Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute The Logo design process It's imperative that you understand your customer's target market before you even begin to think about designing a logo. –If it's an older audience or children, for instance, you may need larger fonts. –If it's lawyers or financial institutions, you'll want a very conservative design. –If it's ‘the youth’, you can get a bit more wild and crazy.

Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute Gathering information If you are able to, pose some questions, but don't be surprised if they have a tough time answering them — many companies never give any consideration to just who their target market is: –What is the average age of your target market? –What level of education do they have? –What gender is the majority of your target market? –Is there a certain ethnic group you're targeting?

Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute Gathering information –Describe the benefits of your company/product/facility –What is the most important benefit to your customer? –What is your USP (unique selling point)? –What are the strengths & weaknesses of your competitors? –What images/symbols do you want to be associated with? –What images/symbols do you not want to be associated with? –Do you want a logo mark (graphic) or an all text logo? –When someone looks at your logo, what is the first thing you want them to think? –How will the logo be used? (in print, on the Web, signage?)

Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute Font selection Start by selecting a font or fonts, and write down the names of the ones that I think will be appropriate for the logo/style/impression Once you’ve decided on fonts (there are no set number, just whatever takes your fancy), start setting the company name. Start by set it in all caps, in lowercase and caps, as many variations as I can think of. Then begin assigning the fonts you have chosen to each and every variation. Next print it out; don’t skip this step, it's very important. It's amazing how good something can look on your monitor, only to look very bad printed.

Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute Be inspired You may have ideas for the logo just overflowing your brain. Or you may need some inspiration. Look through the following to get the creative juices flowing: –Logo books –Stock Photography libraries –Clipart –Magazines –The phone book –Other Designer's Portfolios online or otherwise

Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute Sketch thumbnails You must start with sketching a thumbnail, rather than moving right to the computer. Although your end customers may almost never see the thumbnails it is important to mind map/brainstorm the ideas over and over. Remember they are expected to be very rough, which is part of why the customer never sees them or sees a re-worked version.

Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute Select the best thumbnails Hopefully you've developed a lot of thumbnails. You should try for around 10, if you can manage it 30+ shouldn’t be a problem Get as much feedback from family, friends, and team members at this point, honesty is important (but keep it constructive.) Sometimes the 1st idea is the strongest. Then take your best 3 to the next stage!

Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute On the computer Depending on how detailed your sketches are, this may be as simple as scanning in and tracing, or you may need to start from scratch. You may find that once you start playing with the logo on the computer, it takes on a life of its own. Aim to keep in Mono-toned at this point and small.

Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute Refine and add colour When you've refined your logo to everyone's satisfaction, it's time to get colourful. You may need to go back to the inspiration step and look around to find colour combinations you like. As with fonts, try out a number of colour combinations. Don't forget to print it out. Customers have a hard time visualising colour, so it's very important that you explain to them the difference between viewing colour on a monitor, printed on an inkjet and or commercially should it ever become appropriate.

Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute Example of logo design Design a logo for a cookery website! Here is what the customer was after: New colours Casual and fun look American South Western style

Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute Example of logo design

Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute Example of logo design This was, actually, a bit too much like the original logo. I like the recipe cards, though. That's what people are coming to the site to see - recipes. This one reminded me too much of the old logo and didn't have a chilli pepper included.

Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute Example of logo design This one just didn't appeal to me, with the yellow and red squares. It didn't jump out and say "This is a fun place to visit, with lots of good stuff, so stay and browse a while."

Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute Example of logo design This one seemed to really fit the bill. It's fun, it's casual, and it's colourful. I also thought the triangle part could make wonderful little buttons for use as icons. I liked this but didn't like the colours as well, and while I liked the chef in the diamond, the border and the font, I didn't like the text in the diamond shape.

Copyright © 2004/5 Bolton Institute Example of logo design This was close to the original idea, having a chilli pepper featured in the logo ties in nicely with the theme. It is humorous and gives a sense of fun to the intended Web page It needed to convey that this is a friendly and fun place to visit and make people want to stay a while and check it out. This is the one the client liked!