Goal #1: Complete – Re-Branding and New Website

This post is a little overdue considering I launched my new website 3 weeks ago.

My New Brand and Logo
My re-branding from RMC Photography to Rustin Michael began last August. I asked for some input from my Fast Track Photographer friends about tweaking my RMC Photography logo. After several helpful responses, my friend Dane Sanders, the author of the Fast Track Photographer book, stepped in and asked what am I really trying to communicate with my brand? The thing the my Fast Track Photographer friends helped me to realize is that with RMC Photography I was was really focused on selling photography. Just look at the name, you have my initials RMC, which stands for Rustin Michael Cerveny, and then photography. I don’t want to focus on selling photography, which can be purchased from the thousands of wedding photographers out there or the several other wedding photographers using the name RMC Photography. I want to offer something unique, which is me. There is only one me out there just like there is only one of you. I can try to imitate others or they can try to imitate me, but I can only be the best version of me. just as you can only be the best version of you. So after some input once again from my Fast Track Photographer friends, I settled on using my first and middle name, Rustin Michael, and purchased www.rustinmichael.com.

Now that I had a name I needed a new logo. I created the RMC Photography logo myself a couple years ago but always knew that it could of been better if it had been done by a professional. So I contacted my church, Mosaic, and asked if I could get help getting connected to a graphic designer. Mosaic, is an a amazing church and sometimes even called a church full of artists. I love that it is full of all different types of people with unique talents. I connected with Steve McAdam. of www.transitionalprogress.com. We met once and I explained to him what I was looking for and what I wanted to communicate with my new logo and brand. A couple weeks later, after sending him several different examples of design I like, he sent me his first set of logos that he had come up with for Rustin Michael. Each logo offered a different direction we could head with the logo. Immediately one jumped out at me. He nailed it on the head with the first try. After a few slight tweaks we ended up with the Rustin Michael logo you see today. I highly recommend Steve McAdam for any of your branding or graphic design needs. He was great to work with.

My New Website
The first big goal for me this year was to launch a new website for www.rustinmichael.com. With my previous website I had bought a template which is great if you are just starting out. The problem is that other people can have the same site. My day job, before becoming a full time photographer and stay-at-home dad, was as a software engineer. So with that background I set out the build a new website that is unique just as my brand is. So for the first 7 weeks this year I spent most of my time in front of the computer building my new site in Adobe Flash CS3 using some flash components. It was really hard and frustrating at times but just as with all things in life, anything worth doing isn’t easy. I finally launched my website just before heading off to WPPI, which was my goal. Here are a couple of screen shots from the new site, I hope you go check it out.