The birth of a logo suite
By: Glenn Goh
Tags: Dsaid, Capability Development, Logo Design, Data Science, Govtech

Can you make a guess what some of these logos represent? The one with the people and globe? You might have guessed that it has something to do with bringing people together and networking. That’s the logo for our Data Science Connect (DSC) meetup events. How about the one with the trophy? If you said something along the lines of a competition, you guessed it right as that’s our Data Arcade Tournament (DAT) logo.

My name is Glenn. I am the Creative Designer for the Capability Development team within the Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Division (DSAID). In this article, I will run through my design philosophy and process in the creation of the logos from start to end.

Getting started

Past logo design

There was already a set of existing logos done up for the team. As the team was launching new capability development programmes and initiatives, we needed to create new logos for them. Given that we were also in the process of refreshing the way we run them, we thought it was timely to recreate a brand new suite of logos to accompany each initiative and make them easier to connect with.

The past design was quite well done and provided some inspiration for the new design. When it comes to creating a logo suite, consistency is key in the design as all the logos must be able to tie in seamlessly as one when put together. This provides a visual guidance to the audience in helping them to better associate the different logos as one collected set. In addition, the past design uses good illustration to bring out the essence of each individual logo. All these are good references for me to bring across to the new logo when working on the re-design.

It is also important to understand the other aspect of the requirement for the revamp in order to create something that works. In this case, apart from the overhaul of the design, the most significant requirement is to change the “DS” which represent Data Science into “DSAI”, Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, reflecting the expanded scope of the Division.

Research

I usually spend bulk of my time on research before I start working on a design. Research is the foundation block for good design. Without it, the design will most likely fail.

Design reference from Envato Elements

I started off by researching on existing designs that fits what we needed and added them into a collection for future references. The objective here was to figure out what worked and adapt part of the concept into the new design. Besides that, having an idea of what is already available out there can help to reduce the chance of creating a design that already exists. Afterall, it’s very important to create a logo that is unique and memorable so making sure you don’t replicate what’s already out there is very crucial. This is also a good time to look at the current design trends to get some inspiration on which style to go for.

Thorough research will definitely help in narrowing the number of choices, making designing at the later stage much easier.

Design

Now we are getting into the fun part! This phase is really about using what I have found online and putting it into use to create a logo that works. In another words, this is when I start using my creative juice.

1st draft — Flat Line Concept

In terms of the style, I decided to go with the flat line concept as it appears to be the best approach for the logo suite after doing all the research. I started working on it without any colours so as to reduce distractions.

What I have also learnt over the years doing design is that we tend to look at things differently at different times of the day. Therefore, one of the best ways to approach a design is never to complete it in one sitting. I usually take a break in between and revisit it hours or even days later to see it with a new perspective. On top of that, it is also important to gather feedback so I can have a second opinion on the design. After a few tweaks, I eventually ended up with a unified stroke width and curvature for the final design. After which, I started expanding on the concept by bringing colours into play and made some slight alterations to create different variations.

Final 4 concepts for selection

Eventually, I settled with the linear colour approach. Using 3 different colours might be slightly unorthodox in the graphic design sense but it gave a very unique representation of the entire logo and helps to draw attention to it. The linear colour was treated slightly differently with portions of it in white so as give the logo a better contrast. I had also chosen the first gradient style logo as an alternative to be used on some rare occasions.

As mentioned previously, one of the requirements was to incorporate the “DSAI” aspect into the design. I had given a lot of thought into this and eventually settled with using a red square to replace it. This was mainly because having text within the logo might not be the best approach as legibility could be an issue if the logo were to be shown in a low resolution. The red dot also acts as a symbol that can be easily identified as the primary focal point of the logo and depicts the idea of a node extending into the lines that forms the entire logo.

Completing the logo suite

Once the concept and style were finalised, I proceeded to create the rest of the logos in the suite. The logo representation is also very important as a good logo should be easily identifiable at first glance. The challenge here is really to find an iconic representation that can tie in well with the logo itself.

Data Arcade Tournament (DAT) & Data Literacy ePrimer logo

For example our Data Arcade Tournament (DAT), the use of a trophy can tie in very well with the idea of a tournament. Another example will be the Data Literacy ePrimer logo which shows the different devices that are used to access the eLearning modules. The logo portrays a lecturer and a student communicating over mobile devices, which brings to mind immediately teaching and learning via eLearning.

Conclusion

Having a consistent design across a suite of logos definitely helps to bring synergy to the different initiatives that we have. It makes them instantly recognisable as initiatives from our team, and that people can expect the initiatives to carry the same level of quality and commitment from us.

Tic-Tac-Connect Logo

The design work doesn’t just stop here. We’re constantly iterating upon them, and new logos will be added as we come up with new initiatives. For example, we recently added “Tic-Tac-Connect”, a gamification programme to make upskilling in Data Science and AI fun and competitive. The logo was created to tie in very closely with the Tic Tac Toe idea while maintaining the unique style of the logo suite design.

I understand some of you reading this may be looking out for answers to a separate contest for the community. Therefore, I am sharing the 6 most widely used logos for the DSC community below to help you out on it! :)

(Left to Right) Data Science Connect, Data Literacy ePrimer, Competency Framework, DSC Spark, Test Drive, Data Arcade Tournament

I really enjoyed the process of designing the logos, and hope you found the article useful in giving you a sense of the thinking and ideas behind our Data Science and AI logos!