Strategic Logo Design: Step-by-Step Process (+ Case Study)
Every logo designer presents a slightly different approach, but most would certainly agree that great logos are the result of good strategy and good execution.
In this article, I will show you my 7-step process to designing logos the strategic way.
And I will do so on a real case study — the logo and identity i designed for one of my recent clients.
7-Step process to strategic logo design.
Starting with a discovery session, then conducting research, running a brainstorm, sketching logos, designing logo concepts, presenting them to the client and preparing logo package.
I’m sharing with you my process, so that hopefully you can improve your way of designing logos — if you’re a designer.
Or you can just get an overview of how professionals do it, if you’re a business owner looking for a custom logo.
7-Steps to Strategic Logo Design:
- Discover — Get to know the client’s business.
- Research — Learn about the industry & competitors.
- Brainstorm — Develop ideas & decide on art direction.
- Sketch — Create logo concepts based on strategy.
- Design — Select best logos & execute them digitally.
- Present — Show logos concepts & get client’s approval.
- Deliver — Export logo files & create a style guide.
You can also watch this tutorial on my YouTube channel
Introduction
In this article, I will walk you through my proven 7-step logo design process and do so on a real-case scenario.
So that you can see my going through these steps and get inspired to make your work more efficient and more effective as well.
“Logo design process demands a combination of investigation, strategic thinking and design excellence.“ — Alina Wheeler, Designing Brand Identity
So whether you’re a designer, or you’re looking to hire one, this article will give you a valuable insight into the logo making process.
Now, my client approached me with a rebranding project and I know you want to see the logo before and after so here you go:
Now, before we talk about each and every step that led my to that final design, it’s important to briefly remind ourselves what makes a great logo in the first place.
What makes a good logo
Every designer will give you a slightly different definition of what makes a great logo, but basically you can boil it down to the three fundamental logo design principles.
And as the famous logo designer, Sagi Haviv said:
We judge each of our early design concepts by the following criteria: Is it appropriate? Is it simple? Is it memorable? — Sagi Haviv, Identify
These three criteria come in the form of questions that we can ask ourselves when developing logo designs.
Now, let’s explain each of those principles shortly to understand what they really mean.
Is it appropriate?
Appropriate means that the logo is relevant in form and concept to the client and its industry.
For example: If you’re designing for a fashion brand, then the logo needs to be elegant, but if you’re designing for a sports brand, then the logo probably needs to be bold and dynamic.
Is it simple?
Simple means that a logo has to be focused on a single story and in most cases it must be uncomplicated in form.
A logo must be simple so it can work effectively and flexibly in a wide range of sizes and media e.g. in small size on a business card, and in big size such as a signage.
Is it memorable?
Memorable means that while the form must be simple, it must also be distinctive enough to be easily remembered.
Of course the simpler the form is, the less special it tends to become, so the challenge is to keep it simple while making it distinctive enough so it can be remembered.
Ok, so without further ado, let’s jump right into the first step of my logo design process which is the discovery phase.
1. Discover — Get to know the client’s business.
Now, every designer will have a slightly different approach, but most would certainly agree that running a discovery phase and developing some sort of a brand strategy is an absolute must.
Discovery is about getting to know the client’s business, it’s history, industry, competitors and audience.
And this is because logo design is not art, so we shouldn’t just start coming up with logo ideas out of thin air relying purely on our sense of aesthetics.
You see, a logo should serve a specific business objective, so therefore you need to stay objective in the process in order to design something that is appropriate.
A logo is the centerpiece of all brand communication — it’s literally everywhere — so it should stand the test of time.
We naturally don’t want to redesign that logo in the foreseeable future, so we want to give ourselves the best possible chance at designing a logo that will endure.
Before you actually open up the Illustrator and start playing with type, color and shape — you must first brief the client and create a foundation for your creative exploration.
Now, different designers will go to different extent with the discovery phase.
Some designers will just send a branding questionnaire or have a more informal discovery phone call.
However, I use my proprietary brand strategy framework that I run with my clients prior to embarking on any design work.
So I run the strategy workshop with my client, and during that session we go through a series of branding exercises that help me extract all the necessary information about the project.
2. Research — Learn about industry & competitors.
Now, in the second step, I take all the information form the discovery phase and conduct further research to draw insights that will serve me later on in the ideation phase.
Research is all about analyzing the industry in more detail, conducting visual research and drawing conclusions.
Researching the industry helps you as a designer get a sense of the environment the logo’s going to live in.
The goal of this phase is to better understand the client’s field in order to ensure that the solutions that you will later come up with can work for them effectively.
Now, you need to know what can work and what’s appropriate and most importantly how to differentiate the company from its competitors.
And this understanding may be achieved by experiencing the organization from a customer’s perspective.
So stepping in the customers shoes and further analyzing the industry and competitors is a crucial step in logo design process.
It will help you steer your creativity later on and you will avoid making a mistake of designing something that is too similar to their competitors.
During the strategy session (5th exercise), we start doing some competitive analysis with my client and now I take it further and conduct additional research.
I gain insights from navigating competitors’ websites and evaluating their brand identities.
Then I take notes on what are their strong and weak points, so that it can serve me in the next step — the brainstorming step.
3. Brainstorm — Develop ideas & decide on direction.
In the brainstorm step, based on the discovery and research performed, I simply start outlining my strategy for generating logo ideas.
Brainstorming is about thinking through all possible design directions that would steer creativity in the right direction.
So here is where I seek out a look or a style that could convey my client’s brand persona (the third part of my strategy framework).
I use the brand personality and tone of voice exercises to help me brainstorm ideas and create moodboards.
And here I also use the mind map (9th exercise of my strategy framework) to start searching for visual representation of the most important keywords distilled from previous steps.
As a result I put together three different mood boards that are basically a collection of visuals that capture the strategic insights.
I simply look at the strategy to distill some keywords and then I browse websites like Behance, Dribble or Pinterest to find some visuals that would make for a great art direction.
I search for the font, color, style etc. and consider all aspects of visual langue that would embody our brand strategy.
For Medihuanna I created three mood boards: Credible, Innovative (below), and Natural and then I review them together with my client.
Next, we discuss those possible solutions and we make some decision on what direction should we proceed with.
By narrowing our focus with mood boards we try to stay objective, so that we can base our sketches in the next phase on solid strategic understanding.
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