Before designing a logo there are a few things a designer should think about or ask. What type of business is it? What is the client looking for? How do the competitors logos look like? Should this logo be different or similar? What will the logo be used for? For this example I will take a web development company named Superior Web Systems, and try to design a logo for them. First off they want something Simple, Clean, Strong, and Unique. Another thing is that they think their name is too long and might want to shorten it.
Now before you all start opening up Photoshop stop right there! Never EVER design any logo in Photoshop or any raster program it just won’t be feasible. This is because anytime you to resize the logo the pixels in the images start to break and everything turns grainy (yes most of you will say duh… but I still constantly run in to designers telling me “I used PS when I created the logo”). You have to use a Vector program like Adobe Illustrator to design the logo. This will allow your logo to scale any size you want it just won’t matter. You can design the logo 2×2 and then stretch it out to the size of a bus and it will still look perfect.
When I first start off with my logo I would type out the company name and go through a series of typefaces. I usually stay with clean simple type like a Sans Serif font because anything too fancy will look dated over time. I usually start off by typing the words with Arial font and make 20 versions with different font faces and pick the ones I like.
Once I picked my fonts it’s time to design the first draft of the logo. My rule of thumb here is to design it black and white. If your logo doesn’t work in black and white it just doesn’t work. I usually go through 10 to 20 radically different designs during this process. This includes combinations of modifying fonts, adding shape, or simple lines. From there I pick the top 6 – 8 that I like and show it to the client.
Here are some samples of the logo I did. These are just rough ideas from here I will let the client pick 2 – 3 and develop another series variation based on each design. I usually come up with 6 – 8 variations per logo.
