I’m just not a neutral person.

When I was looking for branding to start out with in my photography business, I saw a lot of things. Some things I liked, some things I didn’t – which is to be expected when you’re searching for branding. But the biggest trend I noticed, is that a lot of the pre-made branding tools for photographers kind of felt boring.

Part of me feels bad saying it, because I understand the desire to be all trendy and minimal and “aesthetic”. I get the reasoning. And for some photographers, that’s the vibe that’s needed!

If that’s your style though, I’m going to warn you now that the rest of this post isn’t for you.

I wanted to like them!

I really did, I promise. I wanted to like the elegant script font pairings, and the gold foil around black text. But I just… didn’t. I didn’t.

So I created something more “me” (read as: fun and quirky and out there) and I loved it. And then I worked with a professional brand designer who took the baseline I created to the next level, and I love it EVEN MORE.

But part of me couldn’t stop thinking about the templates and starting points and pre-made logo tools I saw on marketplaces like Etsy when I wasn’t quite ready to bring on a professional brand designer.

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to solve the problem.

When I say I couldn’t stop thinking about it, I mean it stayed in the back of my mind for months, that turned into years. And then finally I decided, I wanted to make sure there were more fun options available out there, that still give photographers the starting point they need for their social media graphics, and welcome guides – and all the things!

That’s where my very first suite of templates comes in: the YEAH templates!

At the risk of sounding completely ridiculous, they’re named that for a simple reason. I want people to look at them, and go: “Oh yeah! Those are really cool!” (I wish I was joking, that is an actual thing I said to the brand designer I’m partnering with to create these in a meeting we had.)

They’re not a replacement for working with a designer, but they’re pretty close!

While the YEAH templates (and the other templates I’ll be releasing in the coming months!) aren’t a replacement for working with a pro to get your logo and your color palette designed, they’re about as close as you can get.

These templates provice Instagram Stories, Instagram Posts, Instagram Carousels (all of which can be used on Facebook as well, double duty!) as well as a full suite of guides for you to use with your clients!

And outside of a logo, the templates also provide you with brand assets and a color palette you can use moving forward.

If you already have a professionally developed brand palette (or one you made yourself, no shame!) that’s even better! You can just replace the colors in the templates with your own, and go from there.

Think about sessions, not social media.

If you’ve got a fun, bright, vibrant brand (or you want one) it can seem overwhelming to have to start with a set of social media templates that’s been designed in a neutral style. And if you’re not getting a set designed custom for you by a brand designer, then (as I personally experienced) almost ALL of the starting points available are neutral. The ones I tried didn’t even have the right elements to support the fun colors of my branding. There was no way for me to create consistency with my branding if I was using those templates.

So instead of spending my time editing sessions, I was wasting it making endless changes to a set of templates that was never actually going to work for me.

My free advice to you? If you have a fun, vibrant, bright brand, make sure you’re starting with fun, vibrant, bright templates. Whether they’re mine, or someone elses! And *that*, is why I created the YEAH templates!