Logo Design Process: What Does it Really Take?

July 18, 2012

Brand logo design has been a core creative service that FliteHaus has provided since our beginnings in 1994. One of the fundamental elements of branding, the importance of the corporate logo to the overall brand can’t be denied. Imagine Nike without the Swoosh or Coca-Cola without their trademark red!

In both cases, these mega-brands are instantly recognized world-wide, cross stepping language and culture.

That’s not to say that we’ll all become the next “Nike” just because we have a cool logo design, however whether you’re a national brand or local upstart, your visual branding typically starts with the design and development of your corporate logo and style guidelines. And the importance placed on this integral piece of branding can’t be stressed enough.

Your logo is there to represent your company 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It’s an extension of your brand and must be memorable and timeless. Whether at the top of your website, on your business cards or on the sides of your delivery vehicles – your customers should come to recognize you simply by seeing the shape or colors of your logo.

So What Goes Into Creating a Logo?

When we take on logo branding projects we typically break the actual research and design process into 6 steps. Each is an important ingredient to the overall success of the logo design process.

1 The Client Interview or Design Brief

The first step in our logo design process is to schedule an interview/creative brief between FliteHaus’ creative team and client stakeholders. During this meeting/brainstorming session we’ll be gathering information related to the client’s company, their history and mission. In addition, gaining insight into who their customers are and what motivates them is crucial to the overall success of the final logo design.

During this session, we’ll also be discussing design considerations such as “likes” and “dislikes”, color usage and of course how the logo will typically be utilized.

A note about color: We typically begin working in black and white only, as going back to our roots, we understand that a company’s logo must replicate well at any size and in a number of circumstances when color might not be possible – such as a fax cover sheet or when the logo must be “knocked-out”.

2 Audience, Competitor and Industry Research

Once we’ve met with  our client, we take the information gathered during the creative brief and do additional research on our own. Our internal research is designed to gain additional knowledge and understanding of our client’s customers, their competition and of course their industry as a whole.

3 Brainstorming and Design of Comps

Once we have completed our research we conduct an internal brainstorming session to get the creative juices flowing. Our brainstorming sessions typically include thumbing through design books and magazines, discussions regarding our client and their positioning as well as any outside influences.

After we’ve had group discussion, our logo projects are handed off to me to continue brainstorming on my own and ultimately start sketching ideas – yes, sketching with a pencil and paper. I don’t jump straight to the computer. Sketching is still an important part of my creative process and paper and pencil allow me to quickly put down ideas, refine or toss them altogether. Once I have 8 or 10 solid ideas, I move to my computer.

At this point I comp and refine the sketched logos in Adobe Illustrator. The first set of comps are again always in black and white. I usually try to stick with 9 comps at the most to show the client.

When the logo comps are to my liking, we review internally and get input and refine accordingly. It’s quite the process, but to deliver a piece as important as a client’s logo, the appropriate time and resources have to be invested!

4 Logo Comp Presentation to the Client

Whenever possible, we prefer to present logo comps to our clients in-person. Having the logo comps printed and mounted for presentation is much more effective than emailing pdfs of logo slicks. For us, it’s also important to see and hear client reactions first-hand and get instant feedback.

Presenting logos in-person, also give us the opportunity to describe our thought process and justify and design decisions we’ve made along the way.

5 Logo Refinement

As much as we’d like to claim that we always hit the nail on the head the first time around, that just wouldn’t be true. Often based on client input, a few rounds of revisions and refinements are needed to get to a logo design that we can all invest in. Also, because we began working in black and white, we must incorporate color choices once we’ve begun to narrow down the overall design.

After a few rounds of revisions and color enhancements, we’re ready to deliver the finalized logo to our client.

6 Final Delivery of the Logo Design

The final step in the logo design process is to deliver digital files of the artwork to our client. Typically we provide digital formats for the final logo including:

  • Adobe Illustrator (.ai, .eps, and .pdf) files in color and black/white
  • Transparent background versions in Adobe Photoshop (.psd & .png)
  • Bitmap formats of the logo (.jpg) in color and black/white

 

Have a Comment or a Suggestion?

So a lot goes into creating those little logo files. In actuality those little logos we design can have a really BIG impact on the success of a company or brand.

Like to add something or have a logo project you’d like to discuss with us? Drop us a line, we’d love to hear your feedback!

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