The Logo Design Process - Creating the Logos

Sketch thumbnails

I do, still, start with sketching a thumbnail, rather than moving right to the computer. My customers almost never see my thumbnails; usually they are just for me. They're very rough, which is part of why the customer never sees them! I will sketch one day, put it aside, come back to it the next, and so on.

Pick top three thumbnails

Hopefully you've developed a lot of thumbnails. You should shoot for ten at the very least, and hopefully as much as thirty or more. Get as much feedback from family, friends, and coworkers as you can at this point.

Sometimes we find that our very first idea is the strongest; other times it's only after playing with a logo for a couple of weeks that the "right" one leaps out at you.

Once you're satisfied that you've done as many as you can, pick the top three to five thumbnails to develop.

Get on the computer

Now you've got direction: thumbnails and fonts. So it's time to put it all together. Now it's time to sit down at the computer and bring life to your sketches.

Depending on how detailed your sketches are, this may be as simple as scanning in and tracing, or you may need to start from scratch. I almost never have a thumbnail so polished that I can just scan it in, but that's me.

You may find that once you start playing with the logo on the computer, it takes on a life of its own. Often I have what I think is a good idea in a sketch, but suddenly I just tweak it a little on the computer and voila! A logo. At this point you should be working in black and white, and small enough so that the logo will fit on a business card.

Refine, refine, refine

Pick the top three to five logo concepts you created, and show those to your customer.

Now, of course, the fun begins. You'll need to refine the logo per your customer feedback. If they don't like any of the concepts, find out specifically what they don't like:

• Is it the graphic?
• Is it the font?
• Is it the style?
• Is it the size?

Get colorful

When you've refined your logo to everyone's satisfaction, it's time to get colorful. You may need to go back to the inspiration step and look around to find color combinations you like.