Ever wondered what exactly is involved in logo design?
Probably not! But the end product can sometimes make you wonder why it can take months and cost tens of thousands of pounds to brand an organisation. The 2012 London Olympics brand cost £40,000 for example. (Disclaimer: we don’t charge quite that much). Logo design is an art form, and like art, you may look at the finished product and think you could have just done it yourself. But there’s a lot more to it than you think. Every graphic designer has a different process, but for those who are interested, this is mine.
Who is it for?
The most important starting point for us is to find out who we’re designing the logo for. We’re all different and we are all drawn to different styles, whether its clothes, music or film, and design is no different. What appeals to teenagers, won’t appeal to pensioners. We use personas to help with this. Personas are profiles of your primary customer or customers you would like to attract more of. We discuss with our clients if these customers are male, female, their age group, their goals, and what they are looking for and attracted to in a restaurant, accountant, hotel, or whatever your business might be. By having a persona, it ensures that we keep those customers in mind when designing the logo, but also that the client provides feedback on what the customer would like rather than what they like themselves.
Stylescapes
Once we know who we’re designing for and what appeals to them we set about researching the style and feel the brand needs to adopt to attract those customers specifically. Stylescapes are developed mood boards where we take design styles, colour palettes, print techniques and anything else that projects a personality that is appropriate for those customers. By doing this we narrow down the focus for the next step and ensure we have a more streamlined process.
Time to get out the pen and paper
Graphic design was transformed by the progress of home computers in the eighties and nineties and design software is a vital tool when designing anything we do from websites and brochures through to vehicle design and stationery. When designing logos, however, we always start with a notepad and pen. To us, it’s the most direct and productive way of getting down our initial thoughts and the most effective way to work through good and bad ideas before moving on. Our main goals at this stage are to make a mark that is distinct and grab people’s attention by standing out from the crowd. It needs to be relevant to the company and the industry they are involved with and appeal to the right audience. Finally, it needs to be legible and adaptable enough to work in all sizes and in one colour if necessary. Some of the problems we set about to solve at this stage are psychological and use design theory while others are purely technical. There’s no point in having the most beautiful logo in the world if people can’t read it. The next step is to try and think of a way to create a logo that combines more than one element of the business in one simple icon or concept. If a logo can be clever enough to work on more than one level, then it sticks in people’s minds and therefore becomes memorable and an effective marketing tool. For example, below are doodles for ‘Gear Garden’, a beer garden aimed at cyclists. The idea at this stage was to explore how to combine the name with the service or customers they served.
Icon Refinement
Once we have a few strong concepts we move on to refining them using design software. Usually, these ideas are no more than scribbles or doodles at this stage and are just a seed of an idea. The design software allows us to very quickly start developing those ideas in a cleaner and more refined way. At this point, we work on the initial ideas in black to ensure they work in one colour. This means they will be versatile enough to work for the client in all situations. Very often I see great looking logo design, with intricate creations and beautiful colours that look great as wonderful illustrations but just can’t work as a logo. A logo won’t always be able to appear at a large size, or in full colour and this is something we consider carefully at this stage. The most effective logos are actually really simple, just think about brands such as Nike, Apple or Google.
Fonts and colours
Once we’re happy with an icon or concept we move on to the fonts and colours. Both of these elements can have a huge effect on the style and feel of a brand. Usually, at this stage, we have a very good idea of the kind of font that should work for a particular brand. If we were supplying options with very different styles of fonts it may seem like the client is getting a wide range of choices, but it actually suggests a scattergun approach from the designer, trying various styles and looks just hoping one of them pleases the client. At this stage, we have to remember that we are designing for those customer personas rather than for the client.
We experiment with dozens of fonts and even more ways of treating each one such as how much space each one needs, how the words are stacked, does the brand lend itself to uppercase or lowercase. I’m super fussy when it comes to type and fonts so this stage can go on longer than you would think while I make sure the space between every letter and word is just right, it does make a difference! We even consider if the business would benefit from a completely bespoke typeface.
Colours and what they mean or communicate is a whole subject by itself. Safe to say we carefully consider what colours work for each company. All colours have their own meanings and if you get them wrong can be detrimental to your brand. Using too many colours can also have a negative effect. We consider two or three colours about right for most projects and we supply colour palettes to use for marketing and communication going forward. Getting the balance right is a difficult process and it’s easy to get it wrong. We work hard to ensure the color palette is balanced and in a similar tone, and you are armed with colours that work well together in any situation.
Credit: London Image Institute
Brand Guidelines
Once we have the logo with the right fonts, an effective and balanced colour palette we then provide brand guidelines. This is a rulebook for you to follow to ensure the brand is kept consistent once we hand over the reins. Without these rules, it is easy for the brand to lose its effectiveness. The strongest brands out in the real world are successful by being consistent and by keeping all their marketing communications to a high standard. We choose fonts that compliment the brand and try to avoid using the same font as the logo to keep it looking distinct.
Summary
Branding can look very simple when you just look at the finished product, but behind the scenes, there is a lot of thought, planning, and experimentation that goes into it to create an effective logo. Logo design can sometimes be controversial. The London Olympics logo we mentioned earlier was hated and people were in an uproar over the cost. Think about whenever a football team come up with a new crest, it is pretty rare for this to go smoothly and without causing a stir, Leeds United learnt that lesson for example. Companies such as Ikea have updated their logo recently and most people wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference. (The one on the right is the new one by the way).
So is it worth it? Branding is a difficult concept to measure in financial benefit because it’s a long-term investment. I recently re-designed a long-running advert and the customer informed me that sales had increased by a third on previous months. That’s always great to hear and is evidence of a very direct return on investment. But this effect is usually harder to measure with branding. No customer is going to tell you they chose your restaurant, bank, or product because they liked the logo. It’s more of a subconscious effect, I know I’m drawn to well-branded products such as Apple or turned off by badly branded restaurants, no matter how good the food is. Maybe the best way to measure the effect is by looking at the most successful companies in the world and why they make substantial investments into their brands and obviously consider the investment worth it.
