An experienced logo designer knows that designing a great logo requires an equally great design process to ensure that the outcome is outstanding. In order to make a good logo design, designers come up with a lot of creativity and deep thinking.

There are no shortcuts to a great logo design; if you don’t put in the work at each step of the design process, you won’t get the most optimal results.

A successful logo design will tell the story of the brand without requiring any words. It will tell a compelling story about your brand, consistently, show how your customers will remember you, and the way you will stand out in a crowded marketplace. That’s how the most beloved brands are born.

In the first paragraph we will elaborate the logo designing process and in the second paragraph we will give you tips that will help you to make a creative, authentic and memorable logo design.

A) Logo Design Process:

So let’s get started by this 4 logo designing process:

1) Logo Design brief:

A logo design brief is the end result of a question and answer document for a particular design project produced between the designer and the client.

The aims and objectives state the overall purpose of why the work is being carried out and how it will help the client. You have to be sure to include any specific requirements for example, “How to gain a wider understanding of the identity in a location or language that was previously unused.” The aims and objectives help to create an overall picture of the problem you’re trying to solve.

The creative brief includes the following information:

• Basic info: Company name, what word(s), letter(s) or icon(s) should be included in the logo? What are the organization’s values and mission?
• Competition: Who are your competitors? How are you different from them? What do the competitors logos look like? What colors are being used?
• Distribution: Your logo should express the unique quality of your business simply and clearly. The logo design must be reproduced in all communications including website, business cards, brochures, envelopes, letterhead etc.
• Most Important Point: Most communications leave only one overall impression; is there something specific the viewer should remember about the company after seeing the logo?
• Target audience: This series of questions is quite possibly one of the most important questions you can ask, as this audience is who you are designing the logo for in order to best serve your client. Knowing the ideal “person” you are designing for will set the tone for the logo. Your target market is very important for us to understand the style needed to best promote your company. Are you targeting a particular industry? Targeting specifically men or women? Or targeting a particular age group?

“Remember that the higher quality your brief the fewer revisions you will need and the quicker you’ll be able to start using your logo. Also the more thought you put into your brand then the stronger and more focused your logo will be as a result.”

2) Research and Brainstorming on the message:

Each and every element of a design is sending out a message to viewers, from colors and typography to the tagline and symbols. The brainstorming process should allow for a creative exploration of how these different elements can work together to support the message.

In the brainstorming step requires you to find out more about the industry your client is in. Consider the historical perspective of your client and their industry. You should be able to answer the following questions. What is the history of the product or service? What does the product or service involve? And what production methods are used, if any?

The brainstorming component factors are the industry specific trends, product or service uniqueness, the current brands position, the future business and brand ambitions.

3) Sketching:

Examining the sketches against the creative brief, thumbnails that show potential are explored further with pen and paper to a point where I am confident that time, should be spent refining them on the computer using Adobe Illustrator.

One of the most important benefits of sketching is that it gets you in touch with your design work on a whole new level. By spending so much time developing a solid concept, you have a stronger understanding of the elements that go into your design, and you’re able to explain it more eloquently to clients and defend it more successfully if disagreements arise.

4) Feedback and Review:

Now it is a great time to get feedback from colleagues and other designers, and possibly even from your client. Make it constructive. Simply telling a designer “I don’t like it” is useless, unless you explain why and how you feel it could be improved.

If the designer is not on the right path, then let them know. Better yet, try brainstorming some ideas to get them back on the right track. As a starting point, tell the designer what you like or dislike about the style, color, structure, typography (font) used etc.

B) Logo Design Tips:

In this paragraph we will come across with 6 useful tips to make an authentic and memorable logo design:

5) Make Sure Your Logo Design Has A Story To Tell:

Every logo has a story to tell. Ideally, a good logo has two stories to tell: one, the obvious one, and second, the hidden one. Basically, if you can show your clients that the logo you have designed is not simply a shallow piece of artwork but consists of deep thinking and meticulous ideology, they’ll love it, even if it is something simple.

For example this Toyata logo is not simply three distinct ovals with a fancy ‘T’. According to Toyota, each of the three ovals has its own meaning; the center ovals (overlapping) represent the faith and trust between the company and its customers, whereas the outer (encircling) oval represents the global expansion plans of Toyota.

6) Your Logo should be able to Use on a variety of media:

The development of media represents an important fact in logo design. In the past any marks, logo or trademarks were used only in print; much more the quality of color and even style wasn’t as important as nowadays.

A modern logo can be used in print, in a very high-resolution, on a site, on a banner, on business cards, and even on T-shirts. A solution for this is to realize a logo that is very simple or versatile.

Ask yourself, is your logo still effective if it is printed…

• In one color?
• In reverse color (i.e. light logo on dark background)?
• The size of a postage stamp?
• As large as a billboard?

One way to create a versatile logo is to begin designing in black and white. This allows you to focus on the concept and shape, rather than color, which is subjective in nature.

7) Make it Proportional and Well Balanced:

The best logos are designed using principles of proportion and symmetry. Illustrated below, you can see how both the Apple logo and the Twitter logo utilize circles of proportionate values as well as symmetry to create a pleasing, balanced aesthetic quality.

8) The psychology of logo colors:

To get the maximum impact of your chosen color’s coded message, I normally stick with a single color when creating a logo design. That said there are some very successful multi-colored logos, think of Google, Windows or eBay.

The implication of multiple colors is that these companies are offering a wide choice of products and services. The multiple colors used for the Olympic rings carry a message of diversity and inclusivity. The best way to discover the ideal logo design is to play around with combinations of shape and color.

Different combinations can create an endless number of meanings for different audience groups and you can never be certain that any two people will react in the same way to your selection. While you may be tempted to approach logo design from a scientific, psychological perspective, it’s always best to use your graphic designer’s instinct to select what you feel works best.

9) Learn from others success and mistakes:

When building logo ideas, make sure that you are learning from others success and mistakes. It is important that you understand why a particular logo failed and why another logo becomes immensely popular.

For example rather than choosing the popular trend of the month, think about what’s more likely to have longevity for your brand. For example, the current logo of the BBC has been around since 1997, yet still has not become dated.

And another example the McDonald’s or Nike logo. It is simple yet conveys the message, providing a strong identity for the company.

10) Design Style Should Suit the Company:

You can use various design styles when creating a logo, and to pick the right one, you should have some background information about the client and the brand.

A recent trend in logo design is the Web 2.0 style of 3D-looking logos, with “bubbly” graphics, gradients, and drop shadows. This style may work well for a Web 2.0 website or tech company, but may not be effective for other kinds of brands.

Research your client and its audience before you begin your preliminary work. This will help you determine the best design style from the start and save you from having to return repeatedly to the drawing board.

Conclusion:

Realize that design is about solving problems. You’ve got something you want to communicate to your audience, and you need it to be easy to read, to communicate your brand message, to make the audience feel a certain way. It’s important for you to know what you want, your finished product to look like in order to have a good logo design. Also try to understand the company’s long-term goals. A logo should stand the test of time, so expect the logo you’re designing to still be in use in the next five to ten years.

For that reason you must understand not only where the company is today, but what its long-term goals and ambitions are. For example, if a company currently offers only one service, but plan to extend its offering at a later date, it’s essential you are aware of this so you factor this into your design.