My Entire Logo Design Process: How I went from a meeting, to design development and refinement, to ecstatic client

I recently uploaded an article about a logo design I did for Empty Properties UK who are an unconventional company who’s main aim is to get empty properties back into use again. I've had conversations with the client, fellow designers, friends, and my network on LinkedIn, regarding my decisions I made for the design of the logo. So I thought it would be a great idea for me to share the design process but also the process of dealing with the client (no worries they were great and understanding :)

The first step in the process was to speak to the client in person and ask them about themselves, their business and for what they were looking in the design of the logo. It was a very casual conversation and got a good sense of the business which is very unique and exciting as there is a lot of potential for them to grow and succeed. Later that day I sent an email to the client with 50 questions, yes 50, to get an even better understanding of their company, aims, target audience, social media, current branding, and design preferences. The client answered all questions which was awesome but more importantly the answers gave me a true detailed insight into what they had to say about their company and what they wanted.

The one question and response that triggered my creative brain was from question number 23:

Q: What are the values and/or mission statement of your company?

A: To get Britain's empty properties back into use again.

What stood out to me from the answer was 'back into use again'. As obvious as it seems this is what I said to myself, 'so it's properties that are empty and need to be reused / fulfil their purpose.' By braking it down word by word I started to sketch logo ideas.

These are the main logo sketches that showcase the main ideas I had. To be honest coming up with new ideas was quite tricky. I didn't want to create just a logotype as it would simply blend in with competitors and generally with logos in the property sector. Having a logomark with the type would be a better combination as it would have more personality and hopefully connect with the client's target audience who are looking for a friendly and approachable company to whom they can sell their unused properties to.

I believe that it is very easy to add the initials of a company or brand to the logo, I personally have nothing against it and in some cases it simply works, but in this case my thought process was this, 'the name is long already and having additional letters in the logo might be too overwhelming'. Though the strongest idea I had included initials, it's the third sketch in the second row. The 'E' and 'P' have been put together with the negative 'E' representing the 'empty' aspect of the business name and the negative space under the sharp 'P' has been used to create a property.

When I'm working on a project I always tend to be thinking about it, whether that's about new ideas, improvements etc. and this can be whilst watching TV for example. In this case I was at my cousin's house having dinner with the family. There were drinks on the dining table and a juice bottle was in my view, above (forgive the blurry picture) you can see the label of the bottle which was facing me. The recycle logo caught my attention and thought how appropriate it is with the logo I'm currently designing as it is about 'reusing'.

The logo sketch at the bottom right above, shows the final logo sketch which incorporates the idea of using the negative space to create a property and the concept of reusing / recycle.

Designing the logomark was challenging due to the property aspect of the mark. This image will give a better idea of what I mean:

There were many variations but I've just picked a couple to explain the choices I had to make. The biggest challenge was actually choosing the right size and angle of the arrow as this subsequently affected the angle and height of the roof. The first variation shows the thickness of the circle which I was happy with but decided to use a thinner thickness for the wall and roof of the house to highlight it more. The geometry of the house looked good but it looked inconsistent with the thickness of the lines.

The second variation I tried a smaller arrow size and a smaller door which has been moved up to continue the circle in a way. The house and arrow overall looked too small.

The third variation is the final one. The lines are all the same thickness, the arrow has been moved up to allow space for the roof and the negative space between the arrow and the left side of the roof allow negative space to fill the gap for the right side of the roof.

These were other logomark variations that I tried out:

I saw the opportunity to add a sun within the negative space of the circle as I thought this added more to the friendly and approachable vibe the company was aiming for. To be honest I liked it especially the middle variation but quickly realised that logo design is about being simple as possible and taking away elements rather than adding whilst still getting the whole idea across. So I left these variations and went back to the previous one and developed it.

This is the final logomark explained:

Above you can see the initial final logo with two variations I sent to the client. For the typefaces I chose Montserrat and Montserrat Alternates, and the reason being they looked sophisticated and contemporary. The 'empty' part of the name combines two fonts being Montserrat Extrabold and Montserrat Alternates Extrabold. I put the two together because from Montserrat Extrabold the capital letters were all standard but from Monsterrat Alternates Extrabold uniquely it had some lowercase letters as capitals. When combined they looked more friendly but still had that maturity and professionalism.

From the final outcome article I uploaded on a LinkedIn design page I received a response as I was asking for feedback. The person was polite with questioning my decisions and wanted more explanation to get a better understanding of the logo design, which I was more than happy to do so. One of the main things I was questioned on was the reason for using lowercase 'm' and 'y' in 'empty' and this is the answer I gave:

"The lower case 'm' and 'y' I believed added a softer and friendlier look and feel to the identity of the company who's aim is to get empty properties back into use. There are two audiences they're targeting on one side you have people who are looking at approachable companies to whom they can sell their properties to. This is where I thought the softer and friendlier side of the logo is necessary. On the other side you have the investors who the client is focusing on too, this is where the upper case letters give a more mature and professional look." My answer was well received, and I was happy with myself for being able to justify my decisions.

For 'Properties' and 'UK' I used Montserrat Bold. I was buzzing with how the typographic aspect of the logo was all boxed within a rectangle considering how tricky the kerning process was which took its time. The way 'UK' sat under the 'y' was great but in general I was proud of how I managed to present the name of the company.

One of the questions regarding design preferences was:

Q: What colours or colour palettes do you like and why?

A: Orange, green, yellow, white… These are the type of colours on our page and it looks ok so far.

From the answer given I had a colour palette in mind but when designing logos or design work in general I have colour psychology in mind. Looking at the other answers I was given from the questionnaire, I picked out the keywords regarding how they would describe themselves and how they would like their clients to describe them, the best colour choice from this was blue. Blue has many psychological meanings such as professionalism, integrity, sincerity, calm, authority, success and trust.

I used blue specifically navy as the background colour and incorporated orange and white as the client liked the colours but also it worked well with the navy to make the logo look sophisticated, professional but also friendly overall. I went through various different shades of blue and orange but stuck to Pantone colours as it would make printing easier but also it gave me colour options to choose from.

I showed the initial final logo design in person, the client didn't initially get the idea behind the logo but with a little explanation they understood it and backed the whole idea. This was another learning curve because when I showed the design to friends and family which included both designers and non designers, they immediately identified the two main elements of the logomark without me explaining or saying anything but there were one or two who needed convincing. This is where I questioned the logo design but from the feedback I received from the people who had seen it, I stuck to it and refined the logo as much as I possibly could to allow the elements of the design to be recognisable.

One point that the client made regarding the text part of the logo was that they were worried with 'properties' and 'uk' being too small in size and 'empty' being too big. Another concern was that people might not instantly know it's a company in the property sector. I gave my reasoning for the decisions I made, I wanted it all to look balanced which meant giving it a boundary and sticking to two lines of text, wanted the focus to be on the unique word in the name being 'empty', and believed the colours used helped with the hierarchy.

The more I looked at the logo the more the client seemed right to me. Maybe working on the logo for so long and looking at it for so long, my initial design seemed right in my view. My biggest concern was that due to the amount of words in the name it would look overwhelming visually. In order to move forward and finish the logo off to the best of my abilities I simply put my concerns to aside and took the client's feedback onboard.

Above are the final outcomes. I made 'properties' bigger and matched it with the width of 'empty'. The only option for 'UK' was to put it underneath everything but there was negative space besides it now. I added two bars to fill in the gap which ended up aiding in highlighting both 'properties' and 'UK' which worked out great but it also tied in with the line style logo.

Designing this logo was extremely challenging but from the get go was looking forward to it as I had never designed a logo for a company in the property sector. Inspiration can be found anywhere especially online but it's funny how in the real world when not looking at a screen we tend to find more interesting things, in my case a recycle logo on a juice bottle, what are the chances? Taking in feedback from a client is vital and I always knew that but this is the first time where I've experienced more practical feedback where I needed to make changes. Instead of complaining or trying to bombard the client with rational for choices made, simply respond to the client with the changes they asked for. For me the feedback was what I needed to improve the logo and create the best version of the logo that I could, that now fulfils the client's needs.

Lastly I would like to finish off by thanking Empty Properties UK for giving me the opportunity to design their logo and I'm extremely glad that they are truly happy with it.

Arun Mehmi