Every business, company, product or even a personality may have a logo. A logo identifies a company by the use of a symbol, mark or signature. It doesn’t necessarily need to describe a business does (but, it does sometimes help); it should represent the company’s story and brand. Through colours, fonts and artwork, they provide essential information about a business that allows customers to relate to the company’s core brand.
A logo, emblem, trademark, a symbol will stand as the “face” of your company, so it is essential to understand everything there is to know about a logo.
Meet with Client
You have a client who needs a logo for their business. I find it helpful to come prepared for the first initial client meeting. Do some research if you can online or ask around about the company or person. Creating logos isn’t easy, especially when working with particular clients. So, the better prepared about the client’s type of business or industry does go a long way. For example, I know nothing about biomedical engineers. A client will likely tell me what they or the company do. But, I may want to do some research before the first meeting too, so I can ask relevant questions to better equip myself for designing the logo.
Gather information
Ask questions about the business. From his/her company type, mission, target audience, competitors and other important details. How about colours and typeface that fit there a brand? Which logos resonate with you. The last question doesn’t have to be logos from companies in the same field—may be, there was colour or font that clicked with the client. As well, you could ask about their design ideas to get better results according to them.
Give an Estimate
The most critical thing to consider when creating a logo design is the budget of a client. A small mom and pop shop is different from a big corporate company of 10,000 employees. If you estimate a logo design to be $100 to a large corporate business, what type of logo design are they getting from you? A logo design could costs from $1000 to thousands of dollars.
Buyer beware of those who use free online tools to Fiverr. You pay what you get. As a designer, you will need to do the work to be successful in designing logos.
Contract? Letter of Intent? Engagement Letter?
The client agrees to your estimate. One should always protect themselves by getting the client to sign a legal document. One could search online and get free templates on contracts. But, let’s be honest—do you know the legal terminology in these contracts? If you don’t, and a client asks you about the agreement, it does look unprofessional if you can’t even explain the agreement.
What works well is a letter of intent or engagement letter. The ‘letter’ is treated as a contract; it could be ruled binding in the court of law if the client doesn’t pay you for your work. And that’s the whole point, getting paid for your time.
For the letter of intent or engagement letter that I have done in the past, this is what I include:
- What I Will do
- What I Won’t Do
- Services Outside the Scope of this Letter
- Fees and Timeline
- Approvals
Fees?
Within the letter of intent or engagement letter, I do put in my fees and payment schedule. Up to you if you want to place the charges and payment schedule. The rationale is I want this as part of a binding contract if it comes to that if the client refuses to pay—get it in writing, protect yourself.
Ask the client to scan you a copy of his/her signed letter. Or ask them to email you a copy. Once it is received, you can now schedule the client’s project and start the job. If the client doesn’t sign the letter, then do NOT begin the logo design project and move on from the client.
Getting Started with the Logo Design
With the information gathered from your client meeting, it’s time to do further research if need be. Look at the industry and competitors, look at possible solutions and get those creative juices flowing. Organize your information. One of the ways to organize or brainstorm ideas is to use mind mapping. A mind map is a great way to visually and represent ideas and concepts. Not only that, but it helps to structure information, analyze this information, and generate new ideas.
Drawing a Mind Map
- In the landscape orientation, start in the middle of a blank page. Write or illustrate the idea you propose to design.
- Connect related topics around this topic by connecting each of them to the center with a line.
Use Mood Boards
The official term for a mood board is a way to collect different creative information to prepare for a new project. We can go digital and use sites such as Storyblocks, Google Images, Shutterstock, and so forth that are like a mood board. Enter the topic in the search field to give you inspiration.
Sketch Your Ideas
Sketch your ideas to work efficiently to clarify proper visual solutions. Going digital? Go ahead and use a tablet such as an iPad, Surface or Note and draw with a stylus or pencil. The whole idea is to get a rough drawing down on paper or tablet.
Clean it Up
Bring in your drawn idea to your computer. Either scan it or send yourself an email to get this drawing placed into your vector-based software. I use Adobe Illustrator, a graphic-driven software used for creating vector graphics such as logos and infographics.
Place your logo into Illustrator and re-trace your logo. Colour and create a typeface for the name of the company or business.
Presentation
Present concepts to your client. Explain the rationale if needed. There may be changes to the logo. Do the revisions, and present to the client again. Keep on revising the concept, so it meets the goals outlined.
Format
Yah, the client loves your logo design. Save the logo into the many different formats such as AI, PDF, SVG to PNG, and JPG.