IT’S HERE! It’s finally here! (We would say ‘it’s finished’, but nothing creative is ever truly finished.) The new look of Eric and Christy is now online and active, ready to be explored and enjoyed!
Creating this website and redefining our online image has been an extremely challenging, overwhelming, hash-out-the-details-to-death type of process, but it has also been surprisingly enlightening and healthy for us as we struggled and worked through it together to find our new identity.
It was a tough process because we are the business, we are the brand. So how do we define that on a screen for people to see? What do we want to say about ourselves and our work with lines, colors and a few words? It wasn’t easy but it was so worth the process of discovery. And finally, after many months of work and the amazing expertise and design brainpower of Ryan and his team at Second Street Creative, our vision has been fully realized and we’re ready to share it with all of you.
So please, take a look and spend some time searching, reading, enjoying and let us know what you think!
And just in case you want to know a little more about the process…
THE LOGO. You might think this would be the easiest and quickest part of the process. Well, that’s a big NO. This took us months of late night discussions, trips to Starbucks and many little compromises to finally narrow down the variety of options we were first presented with. Typography. Colors. Circular. More linear. More subtle. Not that subtle but less busy. On and on it went. We’ve been through two other logos in the past five years, but this was our first time really creating a whole new identity for the business and we knew it would be built around the logo. We knew from the beginning that we wanted, not only for the logo but the entire website too, something really clean and simple with just a hint of boldness and edge to it. After a few months, we were able to narrow it down to simple blacks and whites with a pop of color to balance it out and we feel that we found exactly what we were searching for. Simple. Bold. With a great mixture of the masculine and feminine qualities that are present in our relationship as well as our photography work. There’s probably a notecard somewhere in our office with this exact design penciled on it from a year ago. Sometimes you actually get what you wish for. But we learned that you usually have to go through a hundred other options in order to realize that your first inspiration was the best choice.
THE WEBSITE. Once we settled on our logo, the process really started to move forward as Ryan and his team began designing the layout and flow of the website. There were still hundreds of small decisions to make as we tweaked and shaped the site, but the best decision we made was choosing a responsive web design. Any screen. Any size. Our website will always look like itself. This was really important to us because similar to how we photograph, we want things to look how they look. We didn’t want multiple versions of our site on different devices. We wanted one cohesive website that could transform itself and adapt to the device of the viewer. We are so happy with the results and excited by how well it functions. (If you want to see it in action on a desktop, just drag the browser window smaller and smaller and watch the site rearrange itself. Now that’s fun.) We can’t wait to start sharing our work on this new platform and engage with couples in a more interactive way. Have some questions for us? Well, we now have answers to a few of them right on the site. Want to hear what other couples say about us? We have some testimonials so we can now say, “We’re the bomb, but don’t take our word for it.” Need to catch up on the latest blog or Instagram post? It’s right here for you to see. So take a few minutes and have fun exploring!
THE BLOG. With the blog, we really want to build a showcase for our work while also sharing some personal insights and tips for photographers along the way. We know we don’t typically say too much on our blog (this is probably the most we’ve ever written in a single blog post) because we believe that photos can always speak for themselves and tell the better story, but we also realize there are so many new (and experienced) photographers searching for ideas to challenge them, inspire them, and, in the end, make them better at seeing people through the lens. We want to be a part of this photo community by sharing our experience and skill when we can, in ways that are helpful and easy to apply. Here’s your first lesson: Focus on the person. Focus on the emotion and the moment. Sure, make it look artistic and unique if you’re able to, but that’s secondary. Find what’s real.
We’ve posted all our weddings from this year and a few sessions from last year on the new blog so you can see them again fully updated and fresh looking, but if you ever want to look back at any of our older work, then everything from the past few years is still available on our retired blog. But we’ve already forgotten about that one. ;o)
And don’t worry, you’ll still be able to see Eric and Christy in action at the end of each blog post. We’re not changing that, because like we said, we are our business and we do every part of this job together as a couple, so we always enjoy sharing a few behind-the-scenes moments with you. We get to be a part of your life so we want you to feel like a part of ours as well.
OUR FANS. If you’ve read this far, then you must be one of our loyal fans, friends or moms. (Hi, Mom!) We want to take this chance to say a big THANK YOU to each and every person who has ever clicked ‘like’ on a Facebook post, left a comment, pinned a photo, or told a recently engaged friend about us. We wouldn’t be here without you. Honestly, we wouldn’t. Our business is dependent on referrals and friends bragging to friends about their incredible photos. We’re always amazed by the generous compliments and praise that you give us so we’ll keep giving you what you’ve come to expect from us… photos that make you feel, photos that transport you to a moment, photos that you can’t get enough of!
It’s been a crazy five years since we started this business and we are so excited that you are here with us to share the next step in our journey! And since you’re already so good at it, please continue your support by sharing our new website, telling a friend about it, sending an email to let us know what you think or simply coming back week after week for more. We can’t wait to make 2017 our best year yet!
See you again soon and… WELCOME TO OUR WEBSITE !
