It’s here! The new and improved JFP is here! Ok, so it got here over a week ago and I’m late sharing this blog post. But is anyone else’s fall season as busy as mine!? I’ve come to the conclusion that fall is to photographers as tax season is to accountants. Double the work and no extra time to do it! Now back to the real topic of this post… 🙂

The JFP website, blog and brand all went through some big changes and I’m so excited to share it with the world! After relocating to Garrett County, MD in 2013, receiving an increased number of inquiries, improving my photography style, and becoming more confident in the clients I was booking and the work I was producing, I decided JFP needed a new look. Something more professional, something more “high-end”, something more complimentary of the images I was creating and the experience I was providing. I wanted to keep the “fun” and “fresh” look of what I already had, but I also needed a cleaner website and blog, and I needed to be mobile-friendly. This was going to be a big project and a big investment, so hiring the right person for the job was a BIG deal. It all started back in January…

Well, December, actually, when I called Krista Jones, designer and photographer, about the possibility of creating the new JFP. After chatting with her and researching some other designers, I decided she would be my gal. She made the process sound easy (and when it comes to tech-y, website stuff, I need it to be easy!), her portfolio resembled what I was looking for, she’s also a wedding photog (she’d maybe understand my needs a bit more), and she was super sweet! We emailed back and forth a few times a week with inspiration, ideas, proofs, questions…it sometimes seemed tedious, but it had to be! This is the face and first impression of JFP, after all!

So before we dive into the new look,  A HUGE THANK YOU and HIGH FIVE goes out to Krista! Thank you for your patience with me, thank you for your guidance, thank you for your creativity and know-how…and thank you for your willingness to take me on as a client! I am so happy with the end result and have already seen it lead JFP into a more positive direction. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, and I couldn’t have done it without you! 🙂

I feel like it would be appropriate to include a picture of Krista and I here, but we never actually met! All our work was done via phone and email because we live about five hours apart. Talk about a challenge! But thanks to technology, persistence and patience, we made it work! 

And now for a more in-depth look at the NEW JFP. 🙂 First up, the logo! I wanted to keep the same concept as my old logo, but clean it up a little. I also very much wanted to have a scripty-serif font combo. This is what Krista came up with and I’m so happy with it!

 

One of my favorite parts of my brand, and maybe one of the most important, has always been my colors. I LOVE COLOR and need it to communicate my fun style! My most recent “old” colors were pink, blue and yellow…and they were bright and bold. I wanted to remain a colorful brand, but things needed to be toned down a bit…portray a bit more professionalism, perhaps? Krista was able to keep the pink, blue and yellow trio, but give it a fresh, more appropriate twist! I also wanted there to be some sort of accent piece…some kind of texture or graphic that could spice things up a bit. Here’s the branding board Krista created…

 

 

And the plaid my friend Allison of Paper Hearts Invitations Website created using the branding board and website design as inspiration…

When designing the website with Krista, I quickly realized that my location in Garrett County, MD and work “around the lake”, needed to be highlighted. My goal is to do as much work as possible in this beautiful county so I can stay close to home and so I can also introduce more people to this mostly lovely far western side of the state. I think the plaid element compliments this area and the outdoorsy-ness of it well…and it allows me to incorporate plenty of color and fun into the brand! 🙂

I also decided during the design process that “adventures” needed to be a highlight on both the website and blog. I like “different”…I like being different, wearing different clothes, trying different foods…and I like when my clients are different or unique during their sessions or weddings…when they include some adventure! It gives me a thrill as a photographer and heightens creativity, and I want to encourage more people to be different when getting their pictures taken. So there’s an “Adventures of JFP” section on the website that showcases some of the adventures (thanks to my clients being different!) I’ve been on recently as a photographer…including Lauren and Brad’s Deep Creek Lake Engagement Session Blog Post that included waterskis and a wakeboard. 🙂

One of my favorite parts of the new website is the “Meet Jessica” page. I LOVE my head shots with the yellow jacket (thanks, Kristin Hurley Photography Website!) and I love that I get to share my family through our recent family portraits (thanks Katie of Sonlight Imaging Website!). I also like the inclusion of some “fun facts” for a little added spunk and spice. 🙂

I also love the homepage slideshow. “Snuggle up in front of the camera”, “the moments in between”, “laugh and play together”, “precious memories captured”, and “adventures are waiting” are five “campaigns” that I came up with to best describe my style and the experience with JFP. (It was hard to sum up my work in a few words!) I wanted to communicate what people can expect when working with me and what my portfolio displays, and those are five things that I think do just that…and really help to set my work apart, too!

To compliment the rebrand Krista put together, Allison also created my new thank you cards, wedding photography pricing guide and business cards. Thank you, Allison, for putting those finishing touches together! Everything turned out so beautifully! 

 

Before this post becomes far too long, I’ll stop there. I’ll let you do the rest of the wandering and exploring throughout JFP. I wanted things to be simple, yet fun and informative, so I hope you’ll find navigation and reading to be easy, and of course, I hope you like what you see! Another shout out and thank you to Krista and Allison for making this all possible! I’m so excited to see where this will take JFP! And I thank all my clients, readers and friends for your constant support and enthusiasm! YAY! 🙂