10 Steps to designing a Logo – Graphic Design Logo

Designing a logo could be very simple if only you follow guidelines properly and think creatively as well. When most people think of a brand, they think of a logo, an identity, an icon, or the face representing such business.  looking at it in the real sense, a brand is much more than that (see our guide to completing your brand strategy for more on that). A logo is certainly one of the most prominent pieces of a brand identity, brand identity is what differentiates your business from another. For example, mere looking at the Apple logo on an envelope, laptop, letter head or gadgets etc rings  a bell in your mind, why if i may ask? It is simply because Apple has an idenity that registers in your mind so anything you see those mark, you directly connect with the company ” Apple”

Your Brand Identity is one of the biggest creative challenges—beyond coming up with a brand name, which on its own could be a night mare. How do you brainstorm ideas? How do you know it’s right for your brand? The process is a delicate mix of instinct, skill, and creativity. For example, our brand has helped many businesses bring their logo designs & brand identity to life (or given it new life with a redesign), and each project has us starting from square one—the scariest square actually. But over time we’ve developed a logo design process that makes it easier, even enjoyable, for everyone involved. If you’ve been wondering how to design a logo, gather up ideas or even make that first move, then try this step-by-step guide to flex your creativity, use your team’s collective brainpower, and find something that truly reflects your new or existing business.

But first, let’s discuss the word “logo.” what is a Logo? 

What Is a Logo?

A Logo has three main parts with clear distinctions between them. The first one is the;

Logomark: This is an image. It is preferably. A simple image is used to identify a brand. It could be a simple swoosh like in the case of  Nike or that distinctive Toyota logo. It is usually advisable to keep this part simple and easily recognisable.

The second important part of a logo is.

Logotype/wordmark: This is usually the name of the brand. Styled in a special way that makes it remarkable and Memorable.  The uniqueness of these kinds of words could be in their font or in the way they are placed. Good examples of such can be found in Audi, Coca Cola Or even Gucci.

Combination mark. This is commonly a combination of the image and brand name.  In this case, designers may choose to place the image and brand name side by side, like in the case of Puma.

They used to be a time when branding was highly limited. But that’s not the case anymore. This is especially so with the advent of social media platforms like Facebook.  People have a lot more control over their Business Media, they can as well create their logo from scratch. So how can you make this happen?

How to Design a Logo

The process of designing your logo is not just about the design itself. It is hours and hours of brainstorming and answering questions about your brand both to others and yourself. But to make the procedure easier and increase your chances of finding a logo that is just right, here are the things you need to figure out.

1. Who Needs to Be on the logo creation team?

The position of your logo is not a small one. It is one of the first things that clients and other individuals will meet long before they walk into your offices. The decision of what should and shouldn’t be on it therefore should be made by key stakeholders in the business. These could be key players or decision-makers. The design process itself can be outsourced to a commercial designer, but the key stakeholders in the company such as the founders,  directors and brand strategists should be active parts of the process. Deciding the people who need to be in on this crucial project could be the single most important thing you do for your brand.

2.  Investigate your brand

Some people may also refer to this process as auditing your brand. It is the stage where you take a close look/scrutinize your brand. Creating a logo may be the experience you need to get a feel of your brand from different perspectives other than that of the owner.

At this stage, you’ll have to take into consideration the brand’s mission statement, vision, and the organizational values you’d like to move forward with. You may also find it helpful to use third-party questionnaires or user research processes to understand how the clients/customers perceive your value. Ask yourself; if your brand was an animal, what would it be? What if it was a plant? Now imagine that your brand is a person, what would be their behavioural traits? Attitude to life? Conduct and social etiquette? Answering these questions would help you get a clearer picture of what your brand stands for and are thus better able to present your brand in an image, or word.

3.  Put together a creative brief

The fact that you aim to bring along the entire stakeholders means that you will get a lot of dissenting opinions and this can slow the creative process through confusion. How do you prevent this? Create a brief. This will serve as a guideline as to the general direction you intend to take in the logo creation process. The more specific you can be, the better. But you don’t have to have it all figured out, you just need to get a good idea of what the logo will NOT  be and what it could be.

Your creative brief is a product of the compression of all the information you got from your brand investigation. The creative director will draw up a brief and share it with all other members of the team.

4. Brainstorm session

Now that we have a brief, the next thing to do is to create a brainstorming session with all the stakeholders present. This process can be fun if your team is well trained and ready for the experience. But it can also prove to be tedious if not well handled as multiple situations of disagreements come up. Not that the most assertive ideas will not necessarily be the best ones, and it would take a trained eye to see through situations. You can divide the sessions into episodes, or you could just have multiple brainstorming sessions, you could create goals for each of these sessions that will guide you towards realizing the overall goal.

5.  Sketch

A strong indication that your brainstorming session was successful is your ability to come up with some sort of composite sketch afterwards. This sketching process is a brainstorming session on its own and all the key stakeholders will still be useful, even if they have no design or art background. The goal isn’t to cram all the information you have gathered into a picture or word. The goal is however to find an image that inspires the public to have the opinion of your brand that you want them to have. Shapes, colour, lighting, and font in letters communicate feelings. Indeed, this is the whole assignment. To translate the feelings you want people to have of your brand into an image. You will need your Creative director(s), project manager, and designers.

6.  From  Sketches to Vectors

If you have created enough great prospective logos, this is the time to finetune them to see what works and what doesn’t. this part is best done in monochrome as it is a good way to recognize good graphic designs. Without the distractions of colours.

7.  Presentation

At this stage, you can screen out all the graphic designs that don’t work and present the ones that do work to the stakeholders. This is where you get to infuse colours. Preferably a set of previously chosen company brand colours. The presentation should feature the design from different angles and sizes.

8.  Application

It will also help to have the logos applied to real-life appliances to test their acceptance. From billboards to mugs and even pens, brand some things with different versions to see what is most accepted

9.     Revise your work

This involves taking the feedback from the previous step and using that to make adjustments and corrections in the graphic design. From fonts to colour or size, this is the time to perfect your work.

10.  Perfection

With the revisions out of the way, you can print more live samples and unveil your company’s logo at a small or grand event. It is entirely left to you. You can decide to run the new logo by friends and close associates to get their impressions on how it has all turned out. If you have followed these steps carefully, however, you most likely have ended up with something impressive.

Let the professionals do it

Now, this whole process might seem cumbersome. The good news is that it can all be outsourced. Design Kage is an expert and professional brand design agency that takes every client seriously and handles all projects with respect. With us, you wouldn’t have to worry about the nitty-gritty of getting your amazing and expressive brand logo. You would have the best graphic designers, who don’t just do graphic design but advocate for your business through our designs. We take your expressed thoughts and business identity and project them in the most expressive images possible. Contact us today and let’s get started building that logo that will take you and your brand everywhere.