logo process tutorial

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Logo Design Process Tutorial

February 28, 2009 | 49 Comments

Introduction

One of the main aspects of the branding process includes logo development. Your logo, or brand mark, in

other words, needs to reflect your brand accurately, as it will play a huge role in your brand recognition. This

however doesn't mean that the branding process ends when you've developed your logo, branding takes a lot

of time, commitment, managing skills and finally, the ability to reflect the image you want others to have of you

and your business

This tutorial is intended to benefit both our potential clients, so they can have a fully comprehensive overview of

our logo design process and methods; and many of our users, interested in the process of designing and

developing a logo.

For the purpose of this tutorial, we're going to design and develop a logo for an imaginary company, called

"LTD", short from Logo Tutorial by DryIcons.

Project Start and design brief

The project starts when we receive a detailed design brief from our (imaginary) client. This is an important part

of the designing process, because it will provide us with essential information about our client's insights,

needs, expectations and targets. Understanding the nature of the project is beneficial for both designer and

client, since it will save both parties a lot of valuable time (money) and will provide firm starting position which

will result in a professional and effective product.

Based on our client's information we now know that this is a strong, powerful, creative, responsible youth

organization, which employs highly motivated, university educated staff. They are very passionate about what

they believe in: individuality, democracy, creativity, non-conventional thinking, gutsy and dynamic attitude. Their

target group consists of students, young professionals and independent entrepreneurs.

They expect us to create an easily-recognizable, stylish graphic work, which will accurately express these

characteristics.

Research

Research will mark the second stage of the design process. This stage means spending a lot of time

browsing the Internet, initially doing research of the industry involved, getting to know our client's competition,

current design trends and so on.

Visualization

Now this is the fun part. After we've gathered all the necessary knowledge, after a lot of reading and

brainstorming, we are ready to start visualizing our ideas. Pencil drawing on a piece of paper is our favorite

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method when working on the initial concepts, however, this is just a matter of personal choice.

Knowing when to stop and take a break has proven to be very helpful at this point. It's very easy to get stuck at

a certain point, which will eventually lead to frustration and losing interest in the project. Leaving the project to

rest for a while is always good, because when you get back to it, you are suddenly able to judge your work

more objectively, and you instantly know which concept provides you solid ground for further development.

After the break, we have chosen one idea that will be our main concept upon which we're going to develop the

logo. We are going to use a stylized fist, a powerful symbol which will unite all aspects of this logo design

project.

Another method that's proved to be very helpful when visualizing your ideas is taking photos of your ideas, of

course, when possible. With our desired symbol and perspective in mind, we have taken this photo:

Drawings

Based upon the photo image, we have drawn the fist. As you can see, highlighting the fist outlines can serve

as a good starting point to developing this logo, but we are instantly going to abandon this idea because this

is not the path we want to take.

Instead, we're looking to develop a modern, stylized, easily-recognizable symbol. Therefore, we're continuing

to explore the fist drawing, now coming up with a more simple and stylized version.

The previous sketch has guided us in the right direction, and we now have a version of the fist drawing that's,

in our opinion, very strong and memorable, but also very creative and modern.



Now we can move on to our computers.

Computer developing

Creating the Logo Mark

For the purpose of this tutorial we are going to use Adobe Illustrator CS3.

From the Toolbar, choose the Rectangle Tool to draw a simple rectangle, like on the image below. With the

rectangle selected, go to Effect > Stylize > Round Corners, and give the rectangle a semicircle roundness.

Now, copy and paste the same object. Click on the new object and slightly increase its height.

Repeat the same procedure to create all four fingers. Increase the object's height to resemble the different

size of human fingers.

Copy and paste the smallest, pinky finger. The new object will represent the thumb. Place the thumb object

accurately and rotate to the desired position.



Select all four finger objects and rotate to the desired position.

To be able to use the Trim Tool later, we need to expand the object appearance. Select all objects and go to

Object > Expand Appearance.

To preserve the continuity of the design, we need to separate the thumb from the fingers that are touching.

First we're going to create the thumb contour. The contour thickness needs to be the same as the spaces

between the fingers. Select the thumb and go to Object > Path > Offset Path.



Creating the contour will automatically group the two objects together. To ungroup the contour from the thumb

go to Object > Ungroup. Select the contour and change its color to have better articulacy.

We now want to trim the two fingers with the contour. Select the contour and while holding the Shift Key we'll

select the two fingers we want to cut. Go to Window > Pathfinder to open the Pathfinder Window and click Trim.

Go to Object > Ungroup to separate the grouped objects, select the contour and delete it. This is the result of

this procedure.

Applying the Company Name

Having our logo mark created, we now want to apply the company name. We think that the best way to do that

would be to create another similar rounded object which will contain the name of the company. From the

Toolbar, choose the Rectangle Tool and again draw a simple rectangle, like on the image below. With the

rectangle selected, go to Effect > Stylize > Round Corners, and give the rectangle a semicircle roundness. We

choose to color this object red, because this color provides good contract from the logo mark and bring more

attention to the company name.



Choosing the right Typography

Choosing the right Typography is a very important part of the logo development process. The selection of font

can depend on many things, like what look you are trying to convey, what's the font's purpose, how much

space needs to be filled, and so on. Since our design uses rounded corners, and we don't want the company

name to be distracted, we have decided to use a simple font with rounded corners, but without any complex

details.

For the purposes of this tutorial I’m using a font called “Arial Rounded”.

Now, select the Type Tool, and type the word you need.

This is the final result. It's always best to provide your clients with vector files of the artwork, because vectors

can be scaled to any size without loss of quality.

On the image below you can see that we also created a grayscale and a black version of the logo. A good,

strong logo shouldn't loose its impact in the black and white version.



Corporate identity

Having created a good logo is one thing. Using the logo to create a recognizable Corporate Identity is as

important as everything we've done by now in this tutorial.

In the image below you can see a great example of a consistent design and creativity and professional

appeal.



Hope you liked our Logo Design and Process Tutorial. Please share your thoughts with us on this subject, do

you share similar design methods, do you find this tutorial to be helpful? And make sure to come back for

more.

Like

Sort by best ratingShowing 49 comments

and 42 others liked this.

great post! i don't think a lot of people realize how many steps go into designing a logo.

elisa

Like Reply2 years ago 4 Likes

Nice article ..as i am also associated with this business so i am well aware how useful this article

really is..

Commented by:Logo and Stationary Design Firm

Susi

Like Reply2 years ago 1 Like

Awesome concepto and explanation for getting in the right way to design logos. Thanks, will be

featured in a post of mine as soon as possible.

Luis Lopez Garay




Hey Guys, thanks for sharing the tutorial . You guys are simply great. Icons and Graphics are great...

good color scheme, sharply design..

Well said "Great source of inspiration".

Keep the good work going!!

Once again Thanks,

Saroj

Sarojini


thank you! thank you very much~ I'm just a design hobbiest! and i always had troubles thinking of

logos doe specific ideas! :) thanks again!

Bloker


Hi guys, i would appreciate if you can tell the technical restrictions you have considered, for example,

to decide the size and distance of this red oval, the size for the inner typography and so on.

How do you get the information of your client? just in a meeting? do you have an standard form with

some key questions?

Indeed, at first glance, it might be a good approach, but in the end it could not work very well after a

stress test, really don't know.

I've read some things about distance restrictions around the logo (margins, where you can place

another elements or text…) and i found that very interesting, i know this is just a brief and i really don't

want to learn everything from this post but, if you can provide some info about this subject, it would be

very appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Darbo Scalante …, Mis intereses rondan el arte (jajaja) y el cuidado del medio ambiente. S

Like Reply3 w eeks ago

Thanks for this great tutorials. Cheers!

Ramel de la Cruz

Like Reply1 month ago

did this http://www.micromaxinfo.com/ company plagiarized your logo or they are one of your clients

Shiva

Like Reply2 months ago

Hey Shiva, thank you for your comment. I don't think it's plagiarized, they are using the fist as a

symbol, which is very widely used.

dryicons

Like Reply2 months ago in reply to Shiva

lol LOVE THIS post. A bit late to the party I know, but great to see tutorials nevertheless.

Marco Berrocal


Marco, better late then never :)

dryicons

Like Reply2 months ago in reply to Marco Berrocal

Great info. Thanks for sharing.

Homes an Interiors


Wow! This is a great article. Thanks.. I love the outcome

Daniel



Like Reply2 years ago

It look like Manpower logo: http://www.ambafrance-mx.org/n...

Greetings.

Juan Capurro


It is really a good article, We tried a lot but couldn't come with any good logo, still fighting... it is really

hard job

admin


thanks for sharing your process.. i think imagination and creativity is the key

Joenel


Thanks for sharing this

Aadu


Ltd is looking good brand, the logo is best and business card is looking well. The good point is with

the purpose of the sharpest and Finest of Ltd logo is quite well.The Best

Describe/Review/Revision/Tips/Tutorial and The process of logo design

David


Nice tutorial!!

Also like it.

John


Honestly, that's what I call simplicity at it's best!! Thanks for sharing. Great inspiration for my logo!

Greg


Nice tutorial.

Aky


@Bryan: Thanks for your comment. Different tastes can't be discussed..The logo created in this post

is an imaginary project and intended to serve as reference only..it's not meant to be seen outside of

the tutorial's context.@luke: No process involved? Before we start explaining how to use the rectangle

tool we went through 4 different stages when creating a logo: Design brief, Research, Visualization

and Drawings..

Orchida


Imo, the maximum a person can gain from this is how to use the rectangle + pathfinder tools in

Illustrator. It's a walk-through describing the way you executed your final decision... there's no process

involved. It's a mockery to called this a logo design process tutorial.

All this really amounts to is fodder for a higher google pagerank. Any the majority of the people offering

luke



their congratulations just want the reciprocal links. It's a sad state of affairs when the blind decide they

should be able to lead the blind..


I have to agree with a few of the other commenters...I really liked the sketch and initial concepts better

than the finished piece. If I were to see this out of the context of this tutorial I'm not sure it would make

sense. I think a more stylized version like in sketch 2 would have been very successful. Thanks for

posting the process tho'...always great to see that designers are still promoting sketching and using

references.

Bryan


Good tutorials are hard to come by, but great ones like this are nearly impossible to find. I like the

sketch a lot, very cool.

Logo Professional


Thanks for the tutorial, although I don't like the finished logo too much, but it might just be me.

Regis


Excellent!

Fernando Batlle


yes, its really nice tutorial,it will useful to freshers learn how to make logo designing.thanks for ur

most valuable tutorials

Posi Babu Rajamundry


this is Amazing Guys!

Thanks a bunch!

Chetan Madaan


that's a really good approach and thanks for sharing..what a good job, though

social bookmarking


@Formula: We actually try to avoid the printing part, so our Logo Agreement only covers the design. If

you are a designer, I advice you not to offer printing services to your clients. Almost all of our printing

experiences have been bad, so even if you have the perfect design, chances are really big it gets

ruined in the printing process, and you have an unsatisfied client.

Orchida


I liked the sketch better than the finished logo.

Very weak brand. Poor example of the design process.

Joornifer


Great tutorial, easy to follow for a beginner.

Fabian


yurex_pl



This is great! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.


thanks a lot man it helped me a lot great job

rohit


It is always nice to learn from guys who are in for some time .. Great tuts .. just came here while

searching for an "up arrow" now you are there in my bookmarks ...! Thanks once again for such a

great tut.

Anoop D


It help me a lot. Now i know how to implement ideas

Paradise_Des


where do you go on finding the right printing company to do the job for ya and materials to choose

from? any suggestions?

Formula


Nice tutorial! Reminds us all that the biggest step remains 'concept' and that the second most

important thing is to draw it out before jumping on the computer! Thanks guys ! :)

Duane


Thanks, Very Good LEsson :)

eXeC


Guys...you rock...I admire you for the work you are doing...keep up the fantastic work :)

Megna


the tutorial class is very help ful for me. its way of designing logo is very nice. thanx to dry icons

manohar


Awesome! Malupet!

gustokonyan


I just discovered the site through a friend on twitter and I love the work you guys do.

The process outline on this tutorial is very accurate and the final product looks very professional, I

might have to follow you now: )

Keep up the good work you guys!

Kode


This tutorial I believe, is the best in the business! I now have a sort of guideline on how to start a logo

design. I am an amateur in the field but with such tutorials at hand, I make a little but significant step

forward.

Great job guys!! Keep it up

Christopher

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