My college degree is in Graphic Design, and for the past 25+ years I have run a small design business. My specialty is print: annual reports, newsletters, packaging, all forms of collateral materials, logos, branding, infographics.
If I had to choose one aspect of design I enjoy the most, it would have to be designing logos. Logo design is often underrated. Many people are oblivious to just how important a well designed logo is and how valuable it is to their business.
If I had to choose one aspect of design I enjoy the most, it would have to be designing logos. Logo design is often underrated. Many people are oblivious to just how important a well designed logo is and how valuable it is to their business.
The creation of a logo goes something like this...
1. Research and briefing. Get to know your client. Learn everything about what they do. Gather as much information as possible about its purpose, how the logo will be used.
2. Visual research. You can’t design in a bubble. Go out and look at things. If, for example it’s a label for honey, look at a bee hive, see the honey making process, observe colors, taste. Have you ever seen Cake Boss? Buddy and his crew of cake decorators take a trip to the clients’ business to do research before attempting a cake design.
3. Take a break. After you’ve done thorough research, give it a rest. Do something completely different. Go dancing, do yoga, go shopping, take a hike. Think about something besides your logo design.
4. Rid your head of the garbage. Sit down and draw out the first ideas that come into your head on paper. These will be the worst designs in the entire project. Keep going. Take the time to work through your ideas on paper, carefully drawing out ideas. Rip up several pieces of paper. Throw them across the room. Have a tantrum. Kick yourself in the butt.
5. Ready! Set! Design! Now you are ready to come up with stuff you may actually like. Transfer your sketches to the computer and work them into a final form. Less is more. Start with more visual information than you need and remove to simplify.
6. Present your ideas. Take your three best ideas and present them to your client. At least one of these ideas should be one that will obviously be thrown out. Hopefully, at this point you will leave with a clear idea of what the final logo will be or at least what you need to do to get to the final stage.
7. Finalize the logo. Create the final design and take it through a preflight to make sure there won’t be any printing issues that could cause problems.
8. Celebrate!
Great logos take time. This little video sums it up very well...
Great logos, of course, take more than 10 minutes, but you get the idea.
