A while ago I read an excellent blog post by Mark Boulton called Five Simple Steps to Designing with Colour. Mark explains how he often starts working on a web design in black and white “Designing with black and white first will ensure that the solution doesn’t rely on colour to work.”
I had never really noticed before but I realised that I use the technique Mark uses for web design when I am designing logos. When designing a logo if you consider the worst common denominator, where the logo will looks its worse is on photocopied/laser printed documentation or in newsprint. So if the logo will work well in black and white you are part of the way to a successful solution.
I always begin with sketching, so of course at this stage my designs are totally black and white (or occasionally blue biro 
), but when I begin in illustrator on the Mac they stay black and white. I find that leaving the logo designs in black and white means I have one less thing to think about. I can make sure shapes and letters fit together without being concerned about colour schemes. Its only when I am happy (more or less) with the designs that I will begin adding colour.
James Dempsey at http://www.jdempsey.com goes one step further in his post 9 rules to creating a logo you can live with and still get paid and suggests you should only show your client their logo designs in black and white. His idea is a good one although I am not sure my clients would accept black and white logos in the first instance. When you present colour logos a client can be blinkered by the colours and not see the potential of the logo behind it. If the client hates purple, they could reject the best logo design because all they see is purple and not the shape and “feel” of a potentially successful logo.
Siong at http://www.siongchin.com/blog/ also discusses how she designs web interfaces starting in black and white.
How do you work, do you start in black and white?
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19 Comments
Hey Tara, what a great idea! It’s occurred to me in the past, but I’ve never tried it. It makes so much sense, especially when it’s so natural to think in BW when using paper (it’s more natural, too). I’ll give it a go. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.
I meant “so natural and less restrictive…” Not a good day for my English, it seems! LOL First comment of the bunch, too!
When I read the first paragraph I thought to myself, “I do that with logos.” And then you said it! How funny. I wonder how many others do the same. Once I take the logo into Illustrator, I leave it B&W, too, until I tweak it enough to get something I like (notice: not “tweak it to perfection”… it’s never perfect!) I always copy the design over and have several rows and columns of variations, the elements in different spots or different fonts. Then I pick the best, copy it to a new doc and do the same thing all over, except now with color.
I like what Dempsey says about not even presenting a logo in color because of possible rejection of the entire design based on that. I also see your point about the client not wanting to see just B&W (how boring! lol). And Dempsey’s first point, GAH! How true, they always pick the crummy ones!
Clients tend to focus on one little aspect they don’t like about a design. They just need to get it through their heads that things can change! We can change the font or the color or put this piece over there. It’s not final! Don’t reject the whole thing because of one little bit!
Hi Michael, I know what you meant
its definitely worth trying. I have been working on some package design today and to be honest I was struggling, I reverted to black and white and it seems to be helping.
Hi Lauren, great minds think alike then
I know what you mean about clients picking the worst ideas. Its difficult, you know which is the best but soe people just won’t be convinced. A client of mine I did some logos for, presented some of my and his design teams logos to his client. He kept the best ones for last, but after showing the second one (one of the weaker ones) the head guy said I love it and that was it the rest of his team daren’t say anything about the others.
In my article about 9 rules to logo design, I should have mentioned that showing your client black & white versions of the logo should be discussed with the client up front.
I’ve found that when you explain the reasoning behind some of the things you do in the design process, you end up with a much more understanding (and cooperative) client in the end.
By the way, I’ve tried everything I can to contact you via your Contact page, but the form tells me I’m using “malicious code, HTML or anchor tags” even though I just type a quick “nice site” sentence.
Hi James,
“In my article about 9 rules to logo design, I should have mentioned that showing your client black & white versions of the logo should be discussed with the client up front.”
. I think its a great idea, I just have to see if I can convince my clients.
I wouldn’t think otherwise
I have just sent myself a couple of messages via the contact form no problem, please could you tell me what browser etc you are using so I can test it.
Thanks
Designing a logo in B/W is very important. I’m interested by the advice re showing your designs to the client in B/W.
When I was in my first year studying design, we were given a project to design a magazine layout for an article (about radio and the internet) and we were told that regardless of the direction we took, the final layout should be legible even when photocopied on a B/W photocopier. That piece of advice made a huge impact on the way I designed the layout, and the colours (and contrasting colours) that I chose, for photographs, artwork, background colours, headlines and body text. It meant that even thought I wasn’t doing my initial layout work in B/W, I was thinking in terms of how it would look in B/W during the whole process.
Tracey, I agree that being able to withstand the “photocopy test” would be a very good gauge for a successful logo. Whenever I’d design a logo, I always though in terms of having it look good in grayscale and scaled down to about a postage stamp size. Those were two fundamental criteria for me, but I really like the challenge of initiating a design entirely in black & white.
I’ve worked in black and white with some of my clients at least. The great thing about doing it that way, is that it moves you one step closer to having a registerable trademark (which several clients have opted for in the past).
The trademarking process registers the mark – in black and white. Any colour then applied to that mark is fine, so long as the underlying design is distinctive enough!
Hi Tracey, Michael, Thanks for your comments.
Tracey, your project sounds a good one to really get you thinking. In the dark ages
when I went to college, we didn’t do anything very practical like that.
Hi Paul, Funny you should talk about trademarks I am just working on some registerable trademarks at the moment, but before that I wouldn’t have thought about the black and white issue in that sense.
what do you do if your client wants Black, Black and only Black..
as my recent client, he wants the text Black, the back ground black, logo Black, black flash animation…
Ahh as of now I feel its way to eay to give something with colours…
Anyone here handled a Night Club, or a DJ???
All my initial concepts are in B/W, and then the first round of client proofs are as well. Clients always ask me if I meant or forgot to add color, but when I explain the thinking behind it, it gives them an “ah-ha!” moment.
Hi Santosh,sorry can’t help you with that one
It could be quite style though I guess.
Hi Joe, presented somelogo ideas in colour to a client the other day, but suggested maybe black and white would be a better way to start in future (and explained why) – they had an ah-ha moment too.
but what if client hates black?
we usually give B&W version copy to our client in start with coloured version to give a feel of single color logo. To show what will be the output if they have restriction of using single color on media.
Hi,
Its a great idea( idea of black and white).I am going to try this right now!I also went through the link Five Simple Steps to Designing with Colour.Simply superb.Thanks for sharing with us tara.
I spend so much time on logos. This tip will be rather helpful to me.
I decided to design in B&W about 2 years ago and it really streamlines the design process and also the decision making on the client’s side.
There are already so many elements that the client needs to decide on, like fonts, shapes, placement etc etc, and colour just throws another pot into the sink.
B&W logo designing is definitely worth trying out, if you haven’t already.
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