Client gallery branding: logo, type, color and what to leave alone

Brand a client gallery so it looks like a page of your website: the same logo, the same 1 or 2 typefaces, a white or near-black background, and nothing else. The photos are the brand. Every element you add competes with them, and a couple who notices your gallery design has stopped looking at their wedding. Set the branding once at studio level, apply it to every gallery, and make only the cover a per-gallery decision.

Consistency with your website

The couple found you through your website or Instagram, booked you, and 8 months later opens a gallery. If the gallery looks like a different business, the delivery feels outsourced. The checklist is short:

• Logo: the same file, or the same wordmark, as the website header.
• Type: the same typeface as the website’s headings, or the nearest available pairing. Body text can be the platform’s default sans serif; nobody notices body text.
• Background: the same as the website. If your site is white with black text, the gallery is too.
• Photo tone: the cover photo should look like it came from your portfolio, because it did.

If your website has 3 typefaces, a gold accent, and a script font for headings, the gallery is a chance to fix that rather than copy it. Restraint on the gallery first, then bring the website in line.

Logo

A wordmark (your name set in type) beats a graphic logo on a gallery. It reads at small sizes, it works on a dark cover and a light cover, and it does not compete with the photo. If you have a graphic mark, use it small, in the header, and keep it off the cover.

File: a PNG with a transparent background, or an SVG if the platform accepts one. Two versions, one dark and one light, if your cover backgrounds vary. No drop shadow, no white box behind it. Test it on a cover with a busy background; if you cannot read it, it is too thin or too small, and the answer is a simpler mark, not a bigger one.

Rule of thumb for size: the logo in a gallery header is a label, not a headline. About the height of a line of text.

Type

One typeface is enough. Two is the maximum: a serif for the couple’s names on the cover and section titles, a sans serif for everything else, or the reverse. A script or display face is where galleries go wrong; it looks like a wedding invitation, it is hard to read at phone size, and it dates the gallery within 2 years.

The couple’s names on the cover are the one place type carries weight. Set them large, in the serif, in a single line if the names fit, with the date in the sans serif below and much smaller, or no date at all. Do not set the venue, the city, and a tagline on the cover; the couple knows where they got married.

In FOCL Galleries the typeface is set studio-wide, and each gallery’s cover picks from 65 type pairings that have already been matched. Pick one pairing and use it for every wedding. How to choose a gallery cover photo covers what the type sits on.

Color

Two decisions: light or dark, and whether there is an accent.

Light or dark. White or off-white makes photos look like prints on a wall, suits bright and airy editing, and is what most couples expect. Near-black makes photos glow, suits moody and film-style editing, and reads as more formal. Match your editing; a light, warm portfolio on a black background looks wrong, and so does the reverse. Then match your website.

Accent. At most one, and only in places that are not near a photo: a button, a link. Gold, blush and sage are the wedding-industry defaults, which is a reason to avoid them. Black text and one neutral gray is a complete palette. Never put a colored background behind a photo grid; it changes how the photos look.

Do not choose colors per couple. A gallery themed to the wedding’s colors looks like a template, and the next wedding needs a different one.

The cover

The cover is the only place the brand and the wedding meet, and the only element worth adjusting per gallery. Choose one cover layout and keep it across all your galleries; change only the photo, the focal point and the names. A couple who has seen a friend’s gallery from you recognizes the layout, and the recognition is the brand.

Layout choices: type over the photo (needs a plain area in the photo), type beside the photo (safer, works with any photo), or type above or below (the most restrained). Pick the one that suits the photos you actually make. If your portraits are tight and busy, do not choose type-over-photo.

Watermark or not

Usually not. A watermark on the delivered photos makes them look like proofs and does not stop copying. If you use one, it belongs on screen and on web-size copies only, small, in a corner, and never on the couple’s full-resolution files. Should you watermark wedding photos has the trade-offs in full. Whatever you decide, decide it once: a watermark switched on for some couples and not others is a conversation you do not want to have.

What to leave alone

The defaults exist because they work on every screen. Leave these as they are unless you have a specific reason:

• Grid spacing and thumbnail size. The default is tuned for phones. A tighter grid looks impressive on a desktop and unusable on a phone.
• Background music. No.
• Animated covers, parallax, fades. They cost load time on a phone and add nothing on the second visit.
• Welcome text blocks. A paragraph on the cover about your philosophy is read by nobody. The delivery email is the place for words.
• Renamed interface labels. “Favorites” should say Favorites. A guest who cannot find the download button because it says “Take Home” emails the couple.
• Section names. Plain words, the same on every gallery.
• Your bio on every cover. Once, on your portfolio page, is enough.

Your portfolio page

Most platforms give you a public page that lists the galleries you choose to show. Treat it as an extension of the website: same logo, same type, a bio of 2 or 3 sentences, your socials, and a link to the contact page on your website. In FOCL Galleries, the default address is galleries.getfocl.app/p/your-name. Studio and Pro can use a custom gallery domain for the homepage and gallery links while keeping the main website in place. The help center covers branding, the design tab, and the portfolio homepage.

The email is part of the brand

The delivery email is the first branded thing the couple sees, before the gallery. Same voice as the website, same name at the bottom, no stock phrases. Gallery delivery email templates has 3 that read like a person wrote them.

One test for the whole thing: open your website, your gallery and your delivery email side by side. If a stranger would say they came from the same studio, you are done. If they would not, fix the gallery first, because it is the one the couple shares.