Branding - Logo

So over the last few years I have wrestled with coming up with a logo, or using a photo, or just having a font that was standard for my photography stuff. Recently I have been working on a logo because I want something I can not only use as a mark on photos and stuff, but something I can use to print on shirts or hats, on signs or whatever else to make myself easily recognized in different places. So I am messing around with some ideas, and trying to keep things simple, but unique. It sounds so much easier than it actually is.

The more you think “simple”, the more you start overdoing it. The more you think “unique”, the more you realize the unique idea you have is just your brain remembering a cool logo you saw somewhere else. You are thinking about this great design, this amazing logo people will look at and recognize, and that is when that logo pops up and you realize you liked it so much when they used it, that your brain stored it until you needed an idea. It’s all good, we all deal with it, but it doesn’t make it any easier in the end. Below is what I am working on for now, and I am hoping to settle somewhere very close to this in the end.