30 Days of Hind Hart | How it all started | Day 1

 

hind

noun \ˈhīnd\

hart

noun \ˈhärt\

When choosing a business name, there are a few things I think many business owners look for. A personal meaning, something catchy and for us it had to represent our brand and be a reflection of who we are as artists.

To back things up a little bit, we were prior known as “Brittany MacLeod Photography” and “Michelle Leudy Photography”. It really only happened this way because of how things were timed. Since Brittany was living in a different city for two years and just beginning her photography business, we really didn’t know exactly if and when we would be permanently working together. Even though we had worked side by side in the past it was mostly just for fun or Brittany assisting her mother during one of her shoots. When Brittany decided to move back to Cape Breton, it was obvious that this was our time to take the plunge and be in this together under one name. There were so many questions to be answered and still so many that we don’t have the answers to, but we decided to take it one step at a time. Before we could do anything we asked ourselves, “How on earth are we ever going to come up with a business name?” It was tough because in a way we would each be taking the risk of losing our identity behind this name. Although there were a few cons on our list, we definitely had more pros. One being that two is always better than one, and with Michelle’s insane creativity and Brittany’s business focused mind we knew that someday we would be unstoppable together. Back to the business name, there were a few things that we decided to do before even thinking of a suitable name. We made a list of words that described what we wanted our business and brand to look like. That list looked something like this:

 Feminine

Gentle

Soft

Timeless

Pretty

Elegant

From here we were at a stand still so we tried to think of things that we had connections to, and there were many random names we had come up with but just weren’t working. We thought that it would be cool to have a name that was another word for “deer”. The only names we could think of didn’t seem very fitting to the list that we had created so we went searching. We wanted to see what the bible had to say  about deer since we both have strong faith in God. The first thing we found was that the biblical name for male and female deer was hart and hind, which instantly stood out to us. It was shocking how many articles referenced deer in the bible, and also spoke about the deer as a spirit animal.  Pretty much everything we read seemed to relate back to all of those original words we had written out.  It seemed as if the characteristics of a deer also matched some of the characteristics we have as people.  We both have had many spiritual encounters with deer through the death of our beloved mother and grandmother Tina McGillivray.

Below is a bible verse that we found which referenced the deer, as well as some other blurbs from the research we did:

“God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.” Habbakkuk 3:19

The meanings associated with the deer combine both soft, gentle qualities with strength and determination:

• Gentleness
• Ability to move through life and obstacles with grace
• Being in touch with inner child, innocence
• Being sensitive and intuitive
• Vigilance, ability to change directions quickly
• Magical ability to regenerate, being in touch with life’s mysteries”

If Deer has crossed your path;

It is often a sign not to be too hard on yourself. Still the voice of the self critic and treat yourself with gentleness and understanding, be yourself and continue along your path. Seek out your inner treasures and use them generously to help those around you. Trust that kindness and graciousness will be well received. We are also reminded that we cannot push towards change in others, rather we gently nudge them in the right direction with love and understanding. Lead by doing and showing the way. Deer is a messenger of serenity, can see between shadows and hear what isn’t being said. Deer teaches us to maintain our innocence and gentleness so we can share our open-heartedness with others.

It wasn’t long before the name “Hind Hart Studios” seemed to become the top name on our list. We knew we didn’t want to use the word “photography” after our name because eventually video will be a big part of our business as well.  We both thought about it for a couple of weeks before we decided to commit, and during this thinking process we had some signs that proved this was the name for us!

There was one day that Michelle was feeling discouraged and just questioning this whole business idea. She was driving and thinking about all the changes that were to come and out comes a deer standing on the road. Some may say, “Well we live in Cape Breton, obviously you are going to see many deer”. However, we don’t look at it as a coincidence, we both believe that things happen for a reason and God often gives us signs when we need them.

Finally the sign that made us say, “Okay this is our name!” Britt was browsing around at value village and came across this t-shirt. Okay not that big of a deal, just a t-shirt with a deer on it. Then the second one was a little freaky!

So now hopefully this will explain why it has been hard for us to answer the question “Where did your name come from?”  It really wasn’t one of those things that just happened overnight but good things take time and we are so excited for what’s to come in the future!