No, there wasn’t a wedding, and I’m not running from the FBI.
When we moved our family to Milwaukee a little over a year ago, we thought a lot about how we wanted to approach running a high-end custom photography business here as we have in the Bay Area. Should we extend our California-based business, Images by Anna? Should we start anew? After a brief attempt as a single business, we decided to go the “separate” route. We took many of the things we had learned over the years, came up with some awesome branding with the little red balloon, and launched Anna Grace. We had visions of an established local brand that would define a market. We thought we were on to something really fun and cool. And we still do.
However, there are many facets to running a small business and reality was that trying to mange two distinct identities, especially on the ubiquitous internet, proved to be a much more daunting task than we had anticipated. I ended up feeling like a schizophrenic, with so many identities and “voices” that I almost stopped communicating at all. After much consideration of our personal well-being and the best interests of our clients in both locations, we have decided to merge our two companies, Anna Grace (thelittleredballoon.com) and Images by Anna (annamayer.com), into Anna Mayer (annamayer.com). We are taking the best of our ideas for Milwaukee and bringing them to our clients in California (you are gonna’ love the new tweaks); we are bringing the best of our methods and systems from California to our clients in Milwaukee and Chicago (lucky ducks); and we are bringing together a vast group of fans from around the country (we love you, too).
Now, if we were a big company, we would get all of the various elements in place, stage a big event, and “flip the switch”. However, that’s not really our style (or our reality). We’re laid back people trying to be the best for our clients and our family. Instead, you’ll see changes happen in bits and pieces, but other than the obvious name and logo change, nothing will change as far as the great service and awesome products you know and love.
A few things to note: due to Facebooks’s limitations, our page there will remain facebook.com/imagesbyanna , which works, anyway, since the ARE “images” by “Anna”. You’ll see our new logo showing up (just look for the balloon
) around town & around the internet. You’ll see some changes on twitter (@imagesbyanna will be retired in favor of @annamayerphoto). What you won’t see? Two crazy chickens trying to juggle two companies, 5 email addresses, 3 twitters, and 5 facebooks; not to mention 4 kids, a house and a new puppy named Oscar. Yes that’s right; we have a dog named Oscar Mayer and no, he’s not a wiener dog. (No promises that we won’t still be two crazy headless chickens, though, cuz those kids, that house and that puppy are not getting a rebrand; at least not this time around.)
-Anna & Brian Mayer