Many people, and rightfully so, aren’t alert to the sheer amount of commitment that goes into creating a solid brand identity-a, a logo. Although some designers’ own procedures differ, I believe it’s safe to state they all follow an identical structure. Here’s a look behind the moments at what typically continues on once I design a logo.
First things first: picking the client’s brain. Before any designing may appear, this must happen first. I spend about one hour with a potential customer and have them a ton of in-depth questions about their business, their industry, their audience, their competition, and their goals. Here’s the actual company logo brief that I take advantage of appears like. Following the client signs the proposal, saying they’re agreeing to everything, and I receive their down payment (a standard procedure among most designers), I can reach work now.
- Adequate, relevant and not excessive
- Reputation earned is not positive
- Upload images and other media to use in your content
- AVG Protection
- In the list of printers, select the model you are installing drivers for, and then click Next
This is where I take a deeper consider my new client’s business and industry. I research their own company, how long they’ve been in business, which kind of work they are doing, and what sets them apart from their competitors. I take a peek into their desired audience also, which kind of demographics they’re targeting mainly.
This gives me clues about what their marketplace cares about, and what might charm to them the most. As you can plainly see, developing a logo design takes a lot research! I spend some right time looking up my client’s competitors, usually mostly local, and see what they’re doing in conditions of visual identity. More often than not their own logos suck, which is good, because it means my job shall be easier to blow them out of the water. But sometimes, my client’s competitors have very professional branding, logos, and marketing materials, which make it a bit trickier to outdo them. Luckily, I love a challenge.
This is once I use professional design resources; I look through numerous logo design websites and books and put together a compilation of logo design from similar sectors. This helps me get a basic idea of the direction the client’s own logo should go in and provides me some inspiration on different ways of problem solving.
This is where in fact the fun begins! Before I turn to the computer, I first spend time placing pencil to paper. I create word associations, draw some mind maps, and sketch a great number of logo concepts. Since this is brainstorming, I draw out everything, the crappy ideas even. I can edit and refine things later.
After a day or two of brainstorming, it’s important to have a step back from everything and let my unconscious sleep on things-literally. This helps creates some space so I can go through the ideas with a new eye, and sometimes, I come up with a new solution while dreaming even. I select about 5 or 6 of the strongest ideas that I’ve sketched and finally start my computer. My go-to program is Adobe Illustrator, where I render in vector the logo concepts. These are in dark and white and are usually pretty tough, but it’s important to observe how they turn out when digitized.
