Why do major brands always have a logo?
A logo has a significant impact on how your customers perceive your brand. You want your logo to stand out. However, how do you get to that location?
Relax. In this article, you learn the fundamental steps to design an effective logo. From establishing your brand identity to understanding what is an effective logo, selecting designs, and designing process.
Below is the step-by-step process of creating a great logo.
Begin With Creative Brief
What is a creative brief?
A creative brief is a strategy paper for a creative project. Project specifics such as goals, requirements, messaging, and demographics are included in a creative brief. A creative brief helps a creative team understand a project from the outset and can be provided to key stakeholders and clients.
While no two creative briefs are alike, they all follow the same basic format. Because some projects demand more comprehensive planning than others, using one detailed creative brief form for all your work will waste time and effort. Marketing work management tools with electronic creative briefs can help here. If it’s a good tool, the briefs can be tailored to include the information required for that project.
Good questions drive creative briefs. Making a creative brief that simplifies your life requires asking the right questions. You need to define the deliverable’s who, what, where, when, and how.
A clear direction is crucial when designing a logo, whether for a customer or one’s own company. The creative brief dictates this.
If you’re working with a client, have multiple chats. Learn about the company, its mission, what it offers, and what the client wants to convey to its customers.
Take notice of the business’s tone (is it official or informal? ), colors and typefaces utilized in the design, and any other elements that need to be reflected in the logo.
Willing to proceed with graphic logo design ideas?
Remember, the logo is for the target market, not the client. So research is part of the creative brief—lots of research.
You should also research the firm and client, the market, and competitors.
Finally, define the project’s timetable, deliverables, and agreed-upon budget.
Distill The Essence of Your Brand
In business, you aim to attract the proper clients and make them fall in love with your brand.
Consider your logo as your dating profile photo. Your prospective date may want to know more after seeing it or move on.
Your logo will give your customers information about your brand and let them know if it suits them.
Because your logo is vital to your brand, you want to execute it right. Your logo will be on all branding materials. It’ll be on your website, packaging, and business cards. It counts! A superb logo design can not just communicate what you stand for. Making a solid first impression will help you stand out from the crowd.
Define Your Need For A Logo
Your logo is your brand personality squeezed into a single powerful image.
To accomplish so, you must first grasp your brand’s core characteristics. It will be much easier to create design decisions that complement and complete that picture once you know what makes you unique and your brand.
Here are some questions to ask to uncover your brand’s identity:
Why did you start a business?
What are your company’s core principles and values?
What do you do best?
What sets you apart?
What three words best describe your brand?
What three words best describe your company?
Create a Sketch
It’s time to get creative with the creative brief in mind.
Though you know your logo will be finished digitally, it’s always a good idea to start with a pen, pencil, and paper. Don’t try to cut corners; scribbles are fun and vital aspect of design.
Avoid restricting your options to a restricted number of things you can experiment with. Fill a piece of paper with your ideas for a new logo, and then put it away. Sometimes, some designers like to divide the paper into smaller boxes and then design each one independently. Others want to finish the page without borders. It doesn’t matter what you do if it gets done!
Assume your client has recommended a logo design that includes the letter S typeface. While you should always try to incorporate the client’s suggestions, sketch it out if you stumble across a concept that doesn’t require typography but still conveys the message. You’ll likely submit many designs for approval, so you can at least evaluate different options now.
This is a beautiful time to look at other designs you like and assess what appeals to you about them. Copying famous designs is a no-no, but you can learn from others’ successes. You can also draw inspiration from visually appealing logo designs.
Complementary Colors, Fonts, and Other Details
In your creative brief, you may have asked your customer to specify the colors, fonts, and typefaces that should be used in the logo.
If the client hasn’t made any demands or ideas, go return to your market research. Who is the target? What does the logo intend to say? Will your color scheme support it?
Color psychology and logo color palette research can assist you to select the tone of the logo palette.
You want a recognizable logo, but you want people to remember it positively. A simple color choice may make or break your logo.
You can either look out for available fonts or draw your logo if you’re working with letters. Remember not to overdo it with font-based logos. A font also adds to the tone of a design.
Serif fonts are viewed as more reliable, steady, and reputable.
Sans serif is considered more modern, clean, and uncomplicated.
Script fonts give a logo a more creative, feminine feel.
A novelty typeface uses unique features, including markings, dots, and appendages.
Too many elements in a logo design reduce recall.
Remember these design details:
- Color can enhance or detract from a logo’s meaning
- Unusual fonts can be used in a logo
- Fonts, like colors, give a logo a mood
- Simplicity is the key