I can’t believe the day is finally here. This has been a blood, sweat, and tears type of project but I am absolutely over-the-moon, jumping-up-and-down, stand-on-my-head, doing cartwheels, SO excited to launch the new Jennifer Stuart Photography!

When I started my business, I wasn’t aware of the importance of branding nor did I have the budget to commission something custom, so I naively created my own logo in Photoshop. It was fine for the time, but after a few years and several workshops inferring the importance of branding, I realized that the brand I had created was not at all reflective of my work. The logo was elegant, swooping, and too serious for my style. So last January, I decided to take the leap for change and I made my first contact to Jane, my designer. Through the course of the year, we have tediously worked through every aspect of my brand.

Rebranding is not just changing up the fonts in your logo and calling it a day either. It was truly an internal process. My brand is the first impression I get to make when people open my website before they even look at my photos, so it had to be a reflection of who I am and the type of photography I shoot: cheerful, colorful, and clean. I couldn’t be happier with the final product.

Without the support from my family, my friends, and B (who endured the largest part of this crazy adventure with me), I probably wouldn’t have been able to complete this project. For quietly listening to me obsess over the angled swoop of a letter or which color blue to use, and ALWAYS offering your opinions…thank you. For “taking me down from the ledge” when I wanted to scrap everything and start over a few times during the process…thank you. For always offering advice about marketing and how to conduct the launch…thank you. For all the hugs and kisses when the emotional stress of this process became too much for me to handle…thank you. Running a business is hard work, mentally, physically, and emotionally, and I am only one person to do it all. So, I am certain that it would not have become successful if I had indifferent family and friends. I am forever grateful for their support and love, and look forward to continue to make them proud.

I also have to thank my wonderful designer, Jane Johnson, for working through this with me and putting up with my nit-picky Type A personality; Stef Serafin for coding the new blogsite; Terri Cutlip for creating some of my new brand patterns; and Sara Brennan-Harrell from Whitebox Photography for my new headshots.

And of course it goes without saying, but there would be no business to rebrand if it weren’t for my amazing clients who enable me to live out this dream I get to call my job. THANK YOU for bringing me into your lives.

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The most important things for me with the new look of JSP was that it all stayed consistant and cohesive and the new site was easy to navigate. So, now everything is based off of one main link: www.jenniferstuartphotography.com. The old blog (www.jenniferstuartblog.com) will stay up, but I will no longer be posting there. So, if you want to keep being updated with all my new work, please hit the RSS subscribe button on the right panel.

It was for this reason that I have held off posting sessions and weddings from last fall…I wanted them all to be on the NEW site! I have a huge list of posts, so get ready for the gorgeousness!

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As promised, I have a lot of fun giveaways coming up to celebrate this exciting new time in my career. We’ll be starting with the first giveaway tomorrow, so make sure you come back to check it out. Thanks again for your support and I hope everyone has a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year! Cheers to 2013!!