Creating a
community
through pictures

A Year With My Camera

A Year With My Camera is a free online year-long photography course for beginners run by award-winning photographer, Emma Davies. The course is aimed at empty nesters and works alongside two text books with an online community where students can find support and connect with each other. In a world of smart phones and instant gratification, A Year With My Camera is a course with a different offering. Emma’s brief to us was to create the brand, the user journey and the community. And it all had to appeal to this mature audience who want to switch from auto to manual focus, getting the best from their camera and their own creativity.

A strong message in a direct style

We started by focusing on strategy and discovered that we had an undiluted target audience. In other words, this was a great opportunity to communicate a strong message in an unapologetic style. The positioning – make photography accessible – was also pure and simple.

Creatively, we wanted to reflect the step-by-step nature of the course. We worked with Emma to create a user journey that was represented visually as taking students from a camera lens which opens to a world of discovery. In this world, students can develop the skills they need to take the pictures that will make them proud.

However, Emma has two businesses: A Year With My Camera and her own award-winning photography business. We needed to make them work together as Emma Davies Photography gives credibility and kudos to A Year With My Camera. But the courses needed to run without depending on her availability. So we worked with Emma to structure the course in a way that graduates move on to become “ambassadors” who manage the online community at different levels.

Also, with a tight budget, the brand elements needed to be simple, easy and effective. We started by refreshing the visual identity for A Year With My Camera, giving more meaning to the icon and a seasonal colour palette to keep the identity fresh all year. We also developed a creative typographic style and key visuals for both the website and book designs.

Emma needed to produce social posts all year round, so we developed a toolkit to help her make them quickly with a consistent look and feel. Also, to bring in extra revenue and enhance the visibility of the brand offline, we suggested she sold branded merchandise on the site.

Emma Davies Photography

At the same time, we developed the Emma Davies Photography brand. This visual identity had to reflect her professional life as a flower and landscape photographer. We selected a typographic style that would sit perfectly with any of her beautiful shots – and there are thousands – and created a half flower/half camera shutter icon. The colour palette was inspired by the tonal differences she uses in her images. We then applied this identity across her website and her book of landscape photography.

A coherent offering with momentum

By producing both brands together, we ensured the visual messages of both A Year With My Camera and Emma Davies Photography support each other and are clear about their offering.

Since launching the new identities, sign ups have increased from 5,000 to 30,000 and Emma now runs the course quarterly. Social flow has rapidly increased and she’s sold her record number of photography books – she’s even inspired three of the Orangery team to pick up a camera! Emma has also created an app using our strong visual identity, now with over 3,000 paying subscribers. She tells us that now she’s trying to find time to finish her next four book ideas.