Logo Designing: Steps involved, tips, advices

Feb 14, 2012

Poornima Ramachandran
By Poornima Ramachandran

Sorry, this is not a direct question concerning e learning. But I am assuming that like our team, most of you might be the `Jack of all Design Trades' in your offices.

Here is the situation - Our organization is soon going to become an independent entity that can serve not just our current client alone, but any third party. So as we venture into the marrket, we will need an independent logo and template design.

Our team has been asked to come up with a plan for this. We can, however, take the help of agencies.

I understand that the logo designing process usually starts with a survey, asking people (including employees, suppliers, customers / prospective customers) on their perception on the company.

If any of you happen to have a readymade survey questionnaire that you don't mind sharing, great!

And ANY tips or advices too... Our team is a total novice on this mission.  

13 Replies
Natalia Mueller
12 years ago02/15/12 at 8:03 am (UTC)

This may not be what you're looking for, but if it's in your budget, you may seriously consider hiring a vendor that specializes in Logo design. I don't know about about the questionnaire element, but I do know a good designer/company would spend time interviewing you about your organization and come back with several options to choose from and would then make revisions based on your feedback.

This is truly an unbiased opinion. I am not a logo designer and don't even know what they're officially called. I just know that your logo is a big deal. It's part of your first impression to clients. If ever there's a time to spend the money on a pro, it's for something with that big of an impact on your organization.

Good luck to you!

blair parkin
12 years ago02/15/12 at 11:17 am (UTC)

Hi Poornima

I think you are heading in the right direction. For an internal logo we created we actually ran a competition with all of our staff to come up with a logo design that they felt represented the department. We then took the winning design to a proper designer to create. Just an idea for getting things off the ground, and makes the staff feel like they are involved in the process

Blair

Geoff Campbell
12 years ago02/16/12 at 7:21 am (UTC)

Remember This:  The Logo does not need to contain a picture of an object associated with your business. It may, but it does not NEED to.

Many non-designers get caught up in a very literal sense of imagery when thinking about logos, but if you think about it many major brand logos don't follow this kind of thinking.  Does the Nike logo have shoes in it? Does the Apple logo have a computer in it? Does the McDonald's logo contain a hamburger? In spite of this,  we all know exactly what these logos stand for.  You get the idea. A logo just needs to be a unique graphic identifier, that, in the context of a larger branding strategy becomes the recognizable symbol for your brand. 

The problem with starting with a group brainstorm is that the initial results will likely yield a lot of very literal logo types containing real world objects.  The logo does not need to explain your business to people, it needs to become a recognized symbol associated with it.

I would suggest that you start with the professional designer first and then have your staff help select the final version. You will likely end up with a much better result.

Check out David Airey's fantastic logo blog, logodesignlove.com for more ideas.

David Steffek
12 years ago02/17/12 at 8:32 am (UTC)

Along the lines of Geoff's comments, i'd like to add that the logo doesn't need to be overly complex, either. A quick look at the top 100 below shows that the majority of the logos simply state the company name in stylized font. And others (like Nike, Apple, Pepsi) are simple shapes of only one or two solid colors.

http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/best-global-brands-2008/best-global-brands-2011.aspx

Another thing to consider is legibility at all sizes. A thin, swirling cursive font might look elegant at a large size, but how will it look on a business card? Or as a thumbnail on the web? Or on a mobile device? 

And you can keep it simple and still be clever, such as the arrow indicating "everything from a to z" in the Amazon.com logo, or the negative space arrow in the FedEx logo.

So don't try to overthink it. Imagine if Apple Computer, Inc. had incorporated an image of a Mac into their logo. Given how they've evolved, that logo would have less relevance to their current presence.

Bob S
12 years ago02/17/12 at 1:14 pm (UTC)

Certainly not my specialty (not even close!), but you may find it helpful to remember to have your agency create versions of the log with and without various text options.

For example, the McDonald's arches with their name halfway across, arches with nothing, arches with a specific division or project team underneath it.

Your logo will be used in many ways in the years to come. Make sure you pick one you like with and without varios text treatments.

Hope this helps,

Bob

Don Hernandez
12 years ago02/24/12 at 7:11 am (UTC)

Hi Poornima,

Crowdsourcing works great for logo designs, and there are several companies that I've had great experiences with. The process usually works something like this:

Fill out a design brief telling them what you want and what you don't want

Tell them how much you're willing to pay

Reject submissions you don't like and make refinement suggestions to the ones you do like

Select the winner, receive the files and IP

You can usually get 50 to 100 submissions for about USD 300, especially if you guarantee payment. I always recommend guaranteeing payment because the amount of submissions you'll receive will be about triple that of a non-guaranteed contest. Here are two companies that I can recommend based on personal experience: www.99designs.com and www.choosa.net.

There are many more sites out there that provide these services, but these are the only ones I've personally worked with. This is where we got the logo and buttons for the LearnCreate website.

All the best,

Don

Lucy Suros
12 years ago02/29/12 at 2:13 pm (UTC)

Hi Poornima,

Many graphic designers will do logo designs at very reasonable prices. For logo design, I like folks with strong illustration skills. While many logos are just type treatments, some of the best ones have illustrated elements. Dribbble.com is a great place to hunt for designers. You can see thumbnails of work -- those designers available for hire have little envelopes on the tops of their profiles.

As for questions for your company, I would suggest pinpointing the attributes that make your company unique -- and what emotions/thoughts you want to evoke with your logo. You might ask folks things like:

* If our company was a person, what would his/her personality be?

* What attribute is most important to convey to our constituents? For example, expertise, leadership, trustworthiness, friendliness, etc.

* What does our company do better than any other company?

* What do we want to be known for?

Answering these types of questions can help you narrow down what feel your logo should have -- and this will be helpful to your graphic designer.

A good designer with experience doing logos will be able to guide you through these types of questions. And if you company has any brand guidelines, that will help the artist, too.

Hope this helps!

Lucy

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