How to Design a Logo

Want to know how to design a logo like a professional and have all the resources you need in just one post? Then this is the post for you… Learn professional logo design in just 5 steps!

1. Learn What A Logo Is & What It Represents

Before you design a logo, you must understand what a logo is, what it represents and what it is supposed to do. A logo is not just a mark - a logo reflects a business’s commercial brand via the use of shape, fonts, colour, and / or images.

A logo is for inspiring trust, recognition and admiration for a company or product and it is our job as designers to create a logo that will do its job.

One must know what a logo is before continuing.

For further Reading on what is a logo check out Wikipedia’s Definition.

2. Know The Rules & Principles Of Logo Design

Now that you know what a logo is supposed to do, and what it should represent you now must learn about what makes a great logo aka; the basic rules and principles of logo design.

1. A logo must be describable
2. A logo must be memorable
3. A logo must be effective without colour
4. A logo must be scalable i.e. effective when just an inch in size

For Further reading on the rules and principles of great logo design I highly recommend to read the logo design tips from Logo Factory before continuing and also the article Why logo design does not cost $5.00.

3. Learn Off Other’s Successes & Mistakes

Successful Logos

Now you know what the rules of logo design are, you can distinguish the difference between a good and a bad logo… By knowing what other logos have succeeded and why they have succeeded gives a great insight into what makes a good logo.

For example, lets look at the classic Nike Swoosh. This logo was created by Caroline Davidson in 1971 for only $35 yet it still a strong, memorable logo, effective without colour and easily scalable. It is simple, fluid and fast and represents the wing in the famous statue of the Greek Goddess of victory, Nike - something perfect for a sporting apparel business. Nike is just one of many great logos, think about other famous brands that you know about and check out their logos - what makes them successful?

For more quality, lesser known logos I recommend checking out LogoPond or going to your local book store or library and looking at a logo book.

The Not So Successful Logos

We can also learn off logos that have not been as successful such as the ones in the above picture. Some more very bad logos can be seen in the post ‘Is Your Design Phallic? As seen in that post, some logos can depict things that may have not always be noticeable to the designer (as in the middle logo above) or they could just be plain bad design, as in the logo to the right.

4. Establish Your Own Logo Design Process

Now that we know what a logo is, and what the principles and rules of logo design are and what makes a successful logo we can now finally begin the design process. This it hardest part of the 5 steps and is its own topic in itself - Each persons logo design process is different and experience usually is the key factor in creating your own logo design process however check out The Secret Logo Design Process Of Top Logo Designers for a better idea.

In short, a logo design process usually consists of

1. The Design Brief
2. Research & Brainstorming
3. Sketching
4. Prototyping & Conceptualising (See Step 5)
5. Send To Client For Review
6. Revise & Add Finishing Touches
7. Supply Files To Client and Give Customer Service

If you ever get stuck before or during your design process check out this great article on How To Boost Your Creativity.

5. Learn The Software & Complete The Logo

After you have got your design process sorted out, it is usually a good time to begin mastering your software but remember you can’t design a logo by just hopping straight onto the computer… brainstorm and sketch first.

After you have got your initial ideas and sketches from brainstorming you can then usually jump onto the computer to start digitising your logo. After you have got a great concept(s) digitised you can send it to your client, get revisions, and eventually complete the logo and thus, you have successfully created a professional logo.

Do you have any other tips or suggestions on how to create a professional logo?

Daifuku

Daifuku is a kind of Japanese mochi cakes. Serve daifuku with hot green tea. You can make various daifuku, changing the filling. This is a recipe to make basic daifuku with anko filling.

Ingredients:

* 1 cup shiratama-ko (glutinous rice flour)
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 2/3 cup water
* For filling
* 2/3 cup water & 1 cup sugar & 1/2 cup dried anko powder, or 1 1/4 cup premade anko
* katakuriko (porato starch) for dusting

Preparation:
Heat 2/3 cup of water and 1/2 cup of sugar in a small pot. Add 1/4 cup of anko powder and stir well. Cool the anko filling. Make 12 small anko balls and set aside. Put water and sugar in a heat-resistant bowl and mix well. Add shiratama-ko flour in the bowl and mix well. Put the bowl in microwave and heat the dough for two minutes. Stir the dough. Heat the dough in microwave until the dough inflates. Stir the mochi quickly. Dust a flat pan with some katakuri-ko starch. Also, dust hands with some katakuri-ko. Remove the hot mochi from the bowl to the pan by hands. Dust hands with more katakuri-ko starch and divide the mochi into 12 pieces by hands. The mochi is hot and sticky, so be careful not to burn your hands. Make 12 flat and round mochi. Put a piece of anko filling on a mochi and wrap the anko by stretching mochi. Rounds the daifuku. Repeat the process to make daifuku cakes.

Inspirations from "Self Portrait

Stuart Whitton

Location Wales
Job Freelance illustrator
Contact www.stuartwhitton.blogspot.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

“I’m influenced by a number of aspects of design and art,” says Stuart. “As a result, I try to build a visually appealing relationship between fashionably ethereal illustrations of people, objects and typographical elements.”

Ironically, it was his BA Hons course in Graphic Design at the West Wales School of the Arts that convinced Stuart that he was, in fact, more interested in illustration. “My passion for [illustration] and the use of traditional methods made me realise that my admiration for the imagery derives from the personal quality that it possesses.”

Stuart’s image creation process involves the use of pencils, Photoshop, Illustrator, abstract shapes, patterns and generally a limited colour palette to accent particular areas. “I use careful discretion concerning the amount of detail in my work,” he adds. “This is often combined with a degree of ambiguity to achieve a distinctly bold but elegant appearance.”

Self Portrait “This piece contains three pencil sketches of myself,” says Stuart of this interesting self-study. “The two that depict my face are the same image, only shown at different stages of the illustration. I wanted to create more than a traditional portrait, therefore I used Photoshop to cut a section out of the finished sketch and then arranged the other portraits so that certain areas could flow ambiguously into each other. I think this image is a good representation of not only my physical appearance but also my personality and my influences, which can be identified even in the smallest details."

Forbidden Color Combinations?

Color theorists and designers in fashion or computer graphics have coined phrases based around what colors shouldn't go together. A recent forum post, Red and Green Should Not Be Seen? discusses two of the sayings ("Red and Green Should Not Be Seen" and "Blue and Green Should Never Be Seen Without Something in Between"), and some lovers have even responded in protest, showing how there is no 'wrong' in love. Here are some palettes and applications of the forbidden colors that really work.

Oddly, these color rules work under specific contexts, which follow 'clashing' colors. Sure, red flowers on green leaves make perfect sense, and can be beautiful, but red text on a green background doesn't always work, so there is some weight to the statements. Of course, that weight really shouldn't be the end-all. Other color combinations that are said to not work are as follows:

What I've found to be true about what's "right" and "wrong" is that a good general rule, opposed to gospel. Because colors are flexible, it follows that these rules don't always apply. What it really seems to come down to is using colors correctly. Using colors that 'clash' properly can give a wonderful contrast. In the world of color, I've found that there's no such thing as 'no' in the world of color.

Red and Green Seen

Blue and Green Seen

CSS Gradient Text Effect

Do you want to create fancy headings without rendering each heading with Photoshop? Here is a simple CSS trick to show you how to create gradient text effect with a PNG image (pure CSS, no Javascript or Flash). All you need is an empty tag in the heading and apply the background image overlay using the CSS position:absolute property. This trick has been tested on most browsers: Firefox, Safari, Opera, and even Internet Explorer 6. Continue to read this article to find out how.

Benefits

* This is pure CSS trick, no Javascript or Flash. It works on most browsers including IE6 (PNG hack required).
* It is perfect for designing headings. You don’t have to render each heading with Photoshop. This will save you time and bandwidth.
* You can use on any web fonts and the font size remains scalable.

How does this work?

The trick is very simple. Basically we are just adding a 1px gradient PNG (with alpha transparency) over the text.

The HTML markups


CSS Gradient Text

The CSS

The key point here is: h1 { position: relative } and h1 span { position: absolute }
h1 {
font: bold 330%/100% "Lucida Grande";
position: relative;
color: #464646;
}
h1 span {
background: url(gradient.png) repeat-x;
position: absolute;
display: block;
width: 100%;
height: 31px;
}

Interview of Plinko Artist-Mark Wasserman

Max · Where did you study? How Long have you been in the biz?

Mark · I went to college at UC Santa Cruz, a public university about 75 miles south of San Francisco. They have a good design program, but it never even occurred to me to take a course. I graduated with a degree in Sociology.

My father was a Professor of Computer Science, so I had grown up with all sorts of computers, early modems, etc around the house from an early age, and I pretty much dismissed all of it. There was the fun novelty of sending an international email that would take about 8 hours to arrive, but it really held little interest for me. Still, even though I wasn't always paying attention, I guess some of that early computing knowledge stuck with me.
In college, the club/rave scene began really picking up in the U.S., and I got together with a few partners to stage some events. As I became immersed in that scene, I started noticing this whole world of club flyers and graphics that hadn't really been around before. At the same time, Raygun and a lot of the 4AD artwork was coming out. I already had a Mac, along with a few basic design applications. I went out and got books by David Carson and Neville Brody, and literally copied their designs to learn how they had done what they did.

As I started understanding the tools a bit better, I went back to school to the Multimedia program at San Francisco State. I took about a year's worth of classes there, enough to make me feel comfortable working on both print and web projects, and then started working professionally as a graphic designer at c|net — that was around 9 years ago. Actually, the first Plinko site was just done in order to get hired as a designer somewhere.

My first design job was at c|net, where I stayed for about a year. I truly did learn more there in the first 2 weeks than my entire stint at San Francisco State. It was a really vibrant, exciting place at the time, and my first boss was a former art director at the New York Times. I was lucky enough to pick up a lot of the education I'd missed from not going to a proper art/design school from her. Once she left c|net, I quit within a month or so. Soon after, I convinced my then-girlfriend Irene Ng to quit her design job and join forces as Plinko. That was back in 1997, and we eventually got married in 2002.

Max · What kind of artist/designer would you call yourself?

Mark · As much as I'd love to be called an artist, I definitely lean more towards the designer side. We did recently have our first gallery "show"-- it was 50% prints, and 50% photography, so I'd like to step out in that direction more.

I'd like to think of ourselves as versatile. There's amazing designers who I really admire that put their stamp on everything, but we've never really been about that. Some people have said there's a "Plinko look" but I don't really see it. I get quite bored rather easily, so trying out new styles and strategies is the best way for me to keep things interesting. Plus, we're always working with different clients, and I don't want them to feel as though we're bullying them into making their project look a certain way.

Max · What kind of projects interest you the most?

Mark · Honestly, I would probably give a different answer next week, because these things just change so quickly. At the moment, I'm really enjoying working on projects where there's an element of humor. Something where either the client gives us the freedom to make it funny, which I think is a real rarity these days. People are so concerned with needing it to either be "cool" or "important", and I don't think either of those leave much room for humor.

The most obvious example of our current projects has been designing the "Haggis-On-Whey World of Unbelievable Brilliance" books, where we get to create page after page of really graphically stylized work that's just absurd.

On the Web side, I've become really revitalized over the past year as the promise of convergence really seems to be happening. There's just so many nifty Web apps and sites popping up all over the place. I think it's an incredibly exciting time to be a designer.


LINKS
www.plinko.com

BOOK
Rethink Redesign Reconstruct

Design Critique of the Chicago 2016 Olympics logo

Flame
It's said that the skyline seen in the olympic flame represents how Chicago rose out of the ashes of a fire. That's really cool. They did a very fine job of making it look like a flame first, and our skyline second. When I first saw this logo, I totally thought it was a flame, and THEN I saw our skyline. Great effect. However, does it disturb anyone that when you really look at this flame and the building that it's kinda ghost-like? Or that our city is make of flames? Ah well, you can't be that literal with it, because it's got a fantastic metaphor about our city's history.

Handle
The blue and green in the handle are supposed represent the lake and green parks. That is one thing that people around the world should remember about chicago--our fantastic unencumbered lakeshore. It was a great part of Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago in 1909. in Personally, I think the green really represents how sustainable chicago is).

Pencil marks
The entire logo is composed of pencil-like sketch marks, which show action and energy. It also shows the real grit of Chicago. We're not some slick city. We play it real. However, the sketchy style is reminiscent of many logos from the 1980s, but hey, this is the logo for an event 10 years from now, maybe that sort of style will come back around and be back in by then.
Actually, I wouldn't mind this style coming back in, because it would really help erik's and my pencil rubbing cause.

Font
I'm not sure what the font is. My first guesses were Avenir, Frutiger, and Vectora; however, they aren't quite it. If anyone knows the name of the font used, please leave the font name in the comments below. At any rate, it's a nice clean font. I'm thankful that the font Optima (found in parts of the CTA underground stations) was not used here.

Reproducibility
It appears that this logo is a raster file, but lately i've been amazed by some of the effects vector art has been able to achieve. Maybe this was created with individual vector lines, which would have helped them fine tune the exact look of the logo.

Conclusion
Chicago is the city that works. We have a Mayor that totally gets things done. This IS our time. It's time to live that same Chicago pride that SHOCKED THE WORLD with the 1893 World's Fair. Daniel Burnham the legendary city planner said a century ago, "Make no small plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood." That IS Chicago. We have the vision. We have the blood. We have the sweat. We should have the Olympics.

This is a fine logo that should make the city of Chicago proud. Many years from now we will look back on this logo with happy nostalgia. This fire will continue onward to the future to ignite the Olympic games in the Windy City.