Branding is certainly not a light topic – whole publications & hundreds of books have been written on the topic, however to put it in a nutshell you could describe a ‘brand’ as an organisation, service or product with a ‘personality’ that is shaped by the perceptions of the audience. On that note, it should also be stated that a designer cannot “make” a brand – only the audience can do this. A designer forms the foundation of the brand.
A logo identifies a company or product via the use of a mark, flag, symbol or signature. A logo does not sell the company directly nor rarely does it describe a business. Logo’s derive their meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolises, not the other way around – logos are there to identity, not to explain. In a nutshell, what a logo means is more important than what it looks like.
Our comprehensive logo design strategy ensures a perfectly crafted logo for your business.
The first step in any professional design project is to build a creative design brief. To understand the client and their needs, we must ask questions and develop a clear understanding of their business, their industry and the issues they have been having. This initial phase of the graphic design process stages can be completed however the client is most comfortable – be it over the phone, in person, using an online design questionnaire or simply via email.
Every great logo design starts with a sketch. Be it a doodle on a napkin, or a carefully crafted pen crafted illustration – every project starts with on paper. Often sketching or doodling client’s with a rough brainstorming session, usually visual in nature.
Once we have some rough ideas to work with for the logomark, we will start to think about how the company name will be represented through the logotype. We will have a general idea of the style of typeface we are looking for, such as a contemporary sans-serif or old style serif, but finding the perfect font for the job involves browsing through an extensive font library we have collected.
The initial logo design presentation is exported to a secure PDF format, allowing them to view on screen or print out. Printing is always recommended as their monitor may not show colours accurately, and the embedded print profiles allow for a more accurate representation. Each concept has its PDF, ranging from 5-10+ pages depending on the scope of the project.
Everything is created in Adobe Illustrator, in vector form and can be exported to any format required. The standard files consist of: .AI (for future editing if desired), .EPS / .PDF (for printing), .JPEG (for viewing) and .PNG (with a transparent background for web use). The Vector file formats allow for the maximum range of output because you can scale the size without a loss of quality or sharpness. This means that the same logo design that looks great on a business card will also look perfect on a billboard.