I think a lot of people are intimidated by the idea of having a logo created. Yes, designing your logo is a big deal because it is the face of your company. Whether you’re just freshening up your branding or doing a complete overhaul, you will be forced to think about what your company is in its most basic sense. Since design is visual communication, I have to be clear about what you want to say to your audience (ie existing and potential customers). That being said, the process can also be really fun. While it may initially take a little work, there is always light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully that light is a fabulous logo.

Step 1: Talk to me

I like to sit down and have a face to face meeting with all of my new clients, but particularly those that are doing any kind of branding. During this meeting, I like to listen and take notes. I want to know what your company is all about; what services do you provide? What kind of clientele do you work with? Who do you want your logo to speak to? Next, I want to hear your ideas. What are you envisioning for your brand? What do you want the logo to say? Do you have any specific fonts or colors you want to be used? Remember to try to avoid throwing out your personal preferences here (ex: Make it pink! That’s my favorite color!) and really think critically about the power of your logo’s voice (ex: We want our customers to feel a sense of loyalty, so we’d like to include a dog). It’s my job as a designer to take whatever ideas you may have and turn them into something that works as long as all of the elements serve a purpose.

Step 2: The Boring Paperwork

Unfortunately for most freelance designers, there always comes the time to be a paper pusher. First, I send out a quote. If you’re comfortable with the quote, I send out the contract, which we both sign. Then I sit down and create a brief. This is a document that discusses the scope of the project, the details of what you’re looking for and how much time I have allotted for each portion of the project (from concepts to the deliverable). I refer to this brief several times throughout the project, especially in the conceptual stage, to keep me focused and in your line of thinking.

Step 3: Concepts

Next, I get down to creating your concepts. I take a pencil and go to town in my sketchbook, doodling ideas. Some are good, some are bad and some are downright crazy. That’s just part of the process. If a designer ever tells you that every idea he/she has is good, they’re lying. Our sketchbooks are evidence that we can come up with some ugly stuff. But the thumbnailing stage is really where I get all of the wonky ideas out and start thinking critically about the project. Eventually I start to see patterns emerge. I might start drawing something very similar over and over, but in slightly different ways; that’s my “ah-ha!” moment. As soon as that starts happening, I know that I’m on to something and that will likely become one of the concepts I roll with. I continue until I come up with a few more, and then I sit back and decide which ones I’ll present to you, the client. I generally present three logo concepts, even though I may develop many more. Here’s why: people like choices, but when you give them too many, it can be crippling. I can spend 30 minutes deciding on what peanut butter to buy because there are 5 billion options; this is the same thing. Presenting 3 solid options has always worked out well and I firmly believe it gives you enough to select from that you don’t feel deprived, but not so much that you feel overwhelmed. I usually present the concepts in the form of really clean drawings, which makes it clear that the logo is still in its infancy. Doing digitals straight away sometimes doesn’t give the client the sense that they can still change the specifics (font, shape, color, etc) in the same way that a really nice drawing does. I don’t ever want to stifle what could be by presenting something that looks top permanent. Sometimes it seems necessary to present digitals, though, if the concepts just aren’t being reflected well in hand rendered drawings.

Step 4: Comps

After we talk about what you like and don’t like with the concepts, I go back to the drawing board and make any necessary changes. I present comps in digital form so that you can see that your logo is beginning to take shape. The first set of comps will almost always have several options (we’ll call these sub-concepts). Of those “sub-concepts” you will start to zero in on the final. We may go back and forth a couple of times to get it perfect, but by the end of this step, your logo will have taken shape.

Step 5: Final logo

After you exclaim “YES! THAT’S IT! YOU’RE AMAZING!” to the last round of comp revisions, I’ll do any last minute technical changes, which usually consist of nothing the client actually notices. It’s just final designer tweaks I do to make sure your logo is perfect and will render/print well down the line. Once that’s done, I save the files out in all of the standard formats you may need (jpg, eps, png), make sure to reference your specific colors in a text file, and then package your logo up and ship it to you.

The whole process, from start to finish, usually takes me between 2-4 weeks. Want to see some samples of my successful logo projects? Hop on over to my portfolio and take a peek in the branding section. I have two new logos to upload in the next week or so, so be on the lookout!