A Guide To Logo Development
Two things which should keep in mind before diving into the logo development guideline.
1. Designing requires a lot of strategic work. So, in the beginning, do some brainstorming, thinking and decision-making, and then jump into the designing part.
2. You are not just developing a logo, as it is only a part of a more extensive visual system. All individual pieces need to align with each other.
It is always better to chunk your work into different phases, so it is done efficiently. Here are the five phases that will help you to give a proper guideline for Logo Development.
Discovery – Phase One
- Research is a question phase where developers research to understand context and background, including business attributes, values and vision. Moreover, you need to figure out the story behind the business, main competitors, target audience, brand’s characteristics, personality and any specific details to include in the design. These questions and baseline research are essential to kick off your work.
- After gathering all the relevant information, it is time to creatively align things to strategically overview the business. Here, you should include objectives, tone and visuals for an early design.
Explore – Phase Two
- Start exploring new designs and inspiration. Start from basic designs to fundamentals like colour, style and typography. You can take inspiration from Behance, Brand New and Dribbble as they have a bunch of creative work. If necessary, use one colour or more than one. Do not hesitate to use colors as they provoke different emotions.
- By creating a mood board, you can gather all inspirations, colour palettes, images and illustrations to get the layout of your feel and brand identity. Then, if you want, you can add short descriptions underneath each design so that other team members can grasp the same concept as you do.
- Before starting this phase, ensure you are fully equipped with all tools like software, pencil and paper.
- Now, combine everything from the previous two phases under one roof to generate a few designs.
- You can take supportive help from 5 online logo design tools Canva, DesgignEvo, LogoMakr, Hatchful and Looka. There are a bunch of different options to choose from.
- While generating a couple of designs, remember that there are different types of logos.
- Word mark – does not have any graphic symbols; instead, typography is everything here.
- Brand Mark – a pictorial based to create a connection in the targeted audience.
- Combination Mark – the combination of the above two types, i.e. it has typography and symbols.
- Abstract Mark – a more geometric and unique design which are less recognizable.
- Letter Mark – a monogram that is good to use when the name is long or chunky.
- Mascot – choose this type according to your brand’s personality, if it is too serious, there are better decisions to go with it.
- Emblems – text inside symbols and are good to use when elaborating on tradition and prestige.
- Symbols are a crucial aspect to consider here. Choose those symbols which can make a sensible and logical connection to the theme. Think weird, as there are no rules. Put things together figuratively to make your audience feel in a certain way. Be fearless by not going for the obvious choices. You can repeat the process as much as it requires. There are no hard and fast rules because you can generate, evaluate and repeat to narrow down your alternatives.
- Remember that this process was taken to develop at least one logo design. Also, if you produce more than one logo design, then it is completely common at this phase.
Refining – Phase Four
- Take the samples from the previous phase and narrow them down by considering the points which make a logo phenomenal.
- A good logo must have three qualities; it should be simple, memorable and expressive.
- The refining phase requires considering
- Where this logo will be displayed, like the website and social media platforms?
- Is this logo interchangeable as trends come and go. Evaluation is a part of our existence. Think in this manner does this logo last longer than 5, 10, 15 or 20 years from now?
- After all these steps now, you can finally produce one logo. A logo that you love and took a reasonable amount of time, energy and resources.
Defining – Phase Five
- The integrity of any brand requires consistency and top-notch quality. Share the number of places where the logo will be placed and define some rules and guidelines regarding how to treat it.
- The rules and guidelines must include layout, size, colour, theme, positioning and orientation. Furthermore, you can always add never rules to control things according to brand identity, values and vision.
In a nutshell…
You might be thinking that this is a lot of work to do. Honestly, it takes weeks to go through every phase efficiently. Do not rush into things just for logo development. Take your time and come up with something valuable for the brand.
