Logos are an important part of any company or business, as they are the identity of the company. It is essential to have a strong and memorable logo.

This little mark, made up of image and text, is the face of your company. Everyone will always correlate the logo back to your company so it is vital that you make it a great one. Great logos take time and effort to create and do not magically pop out of thin air. The proper steps need to be taken to achieve the best solution.

Once the proper time and investment has been given to the creation of a logo, you should end up with something that personifies your company and everything it stands for. It takes a lot of hard work, but in the end, having the perfect logo is all worth it.

Below are some of the most common steps it takes to create a logo. Use this as a resource or just to get a greater understanding of the process of a designer.

Debrief

One of the most important steps. It is up to the client to give the designer as much information as possible on what they hope to achieve. All information, no matter how big or small, can be relevant to coming up with the best solution. It is also up to the designer to help guide some of this information from the client because they may not know the perfect words to express what they need.

Research

Once the base information is gathered from the client, additional research should always be done. Look up competitors and see what they are doing; how can you make them stand out from the rest. Who is their target demographic and how can you appeal to them? These are just some questions that should be answered during the research phase.

Inspiration

Gather things that inspire you. Look up images or graphics that can ignite your creative flame and get the juices flowing. Sometimes you may need to create a mood board to gather all your ideas and then you can use it to create a direction.

Sketch

Once you have your research and inspiration just start sketching. Get down any ideas you may have. They don’t have to be perfect; chances are the first ten or so will be terrible because you will usually put down first things that come to mind and they are often the most obvious. The more sketches you do, it forces you to change your approach in order to come up with new ideas and this is when the best ones come out.

Refinement

Once you have all your sketches, it is time to pick some of the best ones and push them further and refine them. This is when you want them to more fully realized. Refine 5-10 of your sketches and make sure they are polished.

Digital (Black/White) 

Time to covert those sketches into digital designs. At this point, there shouldn’t be any major changes to your concepts unless things just are not working out. Typically, unless the company has set colors, these designs are in black and white only. Designing these in black and white makes it so all logos are on the same playing field and color variants don’t sway judgement or create bias towards some of the concepts.

Critique 

This is the hard part for many designers but it is incredibly important. Receive feedback from someone else; someone who has fresh eyes on this project. Receiving feedback or critiques from someone else is vital because they may see some things that look off or could be done better that as a designer you may overlook because of how much you are constantly staring at these designs that you may not notice things.

Narrow

Next it is time to implement some of those revisions and narrow down your designs. You will have to pick the best 3-5 designs to show the client. Providing more than 5 designs can overwhelm a client and make their hard decision in selecting a design even more difficult. So, limit yourself.

Present

The moment we have all been waiting for. Present the logos to the client. If all the information provided by the client and all the extra research was implemented properly into the design, then this should be a home run and the client will select an option. If they do not, take their feedback and once again try to get as much information as possible to limit any further revisions.

Color

Once a logo is selected, it is time for color. Use the emotional color guide if needed. Come up with a few color variations, again, limit yourself, and show them to the client. Once color options are selected you are done!

Congratulate yourself and the client on your new identity!

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