logo design process

news | August 26th, 2010 | 1 Comment

remember these? well, the client liked it so much that they decided to come back to me and rebrand the company as well! how cool is that? it’s one of the few projects where i actually started out sketching my concepts on paper, so i thought i would share them with you and throw in the concepts i fleshed out in illustrator too. hopefully ill get to keep you posted on the whole process from start to finish!

so here we go. first things first. client agreement form:
always have something to fall back on. if things get ugly and the client doesn’t follow what you agreed upon when you first started, it’s always good to have something on paper that is signed. not only does it prevent a lot of hassle later on, but it also sets expectations early on so that you can have a nice friendly relationship throughout the job. my worst jobs were ones that i forgot to send them a client agreement to sign and get back to me.

1/2 payment down before doing anything:
make sure you have them dedicated to the job. it’s the worst when you’ve worked your butt off and someone runs away with your designs without maying a penny. and you’ll be surprised. it happens way more often than you think. have them pay 1/2 up front. it’s not only typical freelance procedure, but shows you that they are serious about the project.

send them a brief:
i send all of my potential clients a general brief that has a lot of questions and example answers. This let’s them process the whole project before you even start, which can help in the long run. They have a better understanding of what they want and you have a better understanding of what they want too.

ready to start!
now you’re ready to begin. this is where you let your client know when to expect concepts. it’s always a nice polite thing to let them know when they should be expecting something to see, and i think it gets them excited for your work too. suspense is an awesome tool. from here, make sure you keep your client in the know. having them involved in the design process is huge. it not only helps them feel like they own the design in the end, but they also provide you with a lot of feedback, ideas, and facts about the company that you might not have gotten back when you sent out the brief. it’s also just a great opportunity to build friendships and stronger relationships. Here are a few sketches of concepts i worked on, making sure that i stayed within the brief. they wanted simple, techy, clever concepts that incorporated some sort of 3d or depth and of course, related to the name. normally, i conceptualize right in illustrator, but since it was sunny, i sat outside and drew these :) (notice i did a little bit of mind-mapping too. it helps a lot!)

and from there, i took my 4 favorite designs, fleshed them out in illustrator, and presented them to the client. once they pick their favorite, that’s where we will begin refining the logo. here are a few that i did:

so far this is where i’m at with my client. they have time to think things through, compare the concepts side by side, and think about what they’re looking for and what represents them the best. if theyre unhappy with the 4 concepts, then (this is where the client agreement form comes in) they pay $50 extra for additional concepts, which i stated in the agreement form.

One Response to “logo design process”

• Inge Trewin
  October 12th, 6:58 am
  

  Myself and my father had been discussing this the other day. Thank you for the evidence that I had been right and today I can about this!

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