There are many things that must be considered when creating a logo. Whether it is for yourself, or a client, there are key steps that you need to take in order to get the most out of your design.

The purpose of a logo is to represent the company that it stands for. In many respects, the logo becomes the ‘face’ of that company, and thus it must tell you all about that company, and give off the right impression, without actually explaining anything at all.

The best logos are simple, memorable, smart, and timeless. I especially like logos with hidden images or messages. They always add another element of interest once you have discovered them and provide a talking point among prospective customers.

Below are my 6 tips on how to create the perfect logo:

Step 1: Talk to the client

You need to find out about the company that you are designing for. Their motives, their aspirations, their operations, goals, competition, target audience, and overall, what type of image they would like to portray.

On top of this you need to know about their existing brand, their brand colours (if they have any), their strap-line and if they have any specific fonts that they use. Once you have collected all of this information you can start drawing!

Step 2: Sketching your ideas

The vast majority of the best logo designers out there start off with a trusty pencil and paper. In my opinion nothing can beat drawing out your ideas first. It’s much less restricting that beginning work on your computer and it’s much quicker too! It allows you to get all of your thoughts down, whether good or bad, and no matter where you are, if you suddenly get a flash of inspiration there’s no stopping you. Sometimes I’ll even draw a couple of scribbles while I’m with the client if ideas pop into my head!

Here are some of the sketches from one of the latest logos that I’ve worked on. It’s for a company called Muddy Faces and I’ll be using this as an example for the rest of this article so that you’ve got something to relate to…

Based on all of the information that I had gathered from the client, I managed to come up with several pages of very rough sketches in only an hour or two. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, or draw something that might not be very good - at least half of my sketches were terrible! You can’t fail at this, and if you really are that self conscious, just hide your sketchbook so no one will ever see!

Step 3: Digitise!

Now it’s time to get on your computer, boot up your scanner, and launch Illustrator. It’s really important that you create your logo in vector format, don’t use Photoshop (although I must admit sometimes I quickly mock up ideas in Photoshop, just because I can work faster - but then I quickly move on…) because once your logo is complete, it won’t be scalable. If your client turns around and says they want it printing on a billboard, you’re going to have an awful lot more work on your hands to blow it up to the right size.

So, scan your best images in, place them on your bottom Illustrator layer, lock it, and start using the pen tool to trace around the edges until you’ve got all of your outlines down. Once you’ve done this, you are free to start manipulating the strokes and fine-tuning your chosen designs.

Once you’ve got this sorted you can begin looking at fonts (providing your design needs them, of course). If you decide to create your own, then great! If the client has a specific font that they’ve asked you to use, then great! But otherwise, start searching…

Step 4: Grayscale

Something that can’t be ignored when creating a logo is the fact that it must be legible in grayscale (black and white). People still photocopy, and they still fax too, so you can’t avoid it.

The first thing I do when I’ve got my outlines and font sorted is create a monotone version of the logo. Once this is done I find that it’s a good opportunity to get some feedback off people, whether it’s peers, or the client themselves. It can give someone a good impression of the design before you’ve spent too much time on it. This way, if there are any major problems you can get them fixed before you start colouring it.

One thing to look out for at this point is the scalability of your logo. Shrink it down to various sizes and make sure that you can still make it out when it’s really small. Your choice of font is key here, because if you can’t read it, then you may need to have a re-think…

Step 5: Colour

Now, this is where some of you can stop. The client may have asked for a black and white logo, or the company may just suit a black and white logo. If this is the case then nice one! You’re done! If not, then once again, take into consideration all of the information that you gathered at the start and get creative!

Pick bold colours that represent the company, and that contrast well with the background. There’s nothing worse than a logo that gets lost in it’s surroundings…

Another little thing that I tend to do is come up with two slightly different colour schemes. One for when the design is being displayed on a light background, and one for when it is on a dark background. Some designs will work on both straight away, but I’d advise you to check because you never know where it might be displayed further down the line.

Step 6: Ask around

Now that your logo is finished, make sure you get some feedback. It doesn’t matter who, it could be friends, family, or work colleagues, anyone! When they’re looking at it ask them to tell you what it makes them think of, what emotions it portrays, and what they think that the company it represents does - Basically ask them things related to all the information that you gathered from the client at the start. You might get a couple of odd ones, but if it’s good feedback overall then your job is done. Send it to the client to get final approval, and send off that invoice.

…Here are a few logos that I think are brilliant. They’re bold, relevant, clever, simple, and memorable.

These are just some of a massive collection of inspirational designs that have bookmarked. I can always count on them to give me some ideas if I’m struggling.

Tags: inspiration, logodesign, Tips

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Logo Design, Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.