By: Garrett Bolter

Imagine for a moment that you are in charge of running your very own media corporation. You check your e-mail first thing in the morning and… congratulations, you’ve got a new lead! After reading this e-mail, you gather that

  1. The client is requesting your company’s talent in branding their business
  2. This business needs a logo
  3. The client believes your company will succeed in part to prior branding work

It is important to keep these takeaways in mind throughout you and your team’s process in building this design. 

Ready, Getting set with as much direction as possible, Go

If the client mentioned they especially liked a certain project in your portfolio, keep the design principles that went into that design paramount throughout this client’s project. In fact, this is likely the best direction you will receive throughout a project’s lifespan. Take into account as much detail that you feel identifies this “winner” design.

Are you using sans, serif, or both?

Is there stroke on any typography or shapes? 

Is it a ‘sharp’ or a more rounded design? 

All these little questions that the contract-winning design answers for you eliminates all the wasted time you would spend when you could be making strides towards your final edit.

It’s necessary to expect the going to get tough.

In a perfect world, your first design drafts satisfy every single client need and desire but this obviously is never the case. After looking back on how dynamic working with a client can be in mine and other’s projects, I see how a “shotgun” approach to initial edits proves beneficial.

What your first deliverable should look like

Take the time to consider and design versions of the logo that may be something along the lines of:

This approach proves especially beneficial when direction is initially at a bare-minimum state, but will always help you narrow your design choices to what your client’s vision of their brand may be.

How to fast-track your paycheck: the client response edition

Feedback is going to delegate your direction, but you ultimately are making the big decisions from what you can infer from said feedback. If the client leaned toward two designs and shot down a different one, find the similarities in the two they liked and stray from techniques unique to the one they hated. 

Last note on early-stage designs, never delete what the client isn’t immediately sold on: you never know if they misspoke against these, you can reference them throughout the project to stray from their principles and at a bare minimum it’s nice to sit back and enjoy how far the design went from start to finish at the end of the day.

Some last notes on effective designing a logo

There are so many ways to make logos stand out above the rest, but I have always admired simplistic designs more than over-the-top graphics. This is especially essential in logo design, where flashy “look ma, no hand!” designs are memorable, but in the worst kind of way (unless you are an airbrush company selling T-shirts and shark-tooth necklaces on the boardwalk). 

A logo’s purpose is to stamp itself into the viewer’s memory and, sometimes, convey a simple and effective message about why they should employ said company’s services. Nike’s swoosh is effective because of its elegance in simplicity, but a landscaping business would never win a contract if their logo didn’t have a phone number on it.

It’s all about keeping designs in the industry’s scope, dynamic iterations, and lastly being familiar with the software you’re designing on. Always welcome your client’s feedback, carefully consider their input and soon before long your portfolio will reflect your keen eye for design.