The Process of Designing a Logo

Published on December 12th, 2012 | Last updated on October 25th, 2019 by Spicy B

This is part two of a three part series on Rebranding Your Business

Part One: Introduction
Part Two: The Process of Designing a Logo
Part Three: Your Points of Contact

Part Two: The Process of Designing a Logo

Logos are like good slogans or jingles, they set you apart and create an identification tag or image for your company. These logos can be shapes or just words, let’s get more into this below. First, lets discuss why the process of designing a logo is crucially important, logos are an absolutely important aspect of your company, so don’t take logos lightly Spicy viewers. Now let’s have a look at a step-by-step process of logo design.

Step 1: Brief
A client comes a long whether they already have an existing logo and they want to rebrand or they’re starting from sketch this process of logo design stands is followthe exact same way. The first thing to do is to prepare a brief for your designers,this means you will need to write up a detailed document, this includes things likethe company style, personality and available services and present this to your designer. The best results can be achieved with a well-communicated brief.
Step 2: Sketching
The next step is sketching, this is usually best done on paper and pen and best shown during the brief meeting, this is then passed onto the designers taking onthe job and from there they can make their own observations and design aroundthe chosen sketch.
Step 3: Type Studies
Type studies. A logo can either take form as a shape or text, some text examples include Microsoft and IBM. Shape examples include McDonalds, Apple and Nike.Type studies can also conceptualise the final look, whether it is a thick strokedfont or a cursive style it will determine the look and feel of the overall logo.
Step 4: Colour Studies
Using colour effectively in logo design will determine the message communicated. It’s best to go for a colour (or multiple) to express the intended aspects of your company for example, blue, green would easily represent an environmental and calm image, but if your company is about racing cars, it would better toimplement striking colours like red. Learn more about colour choices on Spicy’s tips on great logo design
Step 5: Applications
What are you applying your logo to? Does it need to adapt with a variety of different things or is the purpose to contrast againsteverything else?
If your logo is something that is going to be stamped on a variety of things from your company to others, then it’s going to be quite disastrous if your logo is very detailed and cannot be scaled down, why? Because chances are, your logo will be scaled down so it’s not over taking the attention of any other important elements.If your logo, at this stage, looks like a jumbled mess, then you’re going to get a lotof confused potential consumers.
Step 6: 2 week turn around.
What’s this you say? Well, this is really simple, this is used for a chance to have a fresh new look and take on the imposed work and a chance for new inspiration to come along. This time period is used to think about the design work but not actually develop it any further, once they come back they’ll be able to view the task and see if any elements do any justice, this is the time to also make final workon the logo before it is sent back to the client for Round 1 revisions.
Step 7: Feedback
The client will provide feedback and any changes they want made.
Step 8: Repeat
The designs will then be altered to the feedback given by the client, this process will also be repeated until a final logo is chosen.

Brief
The image displayed below is an example of what a brief form should look like, although this is a brief for the website design, the form to be filled for a logo design is exactly the same. The questions asked in this form include things like ” what is the nature of the businesses main goal”, “what are your goals?” and “what image do you want to present? ( conservative, trendy, intellectual, relaxed)” these questions should be thought out carefully to ensure a successful design execution.

Sketching
These examples show the task was thought out carefully, by introducing notes into your sketch it helps keep a reminder of a the elements to implement in the development process and keeps a nice clean look for any new oncoming designers that may unexpectedly take over the job.

This image displays the smallest of design specifics, this border specifies a nice clean white space around the logo.

Applications
When applying your logo to all forms of substrates it’s important and handy to show a variety of scales of the logo.

Below, is the 3rd round of logo design work after implementations from the clientele feedback.

Great logos provide great business success. Put a lot of effort into studying your brief, and work and help the designers understand your goal for your business. Team work will get you far, don’t dump a whole bunch of different things on them, narrow things down and attempt to go down a single path, too many might confuse not only your designs but your consumers too.

That’s a wrap for this week, drop by weekly for more tips on Rebranding Your Business, you can like Spicy Broccoli Media on Facebook to keep yourself updated.

Catchya’ next week,
Spicy team.