An Introduction to Logo Design

One of the most important factors that drew me to the graphic design field was my initial exposure to visual communication. I loved the idea of a company's mission, industry, product, and service all shrunk down into a single wordmark or abstract shape. It's this love that leads me to believe that everyone should consider having their own logo. Having a personal logo is a great way to brand yourself to employers and can really make that resume of yours pop. Whether you're itching to create one yourself or are looking to outsource the work, this post should still provide you with some handy tips and tricks!

 Recognize this guy? This logo created for

 me by a friend was the basis for my CV logo.

1. Getting to know the client
This is the most important part of the logo design process. Whether you are the client or the designer, understanding this part of the process is crucial.  Discuss personal style, websites, artists, interest they/you might have. The more information, the better. You might be pleasantly surprised by the results.

2. The importance of sketching
We live in a digital age where we often overlook the importance of using pen and paper. There is something freeing about the process of sketching, being able to move from one idea to the other rapidly, creating genius design by mistake or finding inspiration in unintended doodles. Filling pages and pages of random ideas will supply you with plenty of options moving forward!

 These are sketches I did for a class project. We had to make a logo for the person sitting next to us.  

Lucky for me that was my fabulously trendy friend Sydney.

 

3. Scan and trace
Once you're certain that you can't get anything else out of your head and onto the sketch pad, it's time to go digital. Scan your favorites or if you don't have access to one, your fancy iPhone/android camera will do. Pull everything into illustrator and trace. Recreating the logo in vector form allows for more freedom of play.  Mess with opacity, angles, orientation, or decrotaive elements without the stress of not being able to take back your mistakes. If you are an illustrator novice I suggest looking up tutorials on YouTube.  They'll work wonders! 

Here are three iterations of three different logos I created for Sydney.  As you can see they are all based off the same concept but vary in line weight or rotation for example.

4. Collaboration is key
If you are collaborating with a client/designer throughout this process, you would have already met to discuss your logo as you work your way towards the final product.  Collaboration is key to a successful logo. The logos featured above were all based off sketches I had created for Sydney to look at.  She really liked the diamond but was also drawn to the abstract SL featured at the top. The assignment didn't allow for both so I decided to incorporate the diamond into her wordmark. Ultimately the pairing of the diamond with the hand written font produced my favorite of the three.

 

                            

My final logo picks for Sydney.  Recognize the font from the top one? I used that original font for the Creative Victories' header.

  These were the logos created for me by Sydney.  I think they fit my passion for high fashion and love for organic shapes perfectly!

 

I hope you all learned a little about why I love logo design! And don't worry that color hair post i promised is coming. I've just come to a small hiccup in the hair dying process. Sorry for the delay but apparently pink hair dye isn't as consistent as blue! In the meantime I think I'll continue to share more logos...

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