To illustrate this entry we are going to suppose that your name is Carlos Robles and that after having asked you all the questions we mentioned, you have concluded that:
- You want a logo geared towards your personal brand.
- You want something minimalist but symbolic.
- You will use it on the web and in print.
- You want it to convey elegance and sobriety.
- Since you want to be a freelancer, you hope to reach end clients.
These 5 points are your roadmap and you should keep them in mind at all times from now on. Do not forget. And whenever you have doubts, come back here and ask yourself if what you are designing corresponds to your briefing.
When you do this task for a client you have to adapt to the profile of their company and the sector in which they compete. There will be times that you have not designed anything for that sector and your ideas will be more "fresh".
For example, if you have never designed a logo for a construction company, surely you will have more diversity of ideas than if you face your eighth logo for a company in that sector. Logical.
What happens when you are looking for ideas for your logo? Well, you 've already seen a thousand logo designs from other designers and all you can think of are light bulbs, pencils, brains, etc. I'm wrong?
That is why I advise you to seek help. Ask someone to help you brainstorm, they might come up with something that will spark the spark.
For our example I have quickly brainstormed ideas with my girl and these are the terms that we have come up with: Tree, strength, robustness, calm, shadow, style, tie ... and of course light bulb, pencil and brain.
We started well, looking for sketches that meet the requirements that we have proposed, but suddenly we come up with ultra original ideas, we begin to explore creative lines that move away from the marked path, we look for one more twist and when we want to realize those sketches already not even close to what we really need .
These are some sketches that I have come up with for Carlos Robles with the 5 points of the briefing in mind and the words that have come out of the brainstorming.
When you have the "final" designs, look for the typography. Choose it as you would for any other design, it has to fit in with the rest of the set and convey the same values. If you want to convey elegance and sobriety, don't choose a comic type, for example.
The best logo design hill USA is practically finished so it is time to see if it is everything we expect . To verify this, we take the 5 fundamental points that we get from the briefing:
- You want a logo geared towards your personal brand. I could have opted for other ideas that would inspire more creativity but I chose the sketches I chose because I preferred the visual element to have to do with the designer's first or last name.
- You want something minimalist but symbolic. There was an idea that I liked, how to integrate a light bulb into an oak, a pencil-tie and things like that, but in the end if you are looking for something minimalist, symbolic and that reinforces the personal brand, I choose oak. To dry.
- You will use it on the web and in print. As it will not be only for the web, I have done it in flat colors. No gradients or other elements that make printing difficult.
- You want it to convey elegance and sobriety. I have looked for the finish to be clean and elegant. Sobriety is already provided by the tree itself.
- Since you want to be a freelancer, you hope to reach end clients. Maybe if he had done it thinking about being hired by a design agency he would have chosen to include an element that inspired more creativity, or maybe not. The fact is that it seems to me to be a fairly correct result and that it transmits my values to the client I aspire to.
With all these reasoning, you end up deciding between the sketches you have, in this illustrative example I would choose the one of the tree.
For now ...
When you think the design is finished, leave it alone for a few days.
After a reasonable time, look at it again. Does it convey what you want? Do you still like it as much as the day you finished it? Is there something that squeaks you? These questions will help you to know if the logo will last or if within a week you will want to change it.
Due to your own creative nature you will get bored of it, for sure. But don't change it. Remember what a logo is for. It has to identify you, make you recognizable, be memorable.
If you change it within 6 months you will lose the brand identity that you would have gained in that time and you will have to start from scratch .
The really important thing is that people recognize you.
Trust your logo and create your identity around it. You will get better results with a correct logo that identifies you for 10 years, than with 10 exceptional logos that you change every year.
And finally I leave you a few examples of logos "unlucky", take a good look at them and, when you design a logo, either for yourself or for your client, try to do the opposite.
