Design Pitstop

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While my last article, which linked to Hal’s blog focused on logo design from a client’s standpoint (what to look for in a logo), today’s post focuses on what to do when you, the designer, are creating the logo.  Some of these I’ve learned in school, some of these I learned from others, but all of these “rules” I at one point disregarded until I learned again- first hand- how important they are, and why I was taught them in the first place.

Never show a client a logo that you don’t absolutely love
This is by far the single most important rule if you want the client to go with a logo you like.  It’s also the first rule I had to re-learn.  I got the idea to show  the client the two logos I was liked, and accompany them with a few logos I thought were just silly.  I mainly included them as filler (I was fresh out of school, and thought I needed to show the client a lot of stuff), but I also thought they would make the logos I liked look even better.  Sounds like a good plan, eh?  Well, the client picked one of the silly logos.  And this has happened to every single person I’ve talked to in this position.  Remember, you were contracted for a reason: you have a skill your client lacks.  If you were contracted to design a logo, it’s because they don’t know how to.  They trust your expertise, and part of that is to provide quality work.  If you’re showing them crappy logos, they assume your seal of approval is on them already.  And once they have their heart set on it, there’s no convincing them otherwise.

Show the logos in black and white ONLY
This is actually for three reasons.  One- why would you put all the effort into designing multiple logos in color, if they’re just going to be discarded?  The first client I ever had ended up going through 42 logo revisions before finally settling on one.  The first two sets of 5 were in color, after that I switched to black and white only.  Two- colors will just confuse your client.  I know it sounds silly, but it’s true.  The client will spend more time focusing on color schemes than on how well the logo conveys their brand or image- which is what they should be focusing on.  And finally (and most importantly), about 75% of the time their logo will only be used in black and white, so you need to make sure it looks good that way first.  Remember, settle on a design first, then add color.

ALWAYS design your logos in a vector program
I personally use Adobe Illustrator (honestly, any serious designer should).  Your logo needs to be scalable.  If you’re thinking “it’s just a logo for a website, so I can make it in Photoshop,” stop now.  You never know where that logo will end up.  If two years from now, your client wants to put up a billboard (or even a print catalog), you have to make the logo again from scratch.  If you’re thinking “Illustrator doesn’t have all the filters I need to design the logo I want to,” stop again.  If you’re designing a logo that you want to be effective, you shouldn’t be using those filters anyway.  There are a few rare cases where it’s okay to use them (for example, if you are designing a logo for a film studio, and they want a specific effect to happen when it appears on screen)- you can export it and add whatever effects you want/need to then.  But you will ALWAYS need a vector file of it.

Have only one master
Preferably the one who makes the final decision ;)  If you have to sell your logo to the Seven Dwarves,  the great you sold them on in step one will get chopped, hacked, and mangled as you attempt to please them all.  I once had a client who passed me between 3 different people (each with different backgrounds and tastes) while designing the logo, and I’ve never worked so hard in my life.  Find out who will make the final decision, and work directly with that person.  If they don’t accept those terms, or there is no single decision maker, don’t accept the job.  It might sound extreme, but trust me- your life will be much less stressful that way.

Make the logo work on the nano-scale
They may have no desire to do it now, but what happens to your fancy logo when the client wants to put it on something small, like a pen?  It turns into a blob.  Trust me, nobody wants to be remembered as The Blob.

Don’t be gimmicky
This includes using filters, drop shadows, etc.  That cool new effect you learned how to do in Photoshop (why are you still using Photoshop to make your logo?) will be old and tired next year.  Remember how cool Bullet Time was in The Matrix?  Remember all the movies that did it afterwards?  Now it’s pretty lame, isn’t it?  Leave the gimmicks to the fly-by-nights.  You want your logo to stand the test of time.

KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!)
Look at it this way: Every extra feature you add to the logo makes it harder to remember.  The most effective logos are usually no more than a few simple shapes.  This also goes hand-in-hand with the previous rule about making the logo work at small sizes.  Remember, you’re not creating a work of art, you’re creating a logo: and that means it needs to be easily recognizable, scalable (both up AND down), and make an IMPACT.

Variations, VaRiAtIoNs, VARIATIONS!
Your logo will be used in different formats, and it’s okay to modify the logo to fit those formats.  Remember, the only goal is to make sure that when people see the logo (or part of it), they think of the brand it’s tied to.  It works even better when you design the logo with this in mind from the start.  Of course, the less complex your logo is, the less you’ll need to modify it.

Look to the future
I don’t mean come up with the “next big thing.”  Remember, you’re not creating a gimmick.  I mean think of where the logo will appear.  It won’t always be on a blank piece of paper.  The client will want to put their logo on everything from print ads to television commercials to billboards to trucks.  Will the logo you designed stand out when put next to stunning photography?  Will people recognize it when it passes them at 60 mph on the highway?

Of course if you follow all these rules all the time, you would have a pretty bland logo.  That’s why you’re a designer.  Any effective logo will have a number of these properties; it’s up to you to balance out which ones to keep in mind.  Some are steadfast rules (such as designing the logo in a vector program, or keeping scale in mind), while others you can sometimes let slide (Is your client even in an industry that has shipping trucks to put their logo on?).  In the end the choice is up to you, and remember: Your client is counting on you to make the right one.

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Tags: design, logo design

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