Have you ever wondered what sort of process a designer goes through when they start to design your new brand, website, logo etc?

Really its not as simple as just design and its done in an hour kind of thing, much more then just that. l give you a bit of an insight to how I go about designing logos.

So when I first receive a brief from a client asking for a revamped logo, new brand, or just a simple logo update, I start to research the background information about the company I will be designing their new logo for. A logo identifies a company and/or product via the use of a designed element such as: Symbol, mark or signature – logos are there to identity, not to explain. In a nutshell, what a logo means is more important than what it looks like.

Every designer has his or her own process, and mine has a similar process

Sarah Bond

Begin with a sketch

Ever since I first started out as a designer, I would sketch everything, doodle in class, just draw out my ideas, whether they be logo ideas or concepts for my personal use I had to get my ideas out on paper. This became part of my process when I started to design logos for clients. With just sketching ideas you can mock-up hundreds of ideas allowing me to really explore a potential possibly for an idea to move forward. This part of the process for me really is an important step for moving forward with my ideas.

Draft Ideas

After the first two steps: Researching and sketching, I then begin to move my favourite sketches onto screen. I can do this is one of two ways:

  1. If I like something I have drawn then I would scan this concept into Illustrator this sketch would have been drawn numerous times to get to a stage where is would be ready to work with in illustrator. From there I would begin to develop the logo further into a more finalised design.
  2. From a chosen sketch I will take what I have drawn and develop it on screen from scratch, spending time seeing what fonts work best, developing up shapes and reworking the structure into more of a designed logo.

Reflection

At this point, many designers will step away from the project for a brief time. This break acts as a time of reflection, giving the designer a chance to return to the project with a fresh perspective. This may also be a good opportunity to gather feedback from unbiased outside parties. Designing a logo can be a very involved process; so gaining insight from an extra pair of eyes (or two) is highly beneficial. After returning to the logo designs, the most effective iterations must be chosen and assembled for presentation.

Client Feedback

After spending a little time designing up a presentation for the client, whether it be for a face-to-face or digital PDF presentation, I will send off my final selections for client evaluation. Usually I will accompany my designs with notes or if I am meeting the client explain my reasonings for my designs. The designer then takes the client feedback into consideration, and makes changes accordingly. The improved logo is again presented to the client. Often there are many rounds of revisions before the client is satisfied with the final product.

Final Delivery

Once the client has evaluated and made their decision, then I begin to finalise the logo into different formats that the client can use. I like to call this a Logo pack. Important file types include EPS, JPEG and possibly TIF in certain circumstances. Some clients may also need a black and white version of the final logo.

Most times after logos have been completed clients like to see their new logo implemented onto a variety of media including, letterheads, business cards and promotional media.

Conclusion

Logos can be a very time consuming process that takes a variety of stages before its final completion, I have provided an insight in this blog about my way of working when I design a logo from start to finish. When the process is executed successfully, the resulting logo becomes a valuable asset for the companies marketing efforts.