Shawn Van Daele Photography - Brand Identity for a Working Photographer

Photographers are usually the last people to give their own brand the treatment they'd give a client. Bookings come in through referral, work sits unsorted on a hard drive, contracts get drafted from templates, and the visible business is whatever the last posted photo happens to be. I wanted the practice to hold up to the standard I asked of my own commercial clients.

1. 01Set positioning first - what kind of work I was actually taking on, what I was intentionally not taking on, and who the ideal client conversation actually looked like
2. 02Designed a wordmark, colour system and typographic language spare enough that the photography itself could always be the loudest element
3. 03Built a portfolio-forward website with clear service pages, editorial galleries, and enough information that inquiries came in already qualified
4. 04Wrote client-facing communications - booking flow, contracts, pre-shoot briefs, delivery notes, post-shoot follow-ups - so the experience felt considered end to end
5. 05Directed the ongoing content: portfolio edits, social sequences, blog posts about specific shoots, behind-the-scenes captures that fed both marketing and craft
6. 06Managed the small-business operations side - pricing, licensing, contracts, image rights, workflow - alongside the creative side

• A cohesive brand across web, print and social that read as a working professional rather than a hobbyist
• Cleaner client experience from first inquiry to final delivery, with fewer surprises in either direction
• A portfolio that could evolve without a rebuild each time the work changed direction
• Foundation for the compositing, editorial and commercial work that followed - including the projects that eventually became the Drawing Hope Project