Logo Design: Creative Stages

Professional logo designing isn’t that simple or quick as there is a series of creative steps involved in the process. Although we have a slew of online logo generators today that allow you to create fresh logos in a matter of minutes, the truth is that machine learning logo design will never replace the true art that a human logo designer brings to the creative process. 

The following are the various creative stages that make logo design time-consuming but also highly rewarding:

Design Flow

Design flow is easily one of the most important steps in logo design. This is because the designer has to come up with a unique and original idea. The design should also be simple but at the same time attractive. In fact, the step involves the following processes:

• Choice of fonts and colors
• Marketing research
• Choice of style direction 
• Testing in different environments and styles

Task Setting

Once the research and thinking bit is finished, the designer has to set up the task that makes for the foundation of the actual design. What he really does is set goals for the task by asking questions like “What’s the purpose of this design?”, “What does the logo needs to say to the target demographic?”.  

One of the most popular productivity hacks that designers use is batching tasks together. By juggling different tasks at the same time, they are able to save time and also be more efficient. They are also in constant touch with the clients to understand their exact requirements and also share their ideas that help in completing the designs. 

Research 

At this stage, the tasks set in the previous step are researched upon. For instance, there is user research in which the designer tries to get a better understanding of the core target audience i.e. their personality traits and triggers, the colors and fonts that they can relate to, etc. This is usually followed by market research in which the designer may study the logo designs of competitors and those of other designers who are considered veterans in the domain. 

Creative Work

Creative work comprises of actually working on the design. For instance, the designers may create a series of sketches in a freestyle manner i.e. spontaneously. They may experiment with different styles such as colorful and monochrome, flat or skeuomorphic, etc. 

Product Finalization

Once the winning design is identified, the designer focuses on improving it further. They may tweak the design in different ways like changing the colors, fonts, size of icons, etc. They have to make changes in accordance with the preferences set by the client and the guidelines that the designer has set themselves for the particular logo. 

Testing

At this stage, the designer tests the final logo on various surfaces and in different environments, resolutions, and orientations. A perfect design would look good in all situations. It would also easily stand out among all logos.

One additional test that professional designers take, when the option is available that is, is to test the logo with a sample of the target audience, typically by using a logo testing survey template. This ensures that the design actually works and is well-received by those for whom it’s created in the first place. 

Once the logo fulfils all the requirements, then the designer can export a high-definition version of the product that can be used by the client. 

Conclusion

The steps discussed above lay the foundation of the complete logo design process. Each step has a key role to play and bears a huge significance in the process. Those who have years of experience creating top-quality logos follow these steps with certain rules and procedures to deliver work that just “clicks” with the clients. It also shows that the “old school” way of designing logos can be quite effective and powerful compared to software programs.