past work (such as portraits, lifestyle, and personal work) where potential customers would go before they decided to make a booking. Through market research, we found that including more images would be more useful and have more significant value in terms of getting visitors to make bookings, which is why less copywriting was supplied.

Final Outcome

The final results of all our services were a memorable Brand Identity to help his photography business standout and a professionally designed website to showcase his photographs - both of which aimed at helping Stanley Au’s photography business acquire more customers. 

(To learn more about our Website Design and Development process, read our Lost with Lukes Case Study.)