Q:

What do a raincoat, a luxury car, a European hotel and Smugmug all have in common?

A:

They all served as the inspiration behind our website, jerevele.com

Je Revele, which is the French term for “I Reveal”,  is a brand concept that we created to convey our philosophy of photography … to reveal truth, emotional depth and what’s not obvious about them. We knew that this concept would be challenging to communicate visually. So, we set out on a mission to find some inspiration.

In many afternoon brainstorm sessions and late night Skype calls, we poured through magazines, lists, books and websites to find items that inspired us. In the end, we narrowed down to a small list of premium luxury brands that represented what we wanted our brand to showcase: beauty, luxury, emotional depth and craftsmanship.  In the end, it was a raincoat, a luxury car, and a hotel in Paris that became the visual fabric of our brand.

Now, this is where Smugmug comes into the picture…

Having a concept brand means that every touchpoint needs to deliver that concept story, especially the website. For us, not just any web template would do. We had multiple layers of challenges to address, including a multi-genre photography business, a poetry and prose concept that is incorporated into our visual work, two newly merging artists and styles, a brand and studio consulting business and the desire to incorporate an intro video. Nothing out there fit our needs. That’s why we turned to Smugmug. By working closely with the team at Smugmug and their affiliated designer, we could customize their platform in a way that suited us. All the while, we would benefit from the many practical features Smugmug that offer us an efficient way of running our business.  It was a great experience – the team was open and adapative to our ideas, and offered creative solutions to some of less realistic ideas (oh yes, we got a bit carried away at times!). Net/net we ended up with a website we love and an infrastructure that serves our studio and our clients very well.

We were proud to be featured as Smugmug’s success story this week on their blog. To read about some of the ways we utilize their custom features, click here.

To learn about how Natalie and I help other photographers develop their visual brand identity, click here.