An impressive logo needs to convey the message and spirit of the brand. Are you a beginner and want to get into the field of logo design but don't know where to start? Let Kent Wynn help you with just 5 steps in the professional logo design for beginners
1. Learn about the company through Creative Brief
The creative brief is a creative guide for any media campaign because it outlines the company's goals and important information, helping logo designers stay on track in their designs.
After receiving the creative brief from clients, you need to analyze to find out the necessary information for logo design such as development situation, competitors, target customers, etc.
In addition, each company has a story of its own to connect customers with the product. So before you even think about what this logo will look like, take the time to find out what the story behind your company is.
Then, you need to communicate that story's origin through the logo's colors, shapes, and typography.
Once you have your company story, it's time to start working on drafts of that story.
Look for 5-10 keywords that are relevant to the brand or describe the message the company wants to convey, and look for other associations with these words to generate creative logo ideas.
Once you've got a few keywords to guide you, grab a pencil and paper and start sketching out every idea that pops into your head.
Don't be discouraged if the first few sketches don't look right, keep editing based on previous sketches. You can focus these sketches on a brand illustration, brand name, or both.
Don't forget these tips for your logo sketch
Let's sketch simple shapes. Absolutely avoid any popular “clip-art” art or generic symbols such as globes, stars, or similar symbols that are easily recognizable from other places. That makes your logo easy to forget at first glance.
You need to choose the right color to use. Pay attention to current color trends and color groups that are specific to your company or target market.
The general rule of thumb when designing a logo is to not choose more than three colors and not to use a rainbow of colors in your design.
- Wordmarks: you can convey your brand personality through common typefaces like FedEx, Braun, Tate, Google, etc.
- Letterforms: your logo design can simply be the abbreviation of a company like IBM, Unilever or Airbnb, etc.
- Pictorial marks: design a logo using a certain icon image to act as an “ambassador” for your brand like Apple, Twitter, Playboy, etc.
- Abstrack marks: instead of recognizable images or symbols like pictorial marks, this is a modern abstract geometric logo design that encapsulates the brand's meaning through a single image like Adidas, Nike, Pepsi, etc.
- Emblems : when you want to combine 2 types of logo design Pictorial marks and Abstract marks according to a design principle to create a separate shape for the logo of the brand, usually the brand name is integrated inside the symbol that makes people see all the meanings of logos like Ferrari, Porsche, Lamboghini, etc.
3. Develop logo layouts based on design platforms
Once you've identified a sketch to refine and complete your brand's story, it's time to use the design platform to turn a drawing on paper into a complete graphic design.
There are a few popular software in logo design for beginners that you can learn:
DesignEvo: is a free online logo design tool that includes vector icons and shapes for quick, easy customization.
Logojoy (Looka): is a tool that uses artificial intelligence to create unique logo ideas for you. When you choose the logo style, color, and icon, Logojoy will use these as inspiration to create your logo. The starting price for this software is 20USD/logo.
Looka uses machine learning to apply design rules around color contrast, font pairings, and more, to provide users with better “out-of-the-box” logo options than other online logo makers.
Once you have a logo you love, you can buy a one-time package OR a logo and brand kit subscription, which includes access to 300+ branded designs, including business cards, social posts, flyers, and more.
Adobe Illustrator: is a graphic design software, using vector objects to design publications with sharp lines, accurate colors and is used by many designers to design logos.
4. Finalize the remaining objects of the logo
Choosing the right color scheme will make your logo more eye-catching and impressive.
Always make sure you consider color carefully so that when displaying your logo on many different products, it will still maintain the same quality as when you designed it.
Besides, choosing the right font for your logo design is very important. Your font choice can say a lot about your company.
Avoid standard fonts on all documents like Times New Roman or Comic Sans, it will make your logo design boring and not impressive.
A small note when choosing colors in logo design is that you should not use colors with equal percentages, you need to choose the main color for your logo.
5. Complete the final steps before launching your logo
Create the right logo designs for any application and display channels from digital to print.
Don't forget to test all file formats before releasing the final logo design including all popular formats like CMYK, EPS, JPG, and RGB. This will prevent your work from being copied or mishandled upon release.
Conclusion
In this article, we have reviewed the steps to become a professional logo design for beginners.
However, Above are the most basic steps to help you go from idea to design a complete logo that impresses viewers and meets your company's requirements. To complete a perfect logo, you will need the help of many design tools and software.