How to generate creative ideas for a logo and brand identity project?

Many people or designers who have seen my work and connected with me on different social media, generally ask about my thought process & how do I create ideas. One of my fellow designer Shourov Chowdhury asked me a few questions regarding the same which I am going to answer in this blog:
- How do you start a logo/branding project?
When someone contacts me for any design requirements, I start the discussion by asking some basic questions regarding his business/product. After having an agreement, I share a questionnaire because it’s good to have everything written in one place. Purpose of this questionnaire is nothing but to get the client’s vision of his brand and a detailed information about their audience, competitors, values and many more things.
2. What work process do you follow?
- Research — Once I get the response, I start work by understanding the client’s business properly because you can’t design for a product/business which you don’t understand. Then I study about their competitors and their design language.
- Word Mapping — After getting my research done, I start with the word mapping. First I select the words which are directly related to the business name and supportive words which not directly linked to the name but can clearly project the name via graphics. Then comes the business values for which it stands & words which will decide communication tone for the business. Something like this but I made this just for this blog while actually working on the project it could consist of 40–50 words.

- Idea Generation — After having my set of words. I play with them by combining & breaking. Sometimes I try to combine 4–5 ideas in one icon/mark but it’s advisable not to combine more than 2–3 ideas in a single logo because it will make the logo complicated and the message won’t be visible to the audience. In this way, I generate more 20+ ideas.

- Selection — Out of those ideas I select 2–3 ideas on these bases:
- Should be original. It shouldn’t match with any existing ideas up to 70–80%. First cross-check is done at this time (with keywords) and 2nd one after designing the logo. I use google image and Tiny Eye website for this purpose.
- It should be related to client business and the values for which they stand & make sure there is no negative aspect of the design.
- It should be functional, simple, memorable and meaningful. There should be no negative aspect of the design unless it’s intentional.
- Digitization — It’s the final part. I digitize those selected ideas and work on the color scheme and typography as per logomark and message we want to communicate. Color and typography are very important when it comes to deciding what should be the tone of the whole business. I use grid construction to keep the logo properly aligned and geometrically balanced.

- Feedback — No matter how brilliant your ideas are, one must take constructive feedback from client and fellow designers. Because sometimes people don’t get your ideas easily or they provide you with a better solution. Don’t take constructive feedback as an offense if they are not in favor of your design. Once having feedback you must incorporate those changes and in a few iterations, you will get your final design.
3. During work what do you think most for a logo or branding design?
I think the most important part is to decide what kind of image you want to project via your logo. A swoosh mark logo is perfect for a company like Nike whose mission statement is “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete.” Similarly, I want to project myself as a creative and innovative designer and my personal logo stands for the same.

- How do you get inspirations for designing a new logo or branding?
In this digital world, we all are connected with each other in one way or another. On a daily basis, we get to see great work of professionals across the world but see them as competitors and get the inspiration within yourself. I don’t follow any particular website/blog/designer for the inspiration. I usually check Instagram, Dribbble & Behance to check the work of other designers.
Thanks for reading & drop an email for any work related query.
Social Media Profiles: Behance | Dribbble | Facebook | Instagram
