Logos for Leadership
As I walk out of my office, I can’t help by take a moment to stop and look at the new picture drawn on the shared whiteboard. There, drawn with precision is a whiteboard-sized depiction of Godzilla, and it is amazing. I didn’t take a picture because I think I became a bit too spoiled. During daily walkabouts, I was able to regularly see lizards and dinosaurs drawn with loving details on whiteboards in various offices. They seemed to be sprouting up everywhere. After a few months of working in the same space as Destinie, a UX team member at Next Century and the dino-illustration drawing extraordinaire, it became her hallmark to leave behind dinosaur doodles. I would walk into the office of a developer and know that Destinie had recently been there because a new dinosaur would be peeking out from the side of a whiteboard.
Those dinosaurs are a great embodiment of Destinie and her work. Destinie studies the basics of design problems and then creatively solves them with panache and flare. She has a great sense of color and visual balance, without being afraid to try new concepts. One of the things I particularly admire in her logo work is that she doesn’t shy away from hard edges. With visual design, it is so tempting to curve objects which makes them easier on the eye. Destinie is masterful in using sharp edges to draw the eye to what she wants you to see.
Destinie started working in User Experience Design about six years ago after graduating with her BFA in Illustration. She works with me at Next Century where she tells me she “is able to fulfill her dreams of designing for the humans that rely on well-considered user interfaces.”
Given her expertise, I asked Destinie to take a moment from her day job to answer some questions about how she designs logos. I then asked her to step us through her process for a logo design.
What is your process for designing a logo? How did you learn this process? What is the hardest step in your process?
I studied illustration for my undergraduate degree and in both schools I attended there was a very strong graphic design element where we were required to follow a specific process. When you begin to get into the actual practice, however, the process is quite different and you usually do not have months to dedicate to a single design. Formal education is great for introducing a process but as you grow professionally you then are forced to create your own process for design.
My process begins with a thought and feverous sketching. I usually take my first idea and sketch that out on a piece of paper and then try to iterate on that thought. What if I took this design and flipped it? What if I tried this style? I ask myself questions to try and come up with a variety of different ideas to tighten up before I start moving towards the digital realm.
Research and input from peers is incredibly important to me. The hardest part of the process is when I get completely stuck on a design or have no idea where to proceed. Sometimes just getting some friendly critique from your peers can give you that “Eureka!” moment and send you off down a new path resulting in some really cool designs. For the LEAD logo (discussed below), I definitely would not have gotten where I ended up if it were not for that interaction.
How do you interpret a project, process, item so that you can turn it into a symbol?
In my sketching phase I also like to create lists of words that are associated with the project. For the LEAD logo, I knew the logo was for a class that had to do with learning leadership skills so I started to come up with words or concepts that might inspire me in some way. A few words that came to mind were: leadership, guidance, movement, and direction. I started with images of a compass or a guiding star until I received input from a peer to try a sail.
I was taught that your first idea isn’t always the strongest but I would have to disagree. In some cases, you can try hundreds of different designs and nothing will stick except that first idea that you had. Sometimes having that initial spark of inspiration is the best but in other cases inspiration is not readily available. Maybe the topic is a bit trickier than you had initially expected? Then you need to keep trying things and getting as much feedback as possible until you find something that sticks.
How do you ideate? Where do you go to get your ideas? Can you tell me how you came up with the ideas for this project?
If nothing comes to me after generating my word lists or getting feedback, I will turn to the internet to try and see how other people tackled a similar problem. Maybe I take some of my words or concepts (“compass”, for example) and plug that into the internet to see what is out there. Aside from Google image search I will also frequent dribbble and pinterest to see what other people have. Sometimes this is really great for formulating ideas as you can easily go down the conceptual rabbit hole on these websites.
How do you pick your colors? Why do you pick certain colors over others?
For this particular design I defaulted to using the colors that were already established as part of the company’s brand. I could have chosen new colors but because the logo was for a part of the company it made the most sense to go that route.
In general, choosing colors for logos can get rather tricky. I start with making all my designs in black and white and select colors after I am happy with the forms. Colors can trigger certain responses from the people that view them so it is important to keep that in mind when finishing up the design. For example: red can give a sense of authority or aggressiveness while blues are calm and comforting. In addition to that, you have to think how certain colors interact with each other. Next Century’s saturated blue seems very corporate and yellow-green is somewhat serene so I think the colors worked well with the imagery.
A number of months ago the management at Next Century decided to start a course discussing the principles and foundations of leadership following the teachings of Lee Thayer — see the Lee Thayer Institute. Management asked Destinie to create a logo concept that they could use on their presentation materials that would convey the concept of leadership, but also would be one that they could use in digital and printed materials.
Destinie’s early concepts were based on retro seals. She writes, “I liked the seal theme because it made it seem like Next Century’s stamp of approval- so to speak.”
Next, Destinie became inspired with the concept of a compass or a guiding star. You can see the star in the second of her early concepts. That idea is maintained in the third concept, while Destinie started to play with color combinations.
As Destinie explained above, she then moved into the concept of a sail. You can see that she started with that round and bulbous shape of a ‘D’. That shape helped her move into the final LEAD logo concept.
You can see how Destinie masterfully uses the bulge of the sail to give the logo forward direction. She then is able to use swooping shapes to give the logo a sense of movement while still enabling the logo to remain crisp.
If you are interested in learning more about Destinie, she has given permission to point to her Instagram feed where you can see more of her amazing illustrations.
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