Creating a logo that fits both the wants and needs of an organization sounds easy, unless you have experienced the frustration of constantly being asked to recreate a logo design because it wasn’t what the client wanted. If you have been in this situation you must realize the importance of constant communication with your client and having a process in place to figure out the best design in the first place.
When I create a logo I follow a simple 5 step formula for the first draft of a logo.
The 5 steps to Creating a Logo with Meaning:
1) Get into the mind of your client
Find out what interests them, what other logos do they love, and what hobbies do they enjoy. This is both to get an idea of what kind of logos they will be interested in and to just build a connection with your client.
2) Determine the Goals of the organization/idea the logo represents
Feel free to ask your client this specific question, but make sure to read between the lines. Look at other images the organization has on their Facebook page, website, or other marketing material. Sometimes I even write down a list of 3 – 5 descriptive words to help me in the next step.
3) What images best represents those goals
Find images that you feel represent those goals and work with the name of the organization. Sometimes doing image searches on Google for the descriptive words determined in the last step helps to get the ball rolling. Or just meditating on the core mission of the company can help as well to see what images unfold in your mind.
4) Color pallet of logo
Now take those images and consider a color pallet that fits. I do this after choosing a large list of images because it helps whittle down the choices for images later. Utilize your understanding of cool colors vs warm colors and I tend to choose only 2 to 3 because I feel too many colors can be distracting in a logo and I want something that can be printed on a shirt with screen printing if need be.
5) Find what images with the color pallet best fits
The final step is choosing images that work in the colors chosen. You can put several images together or have one strong image. From this work up a rough pencil version to see if your client likes it. They may not but at the very least it will give you a starting point to work from with your client.
I hope you found this design information helpful. I will be adding an example in the near future. Subscribe to my RSS feed to stay up to date on all my blog posts.
