Every logo designer has a different approach, but most of them would agree that there are certain steps in logo design process all professionals share.

In this article, I will show you my bit-by-bit logo design action.

The 7 steps that I go through when designing a new logo.

And I will do so on a real case study—A logo and identity i designed for one of my late clients. PS. Please do n’t use logo makers.

Starting with discovery, then conducting research, running a brainstorm, then sketching son, designing those logo concepts, presenting them to the client and preparing final deliverables which I give to the node.
7-Step Logo Design Process. I ’ thousand sharing with you my process, so that hopefully you can improve your way of designing logos —if you ’ re a designer. Or you can just get an overview of how professionals do it, if you ’ re a business owner looking for a customs logo.‍

7-Step Logo Design Process

You can besides watch this tutorial on my YouTube channel

Introduction

In this article, I will walk you through my prove 7-step logo blueprint serve and do thus on a real-case scenario. sol that you can see my going through these steps and get inspired to make your work more efficient and more effective as well.

“Logo design process demands a combination of investigation, strategic thinking and design excellence.“ — Alina Wheeler, Designing Brand Identity

so whether you ’ re a interior designer, or you ’ re looking to hire one, this article will give you a valuable insight into the logo making summons. now, my node approached me with a rebranding visualize and I know you want to see the logo before and after indeed here you go :
now, before we talk about each and every step that led my to that final design, it ’ second important to briefly remind ourselves what makes a capital logo in the first place.

What makes a good logo

Every interior designer will give you a slightly different definition of what makes a great logo, but basically you can boil it down to the three fundamental logo design principles. And as the celebrated logo architect, Sagi Haviv said :

We judge each of our early design concepts by the following criteria: Is it appropriate? Is it simple? Is it memorable?—Sagi Haviv, Identify

These three criteria come in the form of questions that we can ask ourselves when developing logo designs.
now, let ’ s explain each of those principles concisely to understand what they actually mean .

Is it appropriate?

allow means that the logo is relevant in form and concept to the customer and its industry. For case : If you ’ ra design for a fashion brand, then the logo needs to be elegant, but if you ’ rhenium design for a sports post, then the logo credibly needs to be bold and active.

Is it simple?

simple means that a logo has to be focused on a single story and in most cases it must be uncomplicated in form. A logo must be simple so it can work effectively and flexibly in a wide-eyed range of sizes and media e.g. in little size on a business card, and in big size such as a signage.

Is it memorable?

memorable means that while the form must be simpleton, it must besides be distinctive enough to be easily remembered. Of path the childlike the shape is, the less special it tends to become, so the challenge is to keep it dim-witted while making it classifiable adequate so it can be remembered. Ok, so without far bustle, let ’ s jump right into the foremost step of my logo design process which is the discovery phase .

1. Discover—Get to know the client’s business.

now, every interior designer will have a slightly unlike approach, but most would surely agree that running a discovery phase and developing some classify of a brand strategy is an absolute must.

Discovery is about getting to know the client’s business, it’s history, industry, competitors and audience.

And this is because logo design is not art, so we shouldn ’ thymine just begin coming up with logo ideas out of flimsy air relying strictly on our sense of aesthetics.
You see, a logo should serve a specific commercial enterprise objective, sol consequently you need to stay objective in the process in order to design something that is appropriate. A logo is the centerpiece of all post communication—it ’ s literally everywhere—so it should stand the test of time. We naturally don ’ thyroxine want to redesign that logo in the foreseeable future, so we want to give ourselves the best potential find at designing a logo that will endure. Before you actually open up the Illustrator and start playing with type, color and shape—you must foremost brief the customer and create a foundation for your creative exploration. now, different designers will go to different extent with the discovery phase. Some designers will just send a post questionnaire or have a more cozy discovery phone call. however, I use my proprietary stigmatize strategy model that I run with my clients anterior to embarking on any design work. therefore I run the strategy workshop with my node, and during that session we go through a series of branding exercises that help oneself me extract all the necessity data about the project.

2. Research—Learn about the industry & competitors.

nowadays, in the moment step, I take all the information form the discovery phase and conduct further research to draw insights that will serve me later on in the ideation phase.

Research is all about analyzing the industry in more detail, conducting visual research and drawing conclusions.

Researching the industry helps you as a couturier get a smell of the environment the logo ’ s going to live in . The goal of this phase is to better understand the customer ’ randomness field in ordering to ensure that the solutions that you will former come up with can work for them effectively. now, you need to know what can work and what ’ mho appropriate and most importantly how to differentiate the company from its competitors. And this understanding may be achieved by experiencing the organization from a customer ’ randomness position. so stepping in the customers shoes and further analyzing the industry and competitors is a crucial gradation in logo design process . It will help you steer your creativity late on and you will avoid making a error of designing something that is excessively alike to their competitors. During the scheme seance ( 5th use ), we start doing some competitive psychoanalysis with my node and now I take it further and conduct extra research. I gain insights from navigating competitors ’ websites and evaluating their brand identities. then I take notes on what are their impregnable and weak points, so that it can serve me in the following step—the brainstorming step .

3. Brainstorm—Develop ideas & decide on art direction.

In the insight step, based on the discovery and research performed, I plainly start outlining my scheme for generating logo ideas.

Brainstorming is about thinking through all possible design directions that would steer creativity in the right direction.

so here is where I seek out a look or a style that could convey my customer ’ mho brand persona ( the third gear function of my scheme model ) . I use the brand personality and tone of voice exercises to help me brainstorm ideas and create moodboards. And here I besides use the mind function ( 9th use of my strategy model ) to start searching for visual representation of the most important keywords distilled from previous steps. As a leave I put together three different mood boards that are basically a collection of visuals that capture the strategic insights. I simply look at the scheme to distill some keywords and then I browse websites like Behance, Dribble or Pinterest to find some visuals that would make for a bang-up art direction. I search for the baptismal font, color, style etc. and consider all aspects of ocular langue that would embody our brand scheme. For Medihuanna I created three climate boards : Credible, Innovative ( below ), and Natural and then I review them together with my client. next, we discuss those possible solutions and we make some decision on what focus should we proceed with. By narrowing our focus with mood boards we try to stay objective, so that we can base our sketches in the future phase on solid strategic understand .

4. Sketch—Create logo concepts based on the strategy.

Sketching son is where real creativity comes into playing period, but since I ’ ve done my homework I ’ m able to judge my sketches against clearly defined criteria.

The goal of sketching is to find a connection between an idea and the creation of a form.

Some designers use a sketchbook while others start right away on the calculator, but most professional logo designers sketch logos by hand, using pen on newspaper.
This is because sketching by hand gives you an immediacy of artistic expression and I believe that identical logo designer should absolutely start this direction. It ’ randomness besides significant to decide whether we need a symbol or just a memorable typographic treatment of the mark appoint ( wordmark ).

In lawsuit of my node, the list, Medihuanna, is pretty self-explanatory ( aesculapian + Marijuanna ), so we ’ ve decided to go on with a classifiable wordmark. We besides decided that we need a symbol that can act as a ocular shorthand, so that It can be used in small sizes where the full name would become illegible. now, sketching son might be time-consuming, so it ’ sulfur important to take breaks and let your ideas mature and develop in the back of your head . so that when you get back to your project after a break, then you can have a fresh spirit, renewed exuberance, and consequently you can be much more effective. You ’ ve credibly besides heard about the fact that the best ideas normally come about in the least expect moments. While your conscious mind is consumed by early tasks ( like driving a cable car, or exercising ), then your unconsciousness comes up with some actually great ideas. That ’ randomness why I always recommend designers to carry something that you can sketch on. This pace normally takes a few days as you in truth need to go for quantity here and sketch a ton of logos. And this is because we need to have many capital ideas, so that in the adjacent dance step we can pick a few strong ones and execute them digitally on calculator .

5. Design—Select best logos & execute them digitally.

so once you have a short ton of sketches, then you can judge them against the strategy and select the most promising concepts to execute them digitally.

Now, design part is all about translating your sketches into digital form and then further testing viability of each concept.

so don ’ t race here to execute every unmarried logo theme that you have, but rather focus only on concepts that you think can work effectively for your client.
By now, you should have a set of criteria for what could and what could not work for your customer. If you feel like all of your sketches are faint, then you can go back and forth between sketching and designing until you got some reasonably exciting logo concepts. once you have a few solid logo ideas, then you fair need to use Adobe Illustrator to design vector graphics. here I just recreate those sketches on calculator and then design multiple variations of each idea in order to arrive on the best choice. The design part can take a very long time ( a few days to a few weeks ) before you actually execute your ideas in a means that is aesthetically pleasing. I tweak the designs and test different colors, fonts, spacing, alignment and sol on—always making a fresh imitate so that I can constantly go back to the previous version of my logo. This step is plainly about testing many different ways in which you can execute your logo sketches in holy order to arrive on the best aesthetics. now if you do this the right way ( and don ’ thyroxine rush this footfall ) your logo concepts will improve and become stronger very quickly .

6. Present—Show logo concepts & get client’s approval.

once I ’ thousand done with designing my logo concepts ( and I ’ megabyte reasonably happy with the result ), then I just need to show them to my customer in the shape of a presentation.

Show the client your three strongest brand identity concepts on relevant applications.

Remember to parcel with your client lone those solutions that can work for them effectively —don ’ t make a mistake of showing something that you ’ ra not actually gallant of.
Each of these three logo concepts is the solution of the disciplined but creatively open action I describe here. While each of those concepts are different, they all revolve around the strategy. I selected a few applications relevant to the client : a clientele card, a book report and a udder in order to show my client how these logo will look like in real liveliness. How do I know what kind of mockups should I create ? —In the exercise six of my scheme framework I list all the key commercialize initiatives my client would be interested in, so that now I can use these findings to pick 3 to 5 mockups. And again, as with other steps in my logo blueprint process, you might need to go back and forth between designing your logo and testing it on applications until you arrive on a bang-up solution. You simply need to test the viability of each logo concept by creating beautiful mockups to see how it will work in real life. Learn more about logo presentation ( together with my template ) in my other article. If you followed my steps, then your client should be very impressed with the accuracy of your presentation at this point. My customer liked the first concept, so we just tweaked a few details like for example : the leaf alliance, so that the logo looks more balance. sometimes clients can be doubting about your logo invention concepts, but this is simply because all newfangled logos tend to feel foreign at first gear. You need to remind your node that alone after a logo is formally adopted, we can truly embrace it and attach a meaning to it. In this step you might still want to tweak a few things, combine elements of unlike concepts and polish the designs before the final approval. therefore in concert with my customer we review the advantages and disadvantages of each solution and arrive at a prefer logo design .

7. Delivery—Export logo files & create a style guide.

once you have your node ’ south blessing, then it ’ second prison term to deliver the brand identity package including logo artwork and a stylus guidebook.

The delivery package should include logo source files and a style guide that describes on how to use that logo.

And again, you will know precisely what kind of files you should deliver based on the applications outlined in the strategy part ( 5th practice ).
however, in general make sure to include basic variations of the logo, such as full color, black, white and black and white. You should besides save logo files for different use both in print and digital ( vector & raster ) e.g. AI, ESP, PNG, JPG etc. Remember to inform the customer about any commercial fonts being used in the logo or mark identity, good in character they want to design other applications in the future. ultimately, you need to work on a style lead that would show all the logo variations and how to use them ( like condom distance, placement on dark vs. bright background and so on ). In your style usher you besides should specify on other brand identity elements like : coloring material pallette, typography system, photography style, possibly illustrations, animations and other elements. Depending on the node ’ second needs and of naturally on their budget, you can go from a very basic one page dash sheet to a more comprehensive examination stigmatize road map. Final parole about delivery— remember to always underpromise and overdeliver —I ’ ve done then by providing my customer with an extra logo vivification. PS. Learn more about preparing logo files and creating a style guide on my YouTube channel.

Conclusions

Great logos do not happen by accident—they are the result of strategic thinking, exploring, failing and designing again. Each aspect of your logo, whether it is shape, font or colors—can serve you influence people ’ randomness perception of your sword.

When it comes to logo design, you have to be very intentional with the design choices you make.

ultimately it is all about creativity and skillset, but you besides must stay focus and base your concepts on solid strategic agreement. That ’ randomness why I would urge you to NOT skip the initial phases of planning as it will vastly benefit you late on in your logo design procedure. just see what my customer said : You will stay focused, have more clarity, make less revisions and get there much faster as you normally would if you jumped square into the design separate. If you follow my process, you will besides go beyond your personal preferences or client ’ s subjective opinion for that matter. This serve will help you defend your work without being defensive —If you ’ re a logo architect. And it will help you feel confident when choosing the perfect logo for your brand—if you ’ re a occupation owner. Do n’t forget to check out my strategy guide if you want to learn how to run discovery sessions with you clients.

Is your logo blueprint process very unlike from mine ? —I ‘d love to hear from you in the comment below. Looking for a custom logo for your business ? —Just schedule a call to discuss your undertaking. besides check out my web design process .