Designing something –
a logo for example.

Before any work can progress, you’ll need to determine a price and provide a quotation. This discussion about money and estimating is a whole post on its own… so I’ll avoid it for now. Let’s consider that the client has accepted your pricing and engaged you in the project.

Step 1: Ideation… well, wait, that’s not necessarily true. In fact, it’s probably the most common misstep in the creative design development process. Step 1 is empathy or context. You are incapable of doing great creative work for any company or client without first taking time to get to fully understand them to the best of your ability – and as time permits – before any doodle is drawn. Before you can dive deeply into the visual journey of identifying a company and producing imagery related to its brand, you need to be well-versed in their vision and mission and product/service… essentially, their “culture”. If you’re not exactly certain what a brand is… here’s a quick take: branding is that gut feeling you have about a company. These basic, guttural feelings can then provide adjectives to assist with defining the brand for that company.

For a closer look at branding… click here.

The visual development of an “identity” for a company requires that you uncover as much as you can about the company and the “brand” in order to truly have the proper starting point. So, step 1b is research… also known as the “define” stage. Get to know as much as you can about the target of your creativity. Yes, you can look at old identities for that company, if they exist. But don’t yet dive too deeply into any creative explorations on your computer. This is simply an information gathering phase.

If you’d like to learn more about the design thinking process… click here.

Once you’ve become sufficiently informed about your client or the company you’re going to conceptualize a “mark” for, now you can start the process of doodling. Officially, over the years, this part of the process has been called “thumbnails”. They have taken on this moniker because your sketches are not to be any larger than your thumbnail. At this stage, its all about quick and quantity. The more you have, the more apt you are to come up with something great. Aiming for quantity you may find that many of these thumbnails play off of each other and can look very similar.

With anything I’ll offer here, there is absolutely not just one way to do any of this… but this specific process has worked exceptionally well for me, so I’m going to provide it as at least a successful option.

If you’re concerned that any amount of work you will put in will be met with discontent or objection from your client, before you actually start down the path of developing the logo, you may want to have a conversation about visual elements. This part of the design development process is referred to as moodboarding or stylescaping. Here, a quick collage of visual elements is composed into a presentation board or composite file for discussion. Using typefaces and colours and imagery you quickly produce a collage of elements to show to the client and spark a discussion in an effort to gain more understanding as to what exactly they may be looking for as the process continues.

Above are some examples of moodboards. A collage of imagery, colour, type, texture, treatments and iconology that is tremendously beneficial in assisting with those initial preferences conversations with your client.

For any creative thumbnail exploration, I immediately start in my journal (sketchbook). This imperative first step, allows your mind to conjure up possibilities that are uninfluenced (other than from what you’ve learned about the company in the first steps). In other words, if you start away from the computer, you are most likely to come up with something original/unique or at least provide yourself with the confidence that at the root of what you’re creating is something that did not start out based on someone else’s work. That is not to say that stuck in the recesses of your mind won’t be something that you will discover later, was similar to something that has been done before, but at least you will have alternatives that expand on your own personal interpretations and explorations.

For a logo, I usually start with whatever is most prominent about the company or brand itself. If the company name is the main visual catalyst like “Apple”… I would start exploring images related to that. If, however, the company name offers no immediate visual influence, I start with the company initials. Something like, International Business Machines would become, you guessed it, IBM.

Occasionally, you may be invited in to assist with the company at its very infancy and therefore may be asked to assist with naming this entity. This becomes a whole separate exercise and I do not recommend that you undertake this at the same time as developing the company identity. Naming is a creative undertaking all on its own. It plays such an integral part that it is best to land on a final name before attempting to brand it. You may, in fact, find this side of brand creation beyond either your preference or purview. Thankfully, there are a number of companies who specialize in this practice. Alternatively, if you feel capable of assisting with this aspect of the work, again, I start with my journal and a couple of great resource books. Here are my go-to references: I’ll save a deep dive into “naming” for a future post.

In order to visually assist with this post on logo development, I thought I’d showcase the steps I took in branding this new entity of mine: room2create.

I’ll skip the naming portion for now and focus in on the visual development. As you can see by the name, I had a choice of focusing in on the concept of a “room” or playing around with the initials which were a bit more impactful simply due to the choice of using the number 2 instead of the proper preposition.

This ideation process took a number of days. As John Cleese suggests in his rules for being more creative, it is important that as a creator you take as much time as is allowed, to ensure you have given the process time to properly inform your work. In this case, I had no specific deadline – which in itself can present unforeseen problems – but I fabricated a finish line and set out to use it as my target.

Here (below) are my explorations related to “room”. As the pandemic took hold of all aspects of business providing new ways to do almost everything, I suspected that most of my teaching would be moving online, so I secured my URL way before fully establishing exactly what this site would “be”. The initial concept behind the name was that my design teaching centred around a specifically outfitted space and hence the “room” became an important element. Creativity was an imperative and as you can see with some of these sketches, they are influenced by my interior design for my educational space.

Below are the explorations with the initials R2C:

And some more:

As any creative individual is certain to tell you, when you’re doing work for yourself… your own personal thing… you will constantly be doubting every step. My best advice, as always, is to JUST DO IT! If you become paralyzed every step of the development path, you will have absolutely nothing to show for it in the end. So, the best alternative, to this lack of movement, is to struggle for a specific time and then just decide. You may find, as I did, that things will grow on you. I like the name now. There were, however, many sleepless nights and multi-sided personal arguments for and against. Part of me… part of any creator/designer, I’m sure… would still be wrestling with names today if I hadn’t come to understand the benefits of just getting something on which to base the next step.

Step 2: Design. Where your initial sketches will be based primarily on quantity, eventually you need to focus on quality. At the design stage you begin to wrangle together those images that are hitting closest to your taste, your preferences, for deeper more critical discussions.

There are 2 ways to best go about this part of the process. The first is to simply gather your thumbnails and clean them up a bit. They can remain as drawings if they convey the essence of what you’re aiming for. Shown below.

The second is to produce some quick digital sketches. Either solution must be timely because you’ll very quickly want to move on to the next step of the process which is getting some feedback. At this stage, it is imperative that you DO NOT immediately go to the client for feedback. They are rarely equipped to handle creative critique. The hope would be that you have been able, over the years (or months if you’re just starting out), to develop a small network of trusted voices by which to showcase your concepts.

For this particular project, I was able to extend an invitation to a number of trusted voices and get some feedback. Here is a look at the final sketches:

Thankfully, these 2 levels of "final" sketches provided enough of a catalyst for some wonderful and appreciated feedback. In an effort to assist in understanding this part of the process, here are some excerpts.

WT + BT - There's a few here that I like, there's something to the 2 as part of the R and C that works well. These two (E and F) would be the favourites. Consensus concluded that these two were the most appreciated although there was a good deal of interest in A. That was eventually eliminated because it primarily focused on the word "create" as the "C" being the dominant component but many "liked" it.

AVM - Personally, this one spoke to me the most I think, but it always depends on the context. Just loved how somehow you managed to use white space to combine all three characters together. It's also visually interesting enough that I could see it going well on merch (I'm getting ahead of myself, I know), in the tiny profile photo on Instagram or linkedin or wherever you would use it, and also could lend itself to some neat treatments depending on how you decided to incorporate colour. It does feel a little light so part of me was wondering if you were planning to fill in certain sections (I figured the R and the C while the 2 was white) but I also think it could be interesting just as an outline? Either way just seems like this one has a lot of possibilities. E

I also quite like this one though for some reason there's an element of it that feels like sports to me? I don't think in an overpowering way and with the rest of a brand around it you could probably change that. I think it's something about the serifs.         A

Loving what I see here, in particular, these two... my favorites were - A and F

AA - I liked the logo ideas you sent, and you probably have already chosen one! My favorites are -  A and F

NL - As for the sketches, they're very cool! I think this one looks very regal, and I love the way the R and 2 mesh together. I don't know the vibe you're going for though.     A

Looking at these digitally, I really do like this one. When I look at it, I'm reminded of something else, but I can't put my finger on it. Maybe I'm thinking of the Carlsburg logo? Even though it's not really the same... I like the way it's locked up together, but I'm wondering if the 'C' is too prominent in that it might be read as the first letter of the acronym instead of the 'R'?          A

In that matter, I think this one is working really well too since the eye reads the 'R' better in my opinion.  F

Step 4 – Refine – The next step in the process after you’ve attained personal affirmation is to pull together your best selections and present your ideas. At this stage of the brand development it is imperative that you’re able to constrain your enthusiasm when considering what you wish to present to the client. Typically there are 3 schools of thought:

1. Go in with every successful idea

2. Go in with your best idea, your preferred idea

3. Present 3 choices maximum, ensuring that you’re willing to accept any one of
the 3 choices.

Number 3 is always the best choice. Number 1 provides way too much choice for the client and can have far too many adverse outcomes. The most powerful being that the client becomes concerned about what they are paying you for, if they are the ones making all the decisions? You need to be able to edit and pare down. It is part of your responsibility.

Number 2 provides no margin for error. If the client is not fully enamoured with your choice, not having a back-up can prove to be a very difficult discussion. Even if you are convinced that this idea is indeed the best… clients – people in general – like to feel part of the decision (if not creative) process and presenting more options from which they can help whittle down… will be the most preferred and the one that meets with the least resistance.

There are ways to assist you when presenting so that you give your “favourite” choice the best chance of approval. I’ll aim to talk about that in a future post, but if you’re dying to know now, don’t hesitate to drop me a note.

It is also at this stage that you should begin to entertain colour choices. Once again your moodboard should have provided some initial directions but I also have been a strong proponent of keeping a file on colour palettes. I highly recommend this. You know, you’ll come across a design or a fabric that you just love the colour combination… a quick screen capture or the click of your phone and you’ve started your palette database. Now is as good a time as any to be the “old designer that I am” and point out that once upon a time I literally had to clip things from magazines and put them in file folders!!! Think about that kids!

Once again, for my colour palette discussions, I went back to my trusted circle. Showed them a few choices:

Yet, somewhat quickly landed on this final combination:

Step 5: Pitch

Now, in this case I was not only the designer but the client so I didn’t have to really pitch but I still had to seek the affirmation of my trusted circle and put the new logo out there. In the design thinking process, this would fall under the test phase. I find that when you’re talking to fellow creatives it is best to showcase a wide variety of permeations of your final intentions so that they will be comfortable that you have exhausted possibilities. To that end, I presented this:

If you are aiming to do a final pitch there are a number of things to consider.

A) Always treat your new creation with reverence and provide a reveal or unveiling. You want to spend a bit of time getting your audience – even if it’s just one person – to understand that you’ve done your homework, taken time to understand “them” as a company, a culture, a brand. For example, if you’re doing a rebrand it is a good idea to showcase the old brand incarnations prior to leading up to the new one. If you’re entering a marketplace space that already has a myriad of competitors it is a good idea to showcase your logo amidst the competitors logos. Again, so as not to spend too much time on this hear, if you’d like to know more about this strategy, please drop me a line.

B) If this is a new company’s identity you want to present no more than 3 ideas. Ensuring, as I’ve mentioned before, that you can live with any of the 3 choices that you are pitching. If you are convinced that one design is the definitive “winner”, you may want to make sure that one of the other 2 designs presented is similar to the preferred one. Sort of nudging the client to choosing amongst the most “popular” design.

C) If you are worried about not getting a definitive affirmation from your client… if you anticipate hesitation, showcasing your designs “in action” can assist with convincing the client and promoting your cause. The online printing company, Vistaprint, was a great place to go for quick templates that would showcase your logo on everything ranging from coffee mugs to t-shirts for free. All you need do is make like you’re going to order business cards and in their attempts to upsell you on other items, they quickly generate a myriad of other promotional piece images which you can then steal to help make your point. DO NOT spend time doing this yourself. Until a final logo is decided upon, do not waste your time. There are plenty of online resources that can quickly generate imagery to get you through to securing a final design decision.

D) Do a presentation board. It is very likely that your client will not be able to give you confirmation surrounding a design choice by the end of your pitch. Instead of leaving your presentation behind (never a good idea because the client will not use it correctly anyway)… prepare a presentation board (I'll touch more on this in the future as well). This board is a visual summary of… get this… your preferred logo choice. Again, if you’re convinced about one design over the others, invest in that design – various logos sizes, colour palette, type choices and imagery of the design “in action” (as I mentioned above). Alternatively, if you feel that the client will continue to waffle, you should prepare 3 smaller presentation boards, based on your top 3 choices, as leave behinds. These can be much simpler, usually just the logo in both black & white and colour.

In the end, your logo pitch presentation will showcase a bit of history of the company and its brand, affirming your understanding. That will be followed by the unveiling of the new identity. A single slide that showcases the logo in all its glory all on its own. Once you’ve showcased it for an appropriate amount of time (you can usually gauge the timing by the response in the room) you can follow that with a slide or two that showcases colour palette and any other branding elements that have come from the initial design process and will assist with the eventual use of this new identity. Logo, wordmark, typefaces, corporate colours, web palette and variations will serve to ensure your client is confident in your work and your... I mean, their choice.

Any questions, reach out to me at: dthompson@room2create.ca