Creating a Logo that Personifies who you are
ALISSA HERE:
When I was mulling over my decision to make the big move to WordPress I knew I really wanted to update the “face” and branding of Rags to Stitches. Not to make it undistinguishable from the brand I had already worked hard to create, but just to take to the necessary steps in taking the logo and design to the next level. I was really excited when I was introduced to Kristen from Ahoy Graphics. Not only is she talented, a great designer, but I felt like she really heard how I wanted everything to look and was able to bring it to full fruition. She also just recently put out a great ebook about Branding that I highly recommend.
I asked Kristen if she’d guest post about one of the first steps in the branding process: creating a logo. She has some great things to say.
HERE’S KRISTEN:
Simple: Less is More
A logo is your brand mark that will be used on everything you can think of. Keeping it simple will be make it more versatile in it’s use online and in print. Keeping it simple also allows you to cut the clutter and get to the core, or essence, of your brand. Think “iconic” and always see if there’s anything you can take out or edit that won’t hurt your logo design. Editing down is key. If you’re a Project Runway fan like I am, you know how the judges always mention editing down the contestant’s pieces to relate just one idea.
Unique: Design to the Beat of Your Own Drum
There’s nothing I want more for my clients than to look good while still being them. I grew up wanting to be different in as many ways as I could get away with. The last thing I wanted was to be compared to someone else. There are too many sides to me to really peg me as a single label. When I meet a new client, it’s like Christmas morning because I get to learn about who they are, what makes them tick, and what sets them apart from the rest. Their unique stories are so captivating that I see it as a waste to not show it in their logo. You may not think you have a great story to tell, but that’s because you’re too close to it. To others, it could be seem magical or be something meaningful they can relate to. Buyers can smell a fake a mile away and won’t be impressed by nor trusting of you. Be honest with your brand and tell your own story.
Memorable: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
If your logo can be simple and unique enough to be remembered, you have a winner. Your logo won’t always be seen from the right-side up so be sure it’s recognizable from all angles. Coca-cola and Nike are excellent examples of how a brand mark can be memorable and recognized world-wide, regardless of culture or language. Keep this in mind when designing yours and see if your family and close friends can describe your logo to you a few days after you’ve showed them. If most can remember easily, you’re headed in the right direction.
Versatile: Here, There, and Everywhere
Logos will be used in many mediums in both print and digital. Make sure you have your marketing plan for promoting your business and all the things you will need designed before heading into the logo design process. When you have a nearly finished draft, try placing it on top of screenshots of your website or objects you’ll be printing it on to see if it can still look good in the space you use it on. Some spaces may be wide and narrow, while some are more square, and some are super tiny. Keeping your layout versatile means making it to be broken up and re-arranged to fit the space or making an abbreviated version of your logo.
Enduring: Be Timeless not Trendy
We talked about not changing your logo every time the idea hits you to build trust and recognition in your brand. When designing your logo you want to avoid the latest trend, that may only last for a season or a year, for something that will last 2-3 years. This way, you can re-brand yourself or upgrade your logo less often. Even handmade shops need to avoid going with flow, redesigning is costly when you think of all the things you now have to re-print. Being trendy is not being clever or design-savvy; figuring out how to design something that transcends time is.
Relevant: Dressing for the Occasion
Be sure your logo is a true reflection of what your customers will find in your store. If you have casual jewelry for young adults, don’t design your logo to make you look like you have an elegant luxury line for middle-aged women. You’ll be missing the mark with your target market and your sales will be affected in one way or the other. I like to ask my clients to give me 7 words to describe their personality. These 7 words help guide me to deliver a style that’s suitable for their products
and services.
Creative Design Exercises
Branded Patterns
I love patterns in all shapes and sizes, in all kinds of colors. If you’re a creative, you are going to really like this exercise, it’s a spin-off of what you might have tried with your first and last name.
Take your brand’s initials and create a repeating pattern tile that is made up of only a font of your choice and the initials of your brand—whether you choose to use just one or all. You might have seen this done before in a line of personal stationery with a single letter. Find new ways of arranging the letters together in a way that makes it unnoticeable at first that your pattern is really letters, a subtle surpise.
Then create a 2-color color scheme to suit and have fun using this on your custom printed tissue paper, your brand’s greeting cards, or Twitter background.
Just a Line
Sometimes to break your normal routine, you need a crazy exercise to shake things up. Setting limits to what you can or cannot do can yield new ideas you may not have thought of and can be a challenging but fun experience.
Spend 30 minutes drawing various thumbnail sketches (small, detail-less sketches just to get the idea out of your head and onto paper) of logo brandmarks using only a single line. Remind you of an old game you used to play, the Etch-a-Sketch?
Exactly.
Have fun and see how long you can push the limits of a single line!
Grab Bag Branding
This might be my new favorite exercise. If you deal with over-thinking or
over-working a project then this will help you break that habit and embrace the
random. Like making lemonade out of lemons. It doesn’t matter so much about the end results as it does about the process you go through so approach this exercise with a fun and care-free attitude.
1. Visit Wikipedia and go to “Random” or click
“en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random”. The first random wikipedia
article you get is the name of your band.
2. Google “Random quotations” or click
“www.quotationspage.com/random.php3”. The last four or five words of
the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3. Go to Flickr and go to “Explore” or click
“www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days”. The third picture, no matter
what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use Photoshop, or a similar software, to put it all together.
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