Steps for a Perfect Logo!

If you take a look at logos today some have underlying messages where other's just look horrible! So what makes a logo memorable, associative and just perfect? Let's take a look...

1. The Research and Sketches

I am a bit of a doodler and would be happy to sit in the park with a pencil and a pad just doodling random stuff, whether it be drawing some trees, database schema or a logo. But when I need to create a logo, how do I do it?

Research! Check out the company you are designing for and find out what their target audience is. What kind of products do they sell? Who are they trying to sell to? What age groups are they targeting? Male or Female? Build a profile of a potential client to that company and design a logo that would attract them.

Once you have that profile in mind, then its time to sketch! "But where do you get the ideas from?" - there are lots of ways to generate ideas. I found books like How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci and The Idea Book the most inspirational in terms of stimulating your mind with an idea. The idea is to sketch something, then sketch another sketch either based from the previous idea or a totally new one. With this evolutionary method of sketching one after another you may end up with 10-20 sketches, even if it is just the original sketch with a few tweaks.

If this method doesn't work for you, take a look at some other logos online. Pull up Google Images and type keywords that are similar to the design you need, for example: "pots and pans logo". I stress though, DO NOT COPY logos them straight from Google! Stay original and be inspired. Take a look at the the logo, what makes it so intriguing? Is it the lines, the colours, the no colour, balance etc. More important make sure the design itself is something that would suit whatever you're designing for, i.e. kind of pointless making a logo of a dog, if you're making it for a company dealing with cats.

Also consider having some kind of underlying symbol about the company in the logo, for example, check out the FedEx logo. Notice the arrow between the E and X characters?

2. Sketch to Digital

Once you have a few sketches you're ok on, its time to transfer them into a digital format. How to do this? You can scan it or take a photo of it (assuming there is good light on your sketch). Then open up your imaging software, whether its Corel's Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator or Paint.NET (to mention a few), but please dont say 'What about Paint?'. Paint (as in mspaint.exe) is just old school and you wont be able to do the nitty-gritty that you should have control over - of course its always possible. I would recommend Photoshop, or better still Illustrator because its vector based allowing you to increase or decrease a graphic without it getting pixelated (you can read more about it on Wiki).

Drag in your scanned sketches and trace the outlines of the sketch using the Pen tool or similar. Try and keep parts of the logo in different layers so that you can modify and experiment with the visual characteristics of the logo. Make sure to save your work!

3. The Visual Characteristics

Here are There are several characteristics you should consider when designing a logo.

  • Balance: make sure the design looks balanced - as in weights on a scale balanced. Humans tend to naturally perceive a design that's balanced to be more attractive and appealing. So if you a cat to the left, make sure there's a dog on the right (and maybe ball in the middle, just for fun)
  • Colour: I would suggest checking out the Color Matters website. Great explanation of the colours you should use and how colours compliment each other. Basically, try to use colours near each other, make sure the logo looks good on black and white, grayscale and two colours. Keep in mind if the subject you're designing for already has an existing colour palette you can work from.
  • Size: Make sure your design is at an appropriate size, not too big and over-powering, nor not too small and need glasses to see it.
  • Detail: May vary on your design, but does adding more detail to your logo make it more confusing or cluttered? If you removed the detail, would people still get the message of what the company is supposed to stand for? No need to detail the draw hair of a dog, if the outline looks like a dog. Just KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) your design.
  • Trendy or Cool: Depending on the research results and profile I have made, I often would step back and look at the designs I created. Does it look trendy or cool but is clean looking, have the element of professionalism and is of high quality? If it doesnt, maybe play around with with some of the above characteristics and notice how much of a difference it really does make.
  • Effects: Don't get carried away with all these crazy effects that are available in some imaging software. Adding them wont necessarily give any emphasis to your design and some cases may just ruin your logo. Dont get carried away! Remember simplicity is the key!

4. Using Fonts (or not)

Optional, but make sure the right typography compliments the logo and reflects the company. Don't select a handwriting and flowing font if you're designing for a construction company. What does this stay about the company? That is run by a heap of girls? It should be strong and tough. Similar to the visual characteristics of the logo, make sure the font compliments the entire logo!

5. Review

How does it look? Does the logo represent the company you are designing for? Does it fit your researched profile? If you were that person would you want to buy from that company? Run it by a few friends that could fit your research profile and get feedback on what they think. If you feel it matches what is required of you, shoot it back to the client to get their feedback. Depending on your arrangements, just let them know that its just preliminary and that you can always change parts of the design - but just watch the number of revisions!


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