Some brands come together quickly. Others take a little digging to find the version of a person that’s been there all along. Samantha Burke’s brand was the second kind, and it’s one of my favorite projects I’ve ever had the chance to create. This is the story behind her full custom brand identity and Showit website, from the first conversations about what wasn’t working to the moment she saw her new site for the first time.

Meet Samantha Burke Photography

Samantha is an adventure elopement photographer based in Minnesota, photographing couples across the Midwest, Iceland and beyond. Her work lives in the moody, quiet moments: lantern-lit vows on Lake Superior cliffs, couples tucked against basalt columns in Iceland, the kind of images that feel more like a memory than a photo. The couples she loves working with aren’t looking for a checklist wedding. They want an experience, and they want someone who’ll chase the light with them.

Where She Was Before

Samantha had already invested in her business. She’d worked with another designer on a semi-custom website, and honestly, it wasn’t bad. But it didn’t feel like her, and it didn’t feel unique. Her photography had grown into something distinctive and cinematic, and she was ready for a brand and website built fully around her, from scratch. That gap was showing up in her inbox too: she was getting inquiries from couples who weren’t the right fit, instead of the adventurous, experience-focused couples her work was made for.

The goal was clear: build a brand and website that felt unmistakably Samantha, that matched the caliber of her work, and that spoke directly to the couples she wanted to book.

The Brand Direction

We built everything around the places Samantha photographs most and the feeling of being out there with her couples. Her brand is rooted in three landscapes: the pines and shoreline of Lake Superior’s North Shore, the northern lights, and Iceland’s dramatic basalt cliffs. The palette pulls from those same places, with deep near-black tones, forest and sage greens, and a warm, lantern-glow cream. It’s moody without being cold, and grounded without being plain.

A Custom Logo Suite

Samantha’s brand identity includes a full logo suite so she has the right mark for every place her brand shows up:

• Primary logo: a hand-drawn arch scene with northern lights, two pines, a Lake Superior shoreline and Icelandic basalt columns, wrapped in “Midwest, Iceland & Beyond” above a classic serif wordmark.
• SB lettermark: her initials woven together with a ribbon of northern lights, made for watermarks, social profiles and smaller spaces.
• Circle submark: the North Shore scene, pines and aurora contained in a single round frame.
• Oval badge: a vintage-inspired badge reading “Midwest, Iceland, Adventure Elopements & Beyond”, perfect for stickers, packaging and social graphics.

Custom Illustrations (A Few of Them Animated)

This is where Samantha’s brand really came alive. I illustrated a full set of custom brand elements drawn from the places and moments she photographs: a lantern (a nod to all those lantern-lit elopements), a loon in the water and in flight, a moose, a pinecone, the northern lights, Icelandic basalt columns, an Icelandic sheep and a waterfall. A few of them are animated on her website, so the brand moves the same way her favorite places do.

These illustrations do a lot of quiet work. They show up across her website, social media and client experience, and they make her brand instantly recognizable without ever competing with her photography.

The Custom Showit Website

Samantha’s website was designed from scratch in Showit to feel cinematic and immersive, the way stepping into one of her galleries does. The homepage opens on a lantern-lit couple on a dark cliff, then speaks straight to the people she wants to work with: “Personalized elopement day design & photography for the experience-focused couples.”

From there, every page was built to attract the right couples and gently filter out the wrong ones:

• Elopement packages: a page that sells the experience, not just the hours. It’s “More Than a Ceremony” for couples who want to eat, explore and celebrate their day their way.
• Minnesota elopement guides & resources: a blog section styled like an open travel journal, built to help couples plan and to help Samantha show up in search.
• Location pages: dedicated pages for Iceland and Wisconsin elopements so couples searching for those places can find her.
• About, portfolio and contact pages that carry the same moody, editorial feel all the way through to the inquiry.

Her Reaction

There’s no better feeling in this work than sending a website draft and getting a reply like this one:

“MADDIE, DUDE, RESPECTFULLY, WHAT THE EVERLOVING F***** 😭😭😭😭 I’M OVER HERE TRYING NOT TO CRY RIGHT NOW, BECAUSE HOLY S***, THIS IS LOOKING SO INCREDIBLE AND AMAZING!!! MY JAW IS ON THE FLOOR!!! YOU KNOCKED THIS OUT OF THE PARK, OMG OMG OMG!!!”

Samantha Burke, after seeing her website draft

Project Scope

• Brand and website creative direction
• Brand identity and logo suite: primary logo, wordmark, lettermark, and a few alternate marks
• Brand illustrations
• Custom Showit website design

Ready for a Brand That Feels Like You?

If your brand and website are fine but don’t feel like you, or the inquiries landing in your inbox aren’t your people, a custom brand and website can change that. I’d love to hear about your business. See more of my work in the portfolio or get in touch to start your project.

Not ready for fully custom yet? Cedar is my Showit website template made for adventure and elopement photographers, with the same outdoorsy, story-first feel.

All photography by Samantha Burke Photography.