Trying to design a logo?
Faizan Ali Bhatti
Brand Designer at Sapphire Fibres | CSS Design Awards Judge | Design Strategist | Freelance Designer | Independent Photographer | Content Creator & Social Media Branding
Are you trying to design a logo for your business on your own?
Are you a beginner logo designer getting logo designs rejected?
Do you know the dos and don’ts of logo designing?
Context
This blog aims to clarify a lot of myths around logo design. Provide you with a diagnostic system (a tool) to test your logos designs??
Along with it, this blog is written keeping in mind all the non-designers trying to design logos for their business on their own. Follow the approach in this blog and you’ll get logo design basics right without experience.
We are going to discuss
1. What is a logo?
2. Does a logo need to represent the business’s services?
3. Should you redesign your logo and do rebranding?
4. How to create an identity without a logo?
5. What is logo diagnostic’s lab and how to set it up?
I am pouring my experience in designing logos into this blog. I will cover the?concepts in a crisp manner?while discussing a few important points in detail.
Disclaimer (Based on Question 4)
The reason why I have written this blog is that many times startups in their early stage or solopreneurs cannot hire a good professional logo & identity system designer, so they try to design their logo on their own. This blog is a guide written for them.
Here in this blog, I have tried to simplify and provide a few keys ways using which someone with no design experience can design a minimalistic identity system
Towards the end, you will come across a free tool and all resources for learning how to design a logo.
Let’s start ??
Question 1
What is a logo?
A logo is the face of a business.
Face in the human world is key to a person’s identity. That is exactly what a logo is, the “identity of a business”. Nothing more or less. Keep this in mind while making design decisions in process of logo design and your lot of doubts will be resolved on their own
Question 2
Does a logo need to represent the business’s services?
Now, tell me this — Does the face of a person reveal his profession?
Similarly, it is not the job of a logo to tell “What the business does?”
It is not mandatory to design a logo around the business’s services but yes you can pick inspiration or extract a few ideas from it. It doesn’t have to convey the service but can convey the hint of a business idea. Let me show you two examples where one type of logo design is totally independent of the nature of business service and the other has a hint of it.
1. Famous logos which reflect their idea around the business domain
All these logos have been smartly designed which has one or two features about the business domain combined in an interesting manner to form one symbol that acts as a business identity symbol (their logo).
Example 1:
Burger King?has a burger symbol in it
Example 2:
Mister Cutts?depicts a face with glasses and a mustache.
Example 3:
British heart foundation?has a heart symbol with a positive depiction of an echocardiogram.
Example 4:
Le tour de France?depicts the race place when the sun is in the sky. The bicycle is depicting the nature of the race. The Tour de France is a cycling race held in France every year.
Example 5:
Circus of the magazine?has a circus tent at first glance. The tent folds if looked closely and presents the pages of the magazine.
Example 6:
The?Guild of food writers?brings together professional food journalists, broadcasters and authors. The same is presented uniquely but by cutting a spoon in negative space from the nib of the pen. So, beautiful??
2. Famous logos which do not reflect any idea around the business domain
Now, look at all these famous logos none of them talks about their product/service. Nike doesn't have shoes in its logo and the same goes for each of them.
You can choose to design your logo, either way, these kinds of logos require a professional to design a logo mark. Read through and you’ll find a simpler system (in question 4) as well but if you wanna give it a try, then I am attaching a few resources towards the end. Use them to learn how to design a brand mark like the above.
Question 3
Should you redesign your logo and opt for rebranding?
When a logo wins the impression in the minds of people it has already succeeded at its purpose. But as this world is changing, a logo is also required to evolve so that people can feel the business is updated & active.
The logo should evolve and match the pace of changing world. But evolving doesn’t mean changing it completely. Evolving means growing and that is exactly what a logo needs to go through in its life cycle.
The following reasons can lead to a logo design upgrade—
1. Merger of businesses
2. Expanding business into new market segments or new geographical locations
3. Logo design getting outdated or design needs improvement
There can be many more reasons that can demand a logo to evolve but it is not mandatory. It's a choice of authority based on their brand strategy.
领英推荐
You can redesign and up-grade the logo smoothly by—
Transferring the essence of the old design into the new one.
Method:?You can choose to incorporate a similar primary colour or font or an element from the old logo.
Warning?— A logo going through a redesign phase is rare and should be treated carefully.
Why is it important to keep the essence of old design?
Transforming the entire logo design is equivalent to throwing away all hard work done to build an impression in minds of people who have come across your product/service. It takes?time to build brand recognition?and you don’t give that up until absolute necessity.
Question 4
How to create an identity without a logo?
If you or your client doesn’t have enough budget to hire a good logo designer then this?Instagram post?is for you.
You don’t need a logo to establish your business or personal brand identity. All you need is discipline and consistency.
Michael Bierut in his book “How to”?mentions
The key to creating an identity without the logo is “consistency”.
Follow this simple method on?how to tackle business identity ie logo design for a business if there isn’t have enough budget to hire a good logo designer —
Remember what Tibor Kalman said
Important characteristic of a great brand is consistency. This is different from sameness. Sameness is static & lifeless. Consistency is responsive and vibrant.
Now use these choices consistently but do not make them boring. Consistency when paired with creativity goes long way.
Want to see examples?
Observe these famous logos. How simple and impressive are they? Can you do the same with your brand logo? It is not easy to be simple, but you can note down the lessons from these designs and try to implement them for your business no matter if you are a designer or not. You can do that on your own.
Caution
Do not try to be over creative, take simple decisions but implement consistently.
The reason I mention this caution is, that designing simple is hard. Every designer with time and practice learns to simplify their designs. So, I advise you to take easy decisions like using one font and sticking with it.
How to choose a font on your own?
When a professional logo designer chooses a font, they go through the personality of the font. Is it consistent with the tone of a brand personality that they are trying to build?
Before diving into the design part, sit & think about what kind of personality you want your brand to have. Should it be masculine or feminine, casual or professional? Now open Google fonts and observe a bunch of them. Choose the one that appeals and has your desired look & feel.
If you do that much and couple your efforts with consistency, you will have a decent brand identity without even hiring a professional logo designer.
Question 5
What is logo diagnostic’s lab and how to set it up?
Now once you have designed your own logo. You need to pass it through the following checks —
1. Color test
2. App Icon test
3. Balance test
4. Scalability test
5. Slice test
6. Pixelated and Blur test
7. Attention Test
8.?Impression test?— Visit this post?to understand what exactly I personally do to test my logo designs.
A free tool???
Use this one tool ??Logo Lab?to do first 7 of above listed tests and it will take just a few minutes. Just upload your icon and you can visually analyse all the tests.
For budding logo designer
Looking for a reliable source to learn logo designing.
Follow this link?and you’ll have a direction to start with. It will take you from beginner to expert level. I also took this course at the start of my design career.
About Tutor?Chris Do?|?Looking for a free alternative
Youtube Channels you can follow
Books you can read to learn logo design
About me
Faizan is a Pakistani digital designer with 10+ years of experience and an obsession to create better things.
A Pakistani graphic designer, and self-taught artist based in the cities of Lahore and Hyderabad. I have the gift to explore vivid and colorful concepts with deep details and visualize them into physical and digital entities.
I developed a strong intuitive relationship with Art, Graphic Design, Colors, and Beauty from a young age, but it was only at my grad school that I started making it my profession in 2006 that outshone everyone around me. I have a bachelor's degree in Design and Contemporary Arts specializing in communication design.
A skin-changer, I attract great ideas and details – All year long, with passing minute, I gather, I emerge new ideas, and diversified design with the context of art.
I hope I can also contribute to the world of creativity, aesthetics, art, photography, and film, and support all social causes and endeavors, including environmental conservation, cultural openness, social activism, freedom of expression, and all that define true humanity.
Feel free to connect with me if you need any sort of guidance. I do not charge or sell any courses, for now, just here to share my experience.