LOGO DESIGN

GRAPHIC DESIGN

What is a logo?

• A logo is a simple graphic, text, or combination of the two used to represent a person or business.
• A logo is often used in marketing materials, signage, on websites, and the like to help promote the company.
• A logo can help develop brand awareness, or a connection between the logo and the company when the logo is seen.

What is brand identity?

• Brand identity is the outward appearance of a company/person to others.
• This includes logo, trademarks, name, communication, visual appearance, and more.
• Brand identity is what makes you recognizable to others.
• A strong brand identity means a company is instantly recognizable based on simple elements such as their logo, color combination, or style.

Included in branding…

• Logo and graphics
• Typography
• Color palette
• Website
• Signage
• Décor
• Packaging
• Uniforms
• Most things that relate to the company and are used in advertising, marketing, social media, and other communication.

Logo Design

• When developing a new company or redesigning a company, it all begins with the logo.
• The logo should include the basics of the brand identity such as typography, color, and graphics.
• The logo should reflect the company and their target demographic.
• For example, a toy company should have a fun, playful style appealing to children rather than adults.
• Logos can include text and graphics, just a graphic, or just text.
• A typical logo includes the company name.

Logo Designs

• Although most logos do include a combination of graphics and typography, some companies are so recognizable based on a single graphic, they don’t need their name included.

Who develops �the logo?

• Typically, the logo and branding of a company starts with a graphic designer.
• Graphic design is “the art and practice of planning and projecting ideas and experiences with visual and textual content” according to the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).
• Graphic designers are tasked with communicating ideas visually in multiple forms of media, which is very broad.

Check out an explanation of what a graphic designer does here.

Where do they start?

• When starting a new design, it all begins with research.
• What does the company do? What are their goals? Who is their target audience? What is the style?
• From there, they begin sketching out ideas.
• Sketches can be completed digitally or on paper and then imported to the final design program to trace and finalized.
• Often, designers present multiple logo design options before finalizing the design.
• Check a video on the steps to creating a logo here.

Your assignment…

• You will create a design for the Griffins eSport Club.
• Think of this as your company, you are a designer, designing for clients under this company as you complete projects for this class.
• Because you get to develop the brief for your company think about the colors, shapes, textures, typography, and style that appeal to you.
• Consider if you want graphics for your company or if you want it to be text focused.

Your grade…

• Canva tutorial (participation grade)
• Branding identity worksheet (participation grade)
• Visual identity worksheet (participation grade)
• Develop a logo for your design company.
• Use Canva to develop your logo.
• Participate in a critique of the finished products (participation grade)

Today:

Developing your logo…

• Refer to your brand identity questionnaire.
• What is your personality?
• What are your interests?
• How can you reflect yourself through your design company logo?

• Check out this video on logo design cliches to avoid.

Developing your logo…

• Refer to your visual identity questionnaire.
• What color combinations do you like?
• What shapes and graphics fit your aesthetic and personality?
• What typography works with the look?
• How would you describe your design aesthetic and style?

Doesn’t feel timeless.

Too hard to read.

A good fit.

Not very modern feeling, too crafty.

Too trendy.

Too hard to read.

Good fit.

Not thin enough.

Don’t love it paired with Sketch Block.

Too thin.

Color

• Color can have a big impact on how your logo is perceived.
• People have different psychological connections to colors, not every color will appeal to every person. But you can understand how color is generally perceived.
• Choose colors you like.
• Choose colors that don’t compete and aren’t too overpowering.
• Consider the color wheel

Color Perception

• Red is good for exciting, loud, and youthful designs.
• Orange is high-energy, playful, and friendly.
• Yellow reflects happiness, is accessible, and has a cheerful vibe.
• Green is one of the most versatile colors and is often tied to nature and financial themes.
• Blue is the most universally appealing color, is good for a wide demographic and feels stable and trustworthy.
• Purple has a luxurious feel.
• Pink tends to lean more feminine and a soft, luxurious identity. However, using pink to push the envelope on gender could make you stand out.
• Brown is the least used color in branding, which could help you stand out. It has a masculine, rugged feel.
• Black has a modern, sophisticated, as well as classic feel. It is a timeless color selection.

Step One

• Refer to your visual branding handout.
• Look at your first three sketches, which one(s) do you like best?
• Take your best idea and expand on it.
• Draw it on a fresh sheet of paper or start playing with elements digitally in Canva.

Step Two:

• Start with a logo template base in Canva.
• Consider which template best fits your shapes and text style.
• You can customize any template; you want a good base to start with then make it your own.

Step Three:

• Play around with text styles.
• Pick different fonts, colors, sizes, and effects.

Step Four:

• Play with adding other shapes and changing the color and style of the shapes already included.

Step Five:

• Upload your own graphics or look through graphics available in the elements tab.
• Resize, rotate, and layer graphics.
• Keep your brand and visually identity in mind as you play with your design.

Step Six:

• Make the logo smaller.
• Copy and paste another version of it.
• Build off of this one.
• Try a new template if you aren’t happy with the way this one is going.
• Add additional artboards, continue to play with ideas.

Step Seven:

• When you settle on a design you like, copy and paste it to a new page.
• Stretch it to fill the page.
• Make final tweaks.
• Download all your pages as PNG files.

Step Ten:

• You can use your exported PNG to add to other projects, a website, or similar to represent your company.
• To finalize your logo for submission, add it to a document in Microsoft Word or similar.
• Type an artist statement under the design explaining why you chose the company name, typography, colors, graphic, shapes, and similar for your logo. Describe your designing process and how these connect to reflect you and your hypothetical design company.
• Save this document to turn in for your project.