Creating A Strong Logo
A strong logo is one of the most important design elements you can have for your business. It’s what your prospects see first. It shows your identity, distinguishes your business from your competition, and you can put it anywhere from water bottles to letterhead. So, how do you develop a strong logo for your business? Here’s the process our talented artists use for designing logos.
Do Your Research
First and foremost, you must know your brand. What is your brand about? What do you want your brand to say about your business? Pick words that resonate with you about your brand. Knowing your brand clearly and concisely will help in creating meaningful designs for the business.
Did I Mention Research?
As with anything in the world of consumerism, know your ideal customer. Do they like sleek and modern designs or fun and playful? Do they resonate with a formal tone or more relational in nature? Knowing your customer can help create designs that will appeal to them.
Curate Inspiration
Once the research is out of the way, we start preparing for the design process. The best way to get started is by creating an inspiration board based on the information we gathered from your research. We start gathering images, typography, colors, etc. that we feel will embody the branding you want.
Sketch It Out
Now it’s time to start sketching. This is where we will explore different ideas based on the information and inspiration that has been gathered. We challenge ourselves by seeing how many different thumbnails we can create in five to ten minutes. You’ll be amazed at how many we can create in that amount of time.
Ready, Set, Illustrate!
Once we have chosen the design we want to run with, we take it into Illustrator. Here, we will explore different types of fonts that will complement the planned design. Logos are most effective when they are simple, yet striking enough to be memorable.
Add Some Color
Next, we add a little color to the design. For this next step, we will choose and refine a color palette for your brand.
Mock It Up
Last, we create the mockup. Mockups help to understand and get a context for the design. These are created by using examples of where the logo might be found (like the water bottle and letterheads mentioned above).
Show Off The Hard Work
Once we have all of these steps completed, it’s time to present our work and the rationale behind all of our choices. Why did we go with a serif font rather than a sans serif? What is the logo supposed to mean? Here, we will show the mockups and the design by themselves.
Edit The Design
After the presentation is complete, we will make changes based on any suggestions or requests that were made.
Create a Style Guide
We’re almost done. Now, it’s time to make the brand style guide. This will be a guide to show how to and how not to use the logo, typography, colors, etc. so the brand will remain consistent throughout all platforms.
A strong logo can say a lot about a business. Do you need help making your logo up-to-par? Contact us and we’ll get started on a good design for you and your business.
