Painstaking over photography business names can be one of those things that act as a kind of road block in your set up plans. You want to get some marketing literature organized, a website in place, and basically come across professional. You need a name for all of those reasons and many more.
There are a few issues that are worth going over here, and some are in fact vital to get right at an early stage, or risk time, money and headaches further down the line.
I’ve listed some of the options, ideas and sources inspiration you might want to use to tie down a name. First though, a quick note on branding.
Think About Your Branding
I wanted to mention this early on. It is essential you take some time to think about where you want to be in the market, at roughly what price point too, and what makes you special, different and worth working with.
Not only that, but what type of photography do you want to do, what’s your style, and do you want the option to develop your business in different ways in the future?
If you’re not sure about some of this, there are photography business names out there that can accommodate a level of uncertainty, but the more you have tied down, the less likely you’ll make a mistake.
And of course the business name is just one element of the overall branding mission which will cover everything from business cards to your website, to the color of your camera bag to the cut of your suit. But whatever you decide on, be TOTALLY consistent throughout. A fun and bubbly style of photography means a business name, studio, advertising and album presentation to match. Otherwise, you will confuse potential clients.
On to the some choices for photography names.
Option Number 1 – Use Your Own Name
Variations include:
- Smith
- Jon Smith
- Jon Smith Photography
- Jon S Photography (or some other combination of names and initials)
- Jon Photography
- Smith Photography
Advantages:
- It’s personal. People on the whole like to deal with and buy from other people rather than organizations.
- It’s easy to get known locally. You are the brand.
- It’s flexible. You can start of as an event photographer and then move in to family portraits. The business name still works. This really is a very important point. I for one wasn’t sure where photography would take me, and started off doing a bit of everything before specializing.
- To me, it suggests confidence, especially when you use your name on it’s own. Many top photographers do just that, but it does help A LOT if you’ve got a memorable and slightly different name. Example – Joe Buissink. In fact, it exudes confidence. Lots of the big boys and girls add ‘photography’ at the end, so this is a well trodden but very acceptable way to do things. Example – Yervant Photography.
- You have something that is very clean and simple.
- With the ‘photography’ added, people cannot fail to understand what it is you do.
- Similar to the first point, photography is very much about your relationship with your client. Using your name helps to strengthen this bond.
Disadvantages:
- If your name happens to be a bit run of the mill, your business name might lack a little sparkle. But going down the initial route mentioned above can help.
- Depends a bit on your market and style, but you might want something a bit more trendy, catchy and fun.
- You might work as part of a team of two, as part of a large group of photographers, you may send out or plan to send out other photographers on your behalf. You are more likely to mismanage clients’ expectations if you brand with your name in these cases.
- If you want to sell your business, or franchise it to other photographers, a more generic name will on the whole be more attractive to buyers.
Option Number 2 – Use A Descriptor
- Reference the type of photography in the name – Jon’s Portraits, The Headshot Company, Event Pictures.
- Include something about your Unique Selling Point (USP) – 2 Girls With Cameras, Fairy Studios (portraits of girls dressed as fairies).
- Incorporate a location, whether by city, region, country or global – San Francisco Graduation Portraits, Wedding Imagery International.
- Seek inspiration in colors, wildlife, flowers, gemstones, you name it – Happy Teddy Baby Portraits, Bluebell Family Portraits sound like a couple of passable photography studio names for that market.
- Go for something emotive, whether fun, funky, romantic, professional, commercially orientated or whatever – Crazy In Love Photos, Premium Event Photography
- Highlight benefits associated with your service, what exactly your clients are going to get out of it – Fun Times Portrait Studios, The Perfect Still Life Photo Company.
- Target Market – going high end, going with just your name and ‘photography’ works well as we’ve said. So does something else strong but simple and in a way understated like The Miami Photo Co. or Photography by Giorgio.
- Style – laugh a minute family location photography or worldwide freelance photojournalism will require a very different approach – Cheeky Pictures vs Global News Images or Pictures Without Borders.
- Include your name – with all of these ideas, you can build your name in too of course, although don’t let the name get too long and unwieldy.
Advantages:
- You get to convey relevant information, positive feelings and benefits to your clients.
- Done right, you’ll have a memorable business name, and a catchy one too if that’s what you’re after.
- You will find it easier to rank in Google and other search engines for the terms and related terms that are included in your business name and so probably your website domain name. So, all other things being equal, London Event Photography is going to rank higher for someone searching for that term than Jon Smith Photography. That said, there are ways you can change the website title in the browser window without changing your website logo to help with ranking.
Disadvantages:
- Using descriptors don’t necessarily allow your business to grow. You might want to change the type of photography you do, the location, your marketplace or your style. Try calling yourself ‘Fun Family Piccies’, then move in to the commercial business market, photographing for annual reports. Hmmm.
- The terms you choose might have other connotations or mixed emotions associated with it so be careful. Using a fun term might seem like a good idea but could it sound like you’re not professional enough.
- There might be a tendency to overcomplicate things or be too clever with your name and put clients off, or at least a section of your market off. A strong inventive name may well appeal to some, but won’t to others.
Use A Photography Business Name Generator?
There is automated software floating about on the internet that combines words and phrases to generate business names and product names, but I haven’t managed to find one specific to photography.
I wouldn’t worry though – everything I have seen is pretty sub standard to be honest – producing a nasty cocktail of ill-matching words at best. I’d definitely take a bit of time to work on something myself.
Thought Of A Strapline?
Just a quick comment about this. If you do go with a simple name, you can always look to include a benefit type statement or other descriptor in your strapline i.e. a short phrase showing below or some other place close to your business name in your literature and on your website.
Again though, my view is you can overcomplicate things a bit or come across a slightly tacky. For my client focused website, I don’t use one, but I think it helps provide a bit of extra info about what the Photography Gems website is all about, so I included it there.
Where To Get Inspiration?
- Check an online Thesaurus – search for synonyms associated with photography, for classically related terms like capture, memories, images, timeless (but not always these actual terms – see below). Also love, happiness, colors or whatever else you like the sound of and that relates to your business. I just searched for timeless and found ‘unending’ and ‘limitless’. The first of those makes it sound like you take an age to get the job done, the second a little bit better, but again you could be talking about your prices!
- Purposely misspelling a word can work just fine too, especially if someone has already got the other term for their business. ‘Pix’ rather than ‘pics’ is a popular one but that one has been really be done a lot.
- Check directories for lists of business names in other creative industries as well as in photography.
- Google it - just put in terms you like and see what similar or related stuff comes up in the listings.
- Employ someone to do it – OK, this is a possibility, but for a good (but definitely not guaranteed to be good) service, you can spend silly money. If you’re starting off, there are better ways to spend the money.
What Else?
- Get feedback – you might get as many different opinions as the number of people you ask, but there might be some nuggets hidden away, and at least you’re reducing the chances of making a real blunder with your photography name ideas.
- Don’t be too clever – if in doubt, I’d keep it simple.
- I’d really try to avoid clichés, tired out phrases you’ve heard a million times before, and that goes for the strapline too: ‘A Moment Captured In Time’; ‘Treasured Memories Photography’; ‘Timeless Imagery’; and similar terms come up a lot.
Has Someone Beaten You To It?
- Check whether the business name is a registered company or not and whether it’s trademarked.
- Even if you choose a name that isn’t the same but only similar to a trademarked name, you might get in trouble so I personally wouldn’t take the risk.
- Also see whether the domain name is taken. Each website has something at the end called the top-level domain or TLD. This is the bit after the dot. The TLDs .com and the country specific one e.g .co.uk are the most recognized, most professional looking, and some say easiest to rank (not cut in stone that comment), so I would want to be able to get my hands on those.
Still stuck?
If you really cannot move forward and are really struggling for photography business name ideas, my advice would be to go with ‘Your Name Photography’. It is super flexible and of course personal. It’s what I did.
The only proviso would be to double check that this name hasn’t already been taken, at least locally, and that you’re not planning on selling or franchising the business at some point.
FINAL NOTE: I’ve made up the business names used in this article as I’ve gone along. Some may be in use, so please check first if you want to consider them in full or in part.
