Logo Design For BK Photo

Logo Design For BK Photo 848 310 Nick Saporito

Objective

Brandon Kingston, a photographer from the United Kingdom, recently commissioned me to design a logo for his company, BK Photo.

With his logo, Brandon was looking for something simple, sleek and timeless, but also creative and unique, in order to appeal to a higher caliber of clientele.

Because of this, I decided it would be idea to avoid cliche concepts like icons of cameras and lenses. Brandon puts a focus on branding himself, so I wanted to design something that reflects himself.

Preliminary Designs

Whenever I do any kind of personal branding work, I always look at the person’s name and initials first to see what can be created with those items.

After spending some time staring at and playing with the letters B and K, I realized that if you slice a couple of portions out of the letter B, it creates a K in the center…

bklogo1

I really liked how this logo looked, so I did a quick search to see if any other designer had already thought of this, and sure enough, they did. So, unfortunately, I had to scrap that idea and see what else I could do.

Via Logopond

Via Logopond

After putting in some more time and effort, I finally came up with a concept that I liked even more than the original idea. It included taking a lowercase B and K and merging them into a fluid unit…

bklogo3

It takes a bit of imagination to recognize that the curved lower portion of the right side represents the bottom of the K, but this was really the only option I could come up with that would make for a fluid design where the B and K merge together as a unit. Also, I think a logo is best when it takes a little bit of imagination to see the message. A lot of renowned logo designers feel the same way — that a logo should give you just enough information to start the idea, then let the viewer finish the idea with their own eyes. It’s an approach that works quite well, especially for the Underarmour logo…

Notice the U and A in the logo?

Notice the U and A in the logo?

After searching around some more, I wasn’t able to find another logo that looked similar to this one, so I decided to run with it.

Typeface

Choosing a type for this logo, considering its geometric shape, was a little tricky. I liked how it looked with the wording to the right of the iconic mark, but something about it didn’t look right to me. I think it’s because the entire lockup doesn’t seem to flow quite well.

bktype1

I eventually decided it would be best to take the word “PHOTO” and place it beneath the iconic mark, but in a very light weight and with the letters having some space between them. This way the icon can be the main focus and draw the attention of the viewer.

Final Lockup

bklogodesign

Learn To Master The Software

Gain a complete understanding of your favorite design apps with my comprehensive collection of video courses. Each course grants access to our private community where you can ask questions and get help when needed.

  81 Videos
  11 Modules

The Inkscape Master Class

Tutorials, quizzes and practice exercises for learning every tool & feature in Inkscape.

  Nick Saporito
Price: $17
  77 Videos
  7 Modules

Affinity Designer Master Class

Tutorials, quizzes and practice exercises for learning every tool & feature in Affinity Designer.

  Nick Saporito
Price: $17
  98 Videos
  7 Modules

Illustrator Master Class

Tutorials, quizzes and practice exercises for learning every tool & feature in Illustrator.

  Nick Saporito
Price: $17
  70 Videos
  9 Modules

GIMP Master Class

Learn how to use all of the primary tools and features in the GIMP application.

  Nick Saporito
Price: $17

View All Courses

Nick Saporito

Hi, I'm Nick— a Philadelphia-based graphic designer with over 10 years of experience. Each year millions of users learn how to use design software to express their creativity using my tutorials here and on YouTube.

All stories by: Nick Saporito
7 comments
  • freemarsel

    Hello, Nick!
    I really like what you do and thank you for the effort to share your experience!
    I have a question. Maybe it is your professional secret but I try to ask.
    How do you check if the idea exist or not?
    How did you found those BK initials logo that is same with your idea?
    Thank you and best wishes for you!

    • Nick Saporito

      Hello, thanks for asking! I usually just run a Google Images search for whatever it is I’m designing. For example, I found that original BK design by searching Google Images for “bk logo design”, at which point I found the design had already been executed. It’s also a good idea to search Pinterest as well as it’s an entire entity of its own and not all Pinterest search results show up in Google.

      • freemarsel

        Thank you for the hint!
        I want to mention that your final idea with lower case letters is better than first one (upper case).
        It has somewhere the idea of camera, maybe because round elements.
        Also, it remembered me, I don’t know why, the Playboy logo. 🙂 (If to extent to up those extremities of the letters).
        Best wishes to you and good luck!

    • Nick Saporito

      Hi Hugo, it depends on the size of the project and how experienced and proficient you are as a designer. Figure out what you think is a fair hourly rate for your services as a designer, and whenever you’re propositioned with a project, try to estimate about how many hours will have to go into that project, then multiply that number by your hourly rate and propose it to your client in the form of a fixed-rate total price. That’s how I like to do things. For example, if I think my time is worth $30 per hour (just throwing out numbers), and a project will take about 5 hours from start to finish, I’ll quote the project at $150.

      If you’re just starting out as a designer, you probably won’t be able to charge as much as someone with 5+ years of experience unless your portfolio is fire and you’re capable of some amazing work. Once you’ve had years of experience — time and experience to hone your craft and put together an impressive and diverse portfolio, you’ll have the credentials to charge more. Hope that helps.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.