Since birth I was fascinated with graphic designing. I was amazed by how the colors blend with the shape and the text. My focus was especially on logo designing. Because for me logo seems a representation of a brand. My designing a logo I felt like something worthy. It felt like I did something of value.
When I first started logo designing I was confused about the process. Every time I missed an important detail about the project. But then I started learning about it. In the last 6 years I learned a lot. And that is why I want to share the learning with the world.
Lesson 1: Always start with a kick-off meeting
Before you sit down to design the beautiful art, you need to know everything about the brand. When I did the kick-off meeting it was easy from that point. I sat down with the top-level management to understand the brand values. And how exactly the brand is different from every other brand out there.
The reason for this kick-off meeting is to know everything about the brand and to integrate that in the logo.
Lesson 2: Invest Time in Research & Sketching
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that if you don’t invest time in the research there will be problems for you. You cannot just design logos without doing proper research. You must research on the colors of the brand. Why the brand used certain colors in their branding and what did the different fonts mean?
The branding should reflect the logo design that you’re making. If the branding does not relate to the logo it would be difficult for the customers to make the connection.
Based upon that learning you must start sketching the logo. Don’t rely on one theme. Sketching is your chance to show the world how different you’re and what are your strong points as a designer.
You can invest a little energy on research and figuring out the brand history. Utilize that history in the logo design. The colors, the shape of the design should relate to the brand values.
Lesson 3: How to present Ideas to your client?
A crucial step towards your graphic designing career. You must present ideas in a way that the clients don’t reject them. From experience what I’ve gathered is that present different ideas and categorize your own mockups. For instance, make 3 samples of the design. One okay design. One good design, and one best design.
What I’ve learned is that you cannot predict the quality of the design. What your client is thinking is a different story. You cannot know surely what your client will know. You must present ideas in a form that gives your client to choose the best sample from your work. It is a human tendency to make the right choice from the design that is presented to them. If you give them various quality of design, they will choose one design and go with it.
Lesson 4: Finalizing the logo
When you present the final version of the logo, it is up to you to make the design worth it. You must take out notes from the initial meeting and see that you’ve covered everything that the client requested.
I would suggest that you record the initial meeting of the client so that the client knows what exactly he said and how you have managed to insert everything in the design. Ensure that you’ve done everything that the client requested.
One mistake most of the designers make while finalizing the logo is that they fail to understand the initial meeting of the client and they often miss out some of the things that the client wanted.
Conclusion
It’s okay to design a shitty logo. Because as good writers can write bad posts. Good designers can also design bad designs. But as you learn the design process, you’ll be able to make less mistakes and everything will come in the flow.
The point is to learn every day. You cannot ignore your failures. You must embrace them and learn from them. If you’re able to learn from the failure, it will begin your journey to success. Logo designing is all about learning, re-learning and innovating.