Wanna design a logo like a professional? Lemme tell you one thing... designing logo can turn out to be hectic, if you don't act smart. Here are some tips that would help you to design a professional logo, without any help.
1. Learn What A Logo Is & What It Represents
Before you design a logo, you must understand what a logo is, what it represents and what it is supposed to do. A logo is not just a mark - a logo reflects a business’s commercial brand via the use of shape, fonts, colour, and / or images.
A logo is for inspiring trust, recognition and admiration for a company or product and it is our job as designers to create a logo that will do its job.
One must know what a logo is before continuing.
For further reading on what is a logo check out Wikipedia’s Definition.
2. Know The Rules & Principles Of Logo Design
Now that you know what a logo is supposed to do, and what it should represent you now must learn about what makes a great logo aka; the basic rules and principles of logo design.
1. A logo must be describable
2. A logo must be memorable
3. A logo must be effective without colour
4. A logo must be scalable i.e. effective when just an inch in size
For further reading on the rules and principles of great logo design I highly recommend to read the logo design tips from Logo Factory before continuing. You may also wish to read How NOT To Design A Logo.
3. Learn Off Other’s Successes & Mistakes
Successful Logos
Now you know what the rules of logo design are, you can distinguish the difference between a good and a bad logo… By knowing what other logos have succeeded and why they have succeeded gives a great insight into what makes a good logo.
For example, lets look at the classic Nike Swoosh. This logo was created by Caroline Davidson in 1971 for only $35 yet it still a strong, memorable logo, effective without colour and easily scalable. It is simple, fluid and fast and represents the wing in the famous statue of the Greek Goddess of victory, Nike - something perfect for a sporting apparel business. Nike is just one of many great logos, think about other famous brands that you know about and check out their logos - what makes them successful?
For more quality, lesser known logos I recommend checking out Logo Of The Day or going to your local book store or library and looking at a logo design book.
The Not So Successful Logos
We can also learn off logos that have not been as successful such as the ones in the above picture. As seen in that post linked, some logos can depict things that may have not always be noticeable to the designer (as in the middle logo above) or they could just be plain bad design, as in the logo to the right.
4. Establish Your Own Logo Design Process
Now that we know what a logo is, what the principles and rules of logo design are and what makes a successful logo we can now finally begin the design process. This it hardest part of the 5 steps and is its own topic in itself - Each person’s logo design process is different and experience usually is the key factor in creating your own logo design process.
In short, a logo design process usually consists of
- The Design Brief
- Research & Brainstorming
- Sketching
- Prototyping & Conceptualising (See Step 5)
- Send To Client For Review
- Revise & Add Finishing Touches
- Supply Files To Client and Give Customer Service
5. Learn The Software & Complete The Logo
After you have got your design process sorted out, it is usually a good time to begin mastering your software (Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard) but remember you can’t design a logo by just hopping straight onto the computer… brainstorm and sketch first.
After you have got your initial ideas and sketches from brainstorming you can then usually jump onto the computer to start digitising your logo. After you have got a great concept(s) digitised you can send it to your client, get revisions, and eventually complete the logo and thus, you have successfully created a professional logo.
Do you have any other tips or suggestions on how to make a professional logo?
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