A logo plays a huge role in how a company is perceived. Logo should be able to be able to adapt to different media and platforms like business card, website, poster and billboards. One of the big rule is to keep the logo design simple. Your logo should be simple too. Think about iconic logos as BBC, CNN and FEDEX. They are all easy to understand.
Your logo work should be relevant and appropriate for the business. For example, if you are designing a logo for transport agency, adding cross icon will be ambiguous. It should be more appropriate for health related organization. Though there are subtle exceptions to the rule. Your ability to prove your point and explain the message behind your choices will prove your point as a designer.
One thing to avoid while creating a logo is trend. Trend always come and go. A logo should be enduring and evergreen. Your ability to create a logo that is timeless helps to distinguish you as a good logo designer. Logo should be unique. It is very necessary you create a logo in black and white version first to see the contrast.
It is also good to focus on one thing while creating a logo. Adding too many ideas and concepts will rather make your logo look overworked and ambiguous.
BEFORE YOU START THE LOGO DESIGN
A good communication with the client will prove effective and help you as a designer to create an iconic logo that your client will appreciate. You also need to know various types of logos. Some important questions includes:
The name of the business
The type of services they offer
The type of customers
The vision and mission of the company
The major competitors and challenges
The cultural and religious implications
It will be also be necessary to know why the company decided to come out with new brand identity (if they already have existing one). A good understanding of the customers, their wants, beliefs and sentiments will also help in the logo design process. You should also know the phrases, slogans and words associated with the company. Take note whether the idea behind the logo is 'playful' or 'creativity' or 'artistic' or 'professional'
As a designer it's imperative to study the company, their customer and market. Analyse their old logos and see the areas that need to be reworked
How Much do I Charge for Logo Work?
This is a question on the lips of most designers. Sometimes when you design, you don't know know exactly how much to charge for your services to avoid being underpaid or charging exorbitantly. It is not even straightforward to answer the question. However some useful tips include:
Your Level of experience and expertise: If you are a seasoned designer with history of stellar works, reputation and strong portfolio, you can bank on this while bargaining for prices. Your price should be bigger due to your reputation. This does not mean that you have to undercharge or work for less if you are less experienced. The truth is that the years of experience as a designer gives you an edge and trust from clients
The Time Frame: If the work is needed urgently, you can charge some extras for the extra efforts you put in getting the work ready as soon as possible
The Financial Situation: You can use your intuition to estimate your potential client. The economic situation determines how much people are willing to pay for your services. You can then use this as yardstick while bargaining. You should find a way of negotiating with low budget clients too.
Extra Services: If you are going to do logo design only, your price will not be the same as full branding. Additional services as business card, web design, stationery design will impact on the pricing. Hence you have to increase the overall cost.
Type of Business: A startup and local business will not be spending so much money on branding compared to a big establishment. Therefore it is easier to create a brand for a small business than a company where you have to go into much research and extensive work. Though the huge fund available means that the time you spend on research and creating logo for big companies are not in vain
Advance Payment: I have fallen victim time after time to clients for not beings able to bargain for advance payment. In my early days as a logo designer, I will jump and start working on a project without proper negotiation and down payment from my clients. It is not a bad idea to do this but you should have an already established relationship with a client before trying this method. Most of the time, if you do not receive part of the payment and you go ahead and design, you might end up not being paid at all. Some clients will develop disinterest and you will lose your time and money.
It is good you negotiate well and collect some percentage maybe 40% or 50% upfront. This will boost the commitment of your client and also save you unnecessary headache.
SETTING OUT FOR YOUR LOGO DESIGN
The most important stage in the design stage involves generation of ideas and your ability to put down your ideas as sketches and then a full logo. You must be ready to research a lot and scribble down thoughts as they flow in your head
Mind Mapping: You write down words, thoughts, ideas and key words associated with your design. Once any idea comes to your head, you write it down. This will help you create a thought cloud. Mind mapping helps us to organize our thoughts, ideas and associate words with pictures.
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| Mind mapping from logojelly.com |
The Sketching Process: After creating the mind map, you then start the sketching process. As a logo designer, it's very important that you have a sketch pad. You are free to sketch as many ideas as possible. Some might be irrelevant and discarded later. Avoid the mistake of starting your design directly on your laptop. Good sketches can give us inspiration and make our design faster.
Your first logo should be rendered in black and white. It will help show the basic form and shape in the logo before adding color to it.
It is important for a logo designer to be in control of the process. Imagine a client telling you to change the color or font you used, and you oblige without explaining or even convincing the client whether the color is inappropriate. This does not mean we do not allow the client to give us their own suggestions or ideas but it is also your work as a designer to be in charge and create original logo and not generic idea that satisfy their client but defeats the whole idea of brand originality.
Avoid the use of raster and pixel based software such as Photoshop and GIMP when creating logos. Logos should be created with vector based software as Illustrator and Corel Draw. They are scalable hence the quality of the logo is retained even with scaled up or stretched
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