Steps to Design a logo

A logo is a symbol or design used to identify a company or organization, as well as its products, services, employees, etc.

In its simplest definition, a logo identifies. It’s how your company is recognized and remembered among others. It also functions as the face of your business.

Your logo can also be an opportunity to make a statement about your organization.

One caveat is that even though a logo can convey a deeper meaning, it doesn’t have to. In fact, most companies struggling to decide on a logo are simply asking too much of it. All three of our designers agreed most people put too much stock in logos (nerdy design pun intended).

So remember, a logo may play an important role, but it isn’t everything.

A logo isn’t:

• Your brand
  This is a common conflation, but your logo isn’t your brand. And your brand isn’t your logo. Your brand is intangible; it’s your reputation—what people think of when they hear your name, what they tell others about you and how you make them feel. Your brand is built from a thousand touchpoints with your customers—not from a logo.
• Your visual identity
  When new companies or organizations request a logo, a good designer will say, “You don’t just need a logo, you need a brand identity.” Logos are part of the picture, but they’re not the entire thing. They’re just one image within a larger visual system that includes your colors, typography, photography, visuals, layout, etc.
• An indicator of success
  Your logo isn’t going to make or break your business. Enron’s logo was good, but the company’s ethical code wasn’t. Two Men and a Truck is a billion-dollar company, and its logo is a stick figure drawing designed on a napkin by the founders’ mother. The best logo in the world can’t save a corrupt business, nor can the worst logo hold back an honest one.

Now that we’re clear on what a logo can and can’t do, let’s start the design process.

How to design a logo

Here are two things to keep in mind as we dive in:

1. Design is a lot of strategy. Yes, you will have to create something visual at some point. But the lion’s share of the work is strategic, especially at the beginning. Be prepared to do more thinking and decision-making than drawing.
2. You’re not just designing a logo. Remember that the logo is only part of a larger visual system, and its individual pieces all need to work together.

To do this right, you’ll want to work in phases. While every designer’s process looks different, the one we’re going to guide you through has five phases:

• Discover
• Explore
• Design
• Refine
• Define

Every phase has its own goal, process and deliverable. We’ll outline why each phase is important, the series of actions or steps you need to take, and the final deliverable you’re working toward—which you’ll need for the next phase.

Phase One: Discover

Goal

The discovery phase is the “question” phase. Designers use this time to tease out as much context and background as possible to fully understand their client’s company or organization, its values, business, brand attributes, etc. This is also the time to pose preliminary design questions about the desired look and feel, all possible use-cases and any must-haves or special requests.

For you, this will be more of a self-discovery phase. Your goal is to have a solid understanding of who your company/organization is, what you believe in, what you want to accomplish and how you want to get there. Remember, you’re not just designing a logo. You’re shaping your brand identity.

While you may think you know these things, I encourage you to go through the exercise of writing your answers down. My guess is that there’s some things you haven’t considered.

Process

Ask yourself:

• Why do you want and/or need a new logo? What’s the catalyst for this design?
• What is the meaning/story behind your company name?
• Who are your target audiences?
• Who are your main competitors?
• What are your goals for this new logo? How will “success” be measured?
• Who are your 3-5 top brand “role models?” Who’s look and feel do you admire?
• What do you want people to feel when they see your logo?
• What are the values you wish your brand to express?
• What are the unique characteristics of your brand’s personality?

o    For example: Is your brand refined, curious, nostalgic, vibrant, etc?

§  This is a great resource to help you explore this more.

• What will be the main use-cases of the logo/visual system? Social? Website? T-shirts?

o    Context matters!

• Any special requests or must-haves included in the design? If a visual refresh, anything to maintain from the previous iteration?

Deliverable

After you’ve answered these questions, you’ll summarize the answers in a creative strategy that provides a general overview of your business. You might include: your objective for the design process, the tone of your brand, visual considerations and an early vision for the design system and logo, including any themes that surfaced in this phase.

Not only will you use this strategy document to guide your next phase, you’ll also use it to judge your success throughout the process. At the end of each phase, evaluate your deliverables by how well they fulfill the vision established in the creative strategy. When personal opinions and preferences inevitably arise, refer back to this document to stay objective.

Phase Two: Explore

Goal

This is your research phase, but “exploration” sounds more exciting. And it is, we promise. The exploration phase might just be the most fun and—as someone who’s embarking on this design process solo, and possibly for the first time—the most helpful.

Essentially, you’ll be turning your focus outward to encounter and explore design out in the world. Your goal here is twofold: Get educated and get inspired.

Process

Start simple by googling basic design principles. Read up on the fundamentals like style, color, and typography.

Our designers mentioned that certain principles of color theory can be especially helpful for logo design. Different colors evoke different emotions and behaviors, helping you create the desired emotional response from your audience. It’s fascinating stuff, really.

 

For example, blue inspires trust, dependability and authority. It’s no coincidence that blue is a popular choice for banks, credit cards and software. Green evokes feelings of peace, growth and health. Companies like Whole Foods and BP use green in their branding to strategically communicate a level of care for the planet.

Discover which color will elicit the feelings you want from your audience.

Once you’ve got a handle on the basics, start gathering intel. Look first to your immediate competitors, then to your broader industry. Don’t just look at logos. Experience the entire visual system by observing brands across multiple channels, ie. website, different social media networks, etc. Take notes. What elements stand out to you, both good and bad?

Next, look outside your industry. Explore what’s trending among the design community. Look to websites like Dribbble, Behance and Brand New for recent creative work from the world’s leading designers. Search #logodesign or other related hashtags on Instagram. The website 99designs also has a discover page for design inspiration you might find useful.

Deliverable

Create a mood board to collect all the images, designs, color combinations, photos, illustrations and yes, logos, you felt drawn to, and represent the look and feel you want for your brand identity.

If you’re feeling crafty, you can create an actual board by cutting and pasting printed images. But most designers keep it digital. The easiest way to collect is Pinterest, but if you need to share/review easily, just copy and paste your images into a document.

If you’re drawn to several design directions, create separate mood boards for each. Be sure to include short descriptions about how each board’s visual choices express the brand attributes detailed in your creative strategy. Ideally, you’d present these boards to other members of your team or to a decision-maker, and they’d help you narrow down to one direction.

Phase Three: Design

Goal

Finally! The goal here is pretty straightforward: Take all the considerations and inputs from the first two phases and start generating some logo designs.

Process

There’s a lot to consider when approaching how to design a logo:

Tools

Before you start, make sure you have what you’ll need to design:

Pencil and paper

Sketching some preliminary ideas is a great place. Don’t over-complicate this. Design is an iterative process. Even if you think you can’t draw, create rough sketches of the ideas in your head. Your brain will be forced to think creatively—which is exactly the mindset you need.

Vector graphic design software

The industry standard for vector graphics editing software is adobe—but it doesn’t come cheap and isn’t necessarily novice-friendly. You could try out similar free tools.

Why vector? All logos are vector images, meaning that instead of pixels, they’re made up of lines defined by mathematical formulas. Vectors are easier to modify and scale.

 

Free logo design tools

If you’re short on time, money and design skills, there are plenty of online tools that will get the job done. Most of these sites offer customizable templates, which would be the fastest way to create a logo that looks professional. Just keep in mind, you run the risk of sacrificing originality.

One last consideration is that while the following tools are free, you may have to purchase the final, scalable vector file to download