graphic design, freelancing, illustration, advertising, web design

I have written before why I think a logo design is worth investing a little time and money on, but a friend told me something a little while ago that shed a whole new light on cheap logo design.

My friend another freelance designer had recently started working with a new client who unfortunately had already had their logo design done by a cheap logo designer. He had now approached my friend to help with some design work after the problems they had had with the cheap logo. They had basically commissioned someone to do a really cheap logo, they were happy with the design and so had it printed on they stationery, literature and vans. The problem began when they found another local company in the same line of work had a very similar logo. I don’t know whether both logos were done by the same designer, or perhaps two different designers used some logo clip art, or the designer copied the other logo, but either way it was an expensive mistake. The cost of van graphics, literature and stationery could easily outweigh the costs of using a reputable graphic designer who charges realistic prices because they spend time thinking about and designing a logo and not just using clip art or copying designs.

Its a pretty embarrassing thing to be driving a van which looks very similar to your competitor too.

A designer friend contacted me the other day to ask if I had done much work on corporate identity guidelines as she was trying to put something together for a client. It’s been several years since I have worked on any logo/corporate ID guidelines, but of course I have had to follow existing ones for projects I am working on for larger companies.

I did a quick google to see if there was any information about corporate guidelines and found a resource I thought could be very useful. At www.designerstalk.com they have a page with has loads of downloadable PDF files of different companies corporate ID guidelines which could be really helpful if you are trying to put something together yourself.

Also I have just found via David Airey’s logo design love another site with branding guideline examples

Last year I was asked to create a logo for In4systems, a company that creates property management software. This software is used by companies who need to manage large portfolios of properties, such as landlords and housing associations. I started by asking a few questions about their requirements and enquired about their competitors. Their brief was fairly open so I started by taking a look around at what their competitors were doing. The next stage was to start sketching. Whenever I am designing a logo I always spend a considerable amount of time sketching, it allows me to quickly try out different ideas to see what shapes and designs are like likely to work. Below are a few of my sketches which I scanned in ready for the next stage.

These sketches are very rough but they were never intended to be seen by the client they are purely a tool for me to work out my ideas. Within the sketches I thought it would be a good idea to include a descriptor/strap line in these which would give a more immediate sense of what the company does and worked this into the designs.

The next step was to start working up some of the logo design sketches on the computer. Using Adobe illustrator I used the scanned sketches as a guide and started designing the logos in black and white, choosing what I felt were appropriate fonts. Working in black and white enabled me to concentrate on shapes and type rather than be distracted by colours.

Some of these I felt were working and some weren’t so I took my preferred options and started deciding on colours.

I showed these to he client and they chose their preferred option and requested some changes to colours and the addition of shapes that represented windows. The chosen design was then worked up into stationery designs for letter heads and business cards which you can see below.