What is a logo? On the web you will surely find hundreds of definitions of what can be considered a logo, what it consists of and how it differs from a logotype. For me, however, it is simply an element of a company's image, and not just any element, because it is the most important one. We put logos on websites, business cards, packaging, textiles, in advertisements. So it should be a perfect reflection of our company - mission, values, way of thinking and acting, character... But right away a logo is just one "image", how is it supposed to express all this?
So little, and so much
In June 2012, Smashing Magazine, an indispensable in the creative industry, published a blockbuster book, "The Logo Designers' Handbook," which bluntly, using more than a dozen brilliantly designed logos as examples, showed how much can be fit into a single graphic. The handbook took on a succession of well-known brands analyzing not only what their logos express, but also how they achieved it. The result of such analysis has always been one thing - a well-designed logo is one with good research, masses of work and revisions behind it. So let's go through the steps of the logo design process. As an example, I used my own logo, which looks like this:
Research
Before I even attempted to visualize my mark I undertook an analysis of the creative market. I asked myself - how do graphic and web designers create themselves? Do they use their personalities, or do they model themselves after artists with pseudonyms? How do they promote themselves? What makes a graphic designer stand out from thousands of others? What makes someone more likely to be chosen as a contractor, especially by large companies?
With this array of questions, I proceeded to search the web. Even though I knew my industry I had never before looked so closely at the competition and promotion in the market. Long hours spent on behance, agency sites, social media of well-known graphic designers and even on LinkedIn resulted in the following conclusions:
- the industry is dominated by vivid colors, interesting tonal transitions
- due to the openness of the industry, brilliance and unconventionality are well received
- individuals usually use personalities
- Their logos are usually a combination of the first letters of their first name and last name
- Agencies usually go for simple logos with a heavy emphasis on typography
- larger agencies often rely on a very simple site that stands out with a strong portfolio
- smaller agencies and individuals often use aesthetically pleasing, modern but fairly minimalist websites
- "wow effect" is usually achieved by adding fine animation and smooth transitions between elements
- modern graphic designers, operating mainly in the digital space rely on strong color accents and animation
- Breaking patterns in a sensible but deliberate way is a good way to show your "self"
- Graphic artists of the "younger generation" rarely refer to classical art forms
These are just some of the insights I came up with, but they are enough to define the look of a typical site from the creative industry. Knowing the trends, I could ask myself another question - imitation or breaking patterns? Contrary to appearances, the answer to it is not clear-cut, and it was equivalent for me to analyze the "pros and cons" of each choice. I decided to break the pattern.
This brought me the final theoretical question - art inspiration or modernity (digital space). Since he also does web design professionally the digital option seemed more natural to me.
So I already know how I want to show the world my logo, the metaphorical question is "what do I want to show". After a solid brainstorming session, I decided that my logo should show what I do for a living and in which area I focus my activities. Therefore, I renamed myself "webski" - Internet and inventive at the same time, and the full name and at the same time the Internet domain took the name webski.design
In this way I gave vent to my creativity by referring to the latest trends and clearly defining my area of interest. It remained "only" to visualize what I strictly deal with by means of a logo. In addition, I made things more difficult for myself by wanting this visualization to be enclosed in a form resembling the letter "W".
Sketches, sketches and more sketches
Knowing "what and how" I sat down to a blank sheet of paper. Why exactly to a sheet of paper and not a computer? Probably the explanation of this conundrum will fall to a separate article, but mainly because a sheet of paper and a pencil give me the greatest freedom - the computer and the software installed on it can limit us if we don't know how to perform or visualize something. However, going back to the sheet of paper, I started sketching everything that popped into my head - trivial things but also intricate, "a few lines" but also "a lot of swirls." The most important thing, however, was that at the top of each page I always wrote down what I wanted to portray and how I wanted others to perceive me.
Once I had "brainwashed myself out of ideas" I gave myself an extended break, as part of which I went for a walk. I decided to do this by no means out of a desire to explore the area or the beautiful drylands, but to "catch a fresh look." After returning from this trip, I sat down to card again. Another wave of inspiration came with more suggestions. After another break, I sat down to the outlined concepts and began to develop them - variants, variations on them and combining several ideas into one. Only this step gave me a full picture of the possibilities of presenting myself.
Difficult choices
After hours of creative frenzy, it was faced with a difficult choice - which sketches among dozens have "that something". It's hard to reject one's own ideas, so this step, too, was an extremely agonizing process. So I tried to objectively evaluate the design - fit to the previously chosen guidelines, clarity of form, clarity of message or responsiveness were the criteria that were decisive. The whole process consumed several more hours, but in the end it resulted in the selection of several most promising designs.
Digitization
However, they were still sketches. Now they had to be scanned and then recreated in a graphics program. The scanning process itself took about 10 minutes, the problem began when the shape of the logotype was recreated - as it was necessary to balance the faithful reproduction of each line with the desire to correct imperfections. Searching for the optimal alignment and combination of dashes was another long-term process. However, in the end, it too was crowned with success.
Color, or lack thereof?
I finally had a form - I roughly began to emerge the final design, but before me still stood the choice of colors. As you know, this one cannot be random, if only because of the symbolism of the colors. So another process began - the search for colors. In front of my eyes I had dozens of reviewed sites and profiles and the colors that stood out, while in the back of my mind I had a preliminary outline of my website and how the logo might look like on it. After all, when designing a logo, I also pay attention to where it will be used and how it will harmonize with the products on which it will appear. In short, already at the stage of color selection, it is worth thinking about the color code and how such a color will look on accidents, textiles or the web.
Speaking of the creative industry, a good idea could also be to use a gradient - a crisp, energetic transition
