The Logo Creation Process: What’s Involved?

We’ve been getting a lot of logo work lately, so we thought we’d provide some insight around what goes into creating the perfect representation of your brand.

Discovery & Research

To kick things off, we start by asking our clients a few questions to get them thinking more in-depth about their brand, and the brand they would like to create. In general, we begin by asking them to tell us about their brand in their own words. Of course we‘ll do our own research, but it always helps to hear about the brand from the client’s perspective. Then, we often follow up with questions like:

• How do you want to be perceived?
• Who is your target audience?
• Who are your competitors?
• Any symbols or colors we should steer clear of?
• Any symbols or colors you would like for us to use?
• Are there any logos that you are inspired by or drawn to?

If they already have an existing logo, we may ask:

• What do you like/dislike about your current logo?
• What are your goals with the logo redesign?

Once we have a pretty clear idea what they are looking for and how they want to be represented, we spend hours researching all the logos—whether they are industry-related or not—to see what is already out there.

Design

Next comes the brainstorming and design phase. Each designer is different, but I typically begin by sketching out my ideas on paper, and then transition them to screen. We explore as many unique ideas as we can think of and create multiple iterations for each idea. This may include pairing a mark with multiple type treatments, tweaking positioning, or making subtle changes to the mark—this is all part of the exploration process.

We then have an internal critique amongst the design team. This is where we discuss and eliminate the options we feel aren’t working and pinpoint areas we can explore further. This then leads to more iterating.

When we, the designers, have narrowed the logos down to those we feel are in a good spot to share with the client, we present them to the rest of our team (non-designers) to gather additional feedback. It’s helpful to get opinions from those outside the ‘design bubble’ as they often bring a fresh perspective. After some slight tweaking and perfecting, we finalize the top logo options (typically 3-6 unique logos) to share with the client.

It’s important for a logo to be versatile across a variety of mediums. For this reason, we present each primary logo option as a full color logo, as well as all white, all black, and a variation that is either square or horizontal depending on the primary logo.

We also include a written explanation about design choices that were made and why. Everything is shared in a PDF document, but we find feedback is most often better communicated in-person, so we always encourage our clients go through the logos with us on a call.

After the initial round of logos are presented, we usually go through at least 2 more rounds of revisions where the client narrows down the logos and provides feedback on changes they would like to see or areas they’d like us to explore further. Because color is an easy thing to change, we direct clients not to eliminate any logo based on color alone. Once they have chosen a single logo, that is when we usually do a full color exploration.

Once the logo has been finalized, the final step is to prepare and save all logo variations (black/white, full color, mark only, horizontal vs. square, etc. ) in multiple file types for both print and web use. The client is now set anytime their logo is required.

Are you in need of a new logo or a logo refresh? Give us a shout! We’d love to chat.

Also, read how to strategically release your new branding into the world once your logo is created.