A Guide To Logo Design Process

Logos are a company’s identification that serves as a means of communication with potential customers. It depicts your business concept as well as the services or products you want to provide to your customers.

It is critical to have a logo developed in such a way that it stands out and is easily recognized. A logo can be anything from a picture to a phrase to a variety of shapes. Authenticity and clarity are two things that never change.

A meaningful logo is designed in a conceptual but straightforward manner. It is a source of brand image and eventually develop sales. A modest logo that appears to be simple to alter is the result of the designer’s hard work and effort.

Steps in the making of a logo

The logo that you normally see of different brands, have you ever wondered how it was designed?

The famous logos that you see on the internet such as Facebook or Twitter, how were they planned? Which software created them?

Every designer has a different approach to making a logo. Perhaps, every designer goes through basic steps in the process of making a logo design.

Design principles

Before we jump into the process of making a logo, let’s look into three fundamental principles of logo design.

1. Appropriate

Make sure the logo is appropriate? This means that the logo you are going to design, or get it designed, should have relevance and conceptual form.

For instance, a logo for a fashion brand should be elegant as compared to a sports brand that needs a bold appearance.

2. Simplicity

Its form should not be complex and focus on a single story. A simple logo will be feasible to fit in different platforms and multiple sizes such as on a business card.

3. Memorable

This means that along with being simple in its form, it should be easy to memorize. So precisely, the challenge is to make it simple yet unique enough for people to remember.

The process

Perhaps, now that we have discussed the basic principles, let’s list down some basic steps in making a logo:

• Discover
• Research
• Brainstorm
• Sketching
• Designing
• Presentation
• Delivery

Discover

Every designer will agree on the fact that it is vital to develop some sort of brand strategy before making the design for the logo. The Discovery phase is about understanding the business of the client, its competitors, and its audience.

Since designing a logo is not just a matter of picking colors and fonts, it is much more than that. It’s the meaning and concept of the business that clients want to see through the logo.

A logo is something that is designed for once, so a designer should study well about the client so the logo design has its purpose for good.

Research

The Discovery phase cannot cover all the aspects of the industry in detail. So further research is a good step to analyze the industry in depth.

A smart approach for the designer in this phase is to think of the business from the perspective of the customer. You can also carry out competitive analysis, this will help widen the scope of industry knowledge.

Brainstorm

Brainstorm is the phase where you plan a strategy by implementing the above two phases. It’s all about thinking about different styles and creative approaches that can set into the client’s industry.

You can also search for visual presentations of the industry-specific keywords that will help you to pick a style or design.

Sketch

Sketching logos is the stage where real creativity begins. However, when you have already done your homework, it becomes easy for you to design your sketch against the defined criteria.

Some designers prefer to draw by hand, while others prefer to draw on the computer. Sketching logos can be time-consuming. It’s vital to take equal breaks between your work so your mind can think actively.

Design

Once you have performed tons of sketches, now you are on the stage to decide. You can plan against the strategy that you think fits the concept and then execute them digitally.

Don’t hurry and execute every other sketch. This will waste your time and efforts. Take your time and execute after proper planning. If you want, you can go back and work until you are satisfied with the logo concept.

Once you are sure, simply recreate the sketch on the computer and design multiple variations unless you are satisfied with the final one.

Presentation

Once you are ready with your design concepts, then you are ready to share with your client in the form of a presentation. Make sure you share the ideas that you are confident of showing, not show something that you are doubtful about.

Show some relevant concepts to your clients that can make them draw an idea. For instance, a business card, a book cover, and a letterhead logo to show the client how it will look in reality.

 

Delivery

Once you have the approval of the client, then you are good to go. Your next step will be delivering your logo files and guide that describes how to use them.

You should include some basic variations of your logo when you deliver.

Additionally, your files should have both the options for the client, to print and to use digitally.

Finally, you should create a style guide that outlines all of the logo variations as well as how to use them.

Other brand identification aspects that should be specified in your style guide include color palette, font system, photography style, possibly graphics, animations, and other features.

Conclusion

To conclude, a logo design that we see normally is not a work of one day. 

It requires the effort of a designer who plans, explores, fails, and then designs again.

Perhaps, a designer goes through many stages in making a pc logo design for a business that becomes an identity for their brand. Starting from research to sketching and ending with computer designing.

Why not give your business recognition and let your audience have a lasting memory of your logo? So let the designers plan a logo for you while you focus on your business activities.