Logo Design Notes

Logo, Branding, and Identity notes

Developing and understanding a branding framework

A single logo design project can have hundreds of iterations

Think about how the logo goes into its other media (online, Print, etc)

Get a media booklet describing how to use the logo

Brand is the "perceived" corporate emotional image, the reputation both claimed and perceived

Branding is essentially an organization's public image

- designer creates the framework w/ color, fonts, artwork, style, etc

-Audience completes the perception of the brand through an emotional reaction with it

Example: 

-Apple is an IT company that projects a humanist image, positive corporate ethics, and support of   good causes

-people using the products connect to the brand emotionally

What is Identity?

-Corporate Identity is the visual aspects that form the brand

-Close attention is paid to executing a consistent experience for the viewer

What is Identity Design?

-Includes strict usage of colors, fonts, graphic elements, and other guidelines, usually detailed in a   corporate identity guide

-can include the logo, logo variations, business cards, labels, etc

What is a Logo?

-For identification

-the simplest way for a company/organization to represent itself, through the use of a mark or icon

Summary

Brand: Perceived corporate image as a whole

Identity: The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand

Logo: Identifies a business in its simplest form via the use of a mark or icon

Logo Design

Using line quality and graphic style in your icon

We create logos as vector art because it is flexible, powerful, and easily edited

-can be scaled up w/ no quality loss

Pencil to Vector

-Creating a logo requires many phases

-many meetings and review sessions required

-converting a simple pencil sketch to vector art requires establishing graphic style, color, line shape, and typography

Final Art: Graphic Style

-Decide what your Graphic Style will be

-will it be bold, or sleek, or cartoony, or high tech and 3d?

-should portray the values the company is trying to express

-wide range of styles to choose from

-choose what fits your concept and market

Final Art: Line Quality

-refers to the smoothness and precise nature of your lines

-We use the pen tool to create perfect, smooth lines

-take your time, if it doesn't look right, try again

Line Shape

-line shape is important

-For an artistic appearance, use a custom art brush

Color Matters

-Color makes a huge difference, use those that are appropriate for your design

General Rules and Styles for Designing logos

-needs to be describable, memorable, scalable, and effective w/o color

-Style 1: Typeface Focused

-relies on a typeface to create the logo design, creativity utilized in proximity, contrast, color, and customization of the letter forms

-Style 2: Mixing Typefaces

-uses 2 or more typefaces to create a logo design. Create a balanced design, too similar fonts will lack contrast

-Style 3: Typeface plus Graphic Elements

-uses a simple graphic element to create emphasis. Keep the graphics abstract

-Style 4: Type face + shapes/Symbols

-even balance between type and art, art should look like something

-Style 5:Graphic Focused Design

-Graphics are dominant, type is a supporting role