Do Your Research

In designing a logo, a good thing to keep in mind is the mark. Will the mark represent your company’s identity without the name or typography? That’s one VERY important step that is most commonly overlooked in creating the logo. Most people jump to the typography before even beginning the mark. In creating a logo, its a good idea to get inspired in your subject. Getting inspired could include walking outside, going to the mall, sitting in a Starbucks…etc. Do your research on your subject! Don’t just open up Illustrator and start drawing lines and playing with color. By doing research, your more likely to produce higher quality work that is not only visually connecting, but also conceptually connecting.

Open up the Sketchbook

Sketching thumbnails of your ideas and concepts enables you to view visually what you’re thinking. Often times I’ll draw a concept and pick out certain parts of one concept and combined them with elements of another concept. I usually will grab a ruler and draw a few vertical and horizontal lines to create thumbnail boxes and sketch out about 8 to 12 thumbnail concepts. It also may be good to dwindle your thumbnails down and elaborate more on the better ones.

Tone and Color Choice

Figuring out the tone of your logo is another thing to consider. Is your logo professional? Innovative? Crazy? Colorful? Moving? It wouldn’t be a good idea to have a rainbow technical logo when you’re representing a company that is straight forward, professional and serious.

Inspiring Logos

Here are a few logos I picked out from logopond that caught my eye. Enjoy!