Logo Design Process: Finding a Fine Feather
Most designers only show a finished product online so I wanted to share a behind the scenes look at my logo design process. The logo was for Finding a Fine Feather, which is a small women owned business specializing in women’s health, safer beauty & skin care, and lifestyle blogging. You can find out more about Finding a Fine Feather on her website.
Step 1. Research
I always start the logo design process by chatting with the client and learning more about their brand. I feel that conversations with the client are invaluable and help me to gain background information about what the client’s business and brand is all about.
I also do research in the industry that aligns with my client’s brand to again get an idea of what exists so I am able to find new ways to help my client stand out to their customers. Another important part of my research is to have the client send me their inspiration and likes/dislikes in terms of branding and design.
I think it is very important for the client to genuinely love their design and this is a great way for me to see what styles they are drawn towards. And of course one easy way to compile inspiration is Pinterest!
Step 2. Sketching
Once I have the initial research phase in the logo design process completed I jump right in with sketching out logo concepts. I always start old school style with my pencil and paper!
There is nothing easier or faster for me to be able get a lot of initial ideas out than to draw them.
I am able to experiment with type treatments and icon integrations without having to rely on the computer. As I am in the sketching phase I move from loosely drawn concepts to more concrete ideas as I find layouts and treatments that work best.
After I have a few pencil concepts that are slightly refined I like to get feedback from the client before I move forward in the logo design process so it does not become a waste of time. The back and forth with the client at this stage is very important in order to be able to confidently move forward to the next stage!
Step 3. Computer
For the most part once I have a concept that is liked by the client I will move to the computer for the next step in my logo design process. Depending on the original parameters I could have 2-4 different concepts at this stage. However once in awhile we land on a design earlier on and will digitize one concept but with multiple variations in order to find the best logo.
This is basically where the **magic** happens.
A lot of the work in this stage may seem simple but takes a lot of patience and time, especially for hand lettered and customized typographic logos. My process includes scanning in the concept, photoshopping it, and then turning it into a vector graphic in Adobe Illustrator. Once it’s vectorized I spend a lot of time cleaning up all of the lines, points, shapes, etc. It’s a lot of detailed work but I really enjoy making every curve look right.
Another part of this stage in the logo design process is developing color options and font pairings to complete the whole package! That alone deserves it’s own blog post so I will dive into that another time.
Step 4. Finalization
PHEW! We made it to the final step! So this is where everything is finalized + all the details are cleaned up to perfection. I also create the brand style sheet for my client so they have a reference of all the details. Most logos will have secondary versions so I include these and make sure they fit well with the whole package.
Honestly no two logo design projects start or end the same but this process is the framework I follow as best as I can to come up with a great final logo and have a good experience with my clients.
If you want to see my full logo design process as a whole graphic just click the link below to check it out:
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