How To Design A Logo (Other Designers Will Wish They Designed).
By: Get Em Tiger
Tags: Design Thinking, Design Process, Culture, Design, Designer

Things to Keep In Mind:

These items should be like background noise when you determine what approach you are going to take with the logo:

Discovery Phase:

Of course I advocate an in-depth Client Discovery Phase. Companies see a big return for hammering out culture and brand guidelines. Keep your clients vibe at the front of your thinking. The logo should reflect THEIR company (not you as a designer). Sometimes when doing client work, I make a playlist on Spotify that reminds me of what that client feels like/ keeps us in the right mood.

Make a playlist on Spotify that reminds you of your design project: to get you in the mood for that style of work.

Differentiator:

Logos should have a meaning behind them that conveys the businesses differentiator. How is this company different from others that offer the same service? What sets them apart? Highlight that difference visually. The cheat for this is creating a tag and dropping it under the logo — but if the logo is well designed it can speak visually/ compliment the differentiator as well.

Application and the Pencil Test:

Logo On Pencil /Illustration by Becka Gruber / Get Em Tiger

Where is this logo going to be used most of the time? Of course logos should be dynamic and suitable for mobile apps, websites, flyers, shirts — but it also needs to be able to have legibility if it were only in one color and printed (small) on a pen or pencil. Thus, an “illustration” won’t work as a logo. App icons and social media profiles are small in size but flexibale in color and can retain more pixel data. A pencil is the least forgiving (printing crudely on a thin piece of wood) so that’s always been my mental “go to” test. Know the anatomy of a logo. Logos need to be a simplified mark. Some applications include very large format (bus, plane, or billboard for example). The logo may end up in a intro or outro. These types of logos that require animation can’t be flat. They need movement built into them. Keep these things in mind to “test” the strength of your logo and branding solutions.

MAKE A BRIEF TO KEEP YOU AND YOUR CLIENT ON TRACK.

We have multiple methods for this. The most simple is the use descriptive word clouds — or, for more intensive jobs, mind maps (more important the word the larger the real-estate it receives). These briefs show the words that are descriptive of the company. The logo design should reflect the same words that describes the company. For example, if you had a cutting edge photographer, a feminine flower logo would NOT be a good solution, no matter how much that photographer likes flowers. If your client disagrees on what you prescribe (and your prescription has sound logic and matches the agreed brief), you need to know ahead of time if you will put work out that makes no sense- or if you would sever ties with the client. That being said the client is the expert in their line of work. So collaboration is critical. This process should not be about “being right” but truely finding the best solution.

GET OUT YOUR SKETCH PAD.

Keep it practical before you go digital.

Sketching is critical so you don’t create a logo that looks like the million other logos out there.

A logo should be a unique identifier. If it looks like a replica of another company there is no point in having a logo.

Some designers go straight for the computer — I call that pixel pushing. They just “move” stuff around until it “looks okay”. That’s not strategic. It’s not a solution. It’s not really even functioning design.

Have a method (like the Brandr Method) that you go through before you begin sketching.