Breaking Down the Logo Design Process

I've done a lot of posts that break down the painting process. But you know what I've never done before (I don't think)? A post that shows my logo design process. 

Maybe it's just me (because I'm a total art + design nerd, or as my friends call me, an "art snob"), but I think that seeing the stages--the behind-the-scenes evolution of a final logo or graphic design--is really interesting. It shows how many decisions are made in order to come up with that final icon that will represent a brand, which is kind of a big deal in our visually-dominated online world. 

So, today, we're breaking down the process by looking at a logo that I recently designed for Kate Sheehan of Telltale Media.

Yes, you know Kate because she's been featured in my 'Tell Me All About It' column and because we've recently teamed up to teach a Branding Essentials for Small Biz Owners + Solopreneurs workshop on the Cape (more on that later!). She's fabulous and it was SO fun working with her. 

Here's the creative process that we went through together in order to produce her final logos (above)...
 
STEP 1: Design Inspiration

Kate and I met and discussed what she wanted her logo to look and feel like. She was able to describe it really well and right away, I felt inspired. She wanted something flowy, reminiscent of the ocean and beach (but not too obvious), blue and greens with a pop of orange or pink somewhere, and, watercolor-influenced.

Even though I felt like I had a good idea of what she wanted, I had her do an inspiration board on Pinterest, just to be sure:

STEP 2: Font Selection, Round 1

I presented Kate with a bunch of fonts--a mix of handwritten and computer generated sans-serif fonts--to choose from (there were more, but this is just a sampling). I told her to go with her gut and narrow it down to 1-2 that she liked most. She was told that she could mix and match if she wanted ;) 

STEP 3: Font Selection, Round 2

After Kate chose her favorites, some of which were mix-n-match, I sent her 4 final options using the two cursive fonts that she liked most. She was told to choose from these 4, and she did (she chose the last option shown below). 

STEP 4: Watercolor Elements

Although this was behind-the-scenes and Kate didn't see it, my next step was to create some watercolor design elements to use in the logo. I did a bunch of shapes and colors in order to give myself lots of options to work with. Then I scanned all of the images into my computer and edited them (some of the scans are below). 

STEP 5: Final Logo Selection

Next, I put together a bunch of logo design options using our final font and the watercolor elements that I created. Then I narrowed them down and sent Kate the ones I liked best (all of which are below). I told her to choose her favorite(s) and again, reminded her that we could change colors and mix-n-match elements in any way that she wanted to. 

After pondering it for a little while, Kate made her choice (!) and she chose the logo on the left (below) as her logo! Then, because she wanted a little variety/another option, we decided to use the logo on the right (below) as her secondary logo. It's the inverse of the first logo, so they work well together. 

STEP 6: Website Color Scheme Selection

Since Kate wanted a pop of color somewhere, we decided we would keep the logo simple and soft and add the pop of color in the details and typography of her website. In order to finalize her visual identity, I helped her choose that color. Here are the color scheme options that I gave her (she chose the bottom one). 

STEP 7: Finalize Kate's Style Guide

Once Kate chose her favorite color scheme, we were done! I created her social media icons and put together a Style Guide for her web designer, so that everything would be uniform:

And that's the process! Fun, isn't it? I can't even tell you how much I love designing logos. They are *such* a blast (and Kate was amazing to work with because we have the same aesthetic). 

You can view more of my logo designs here, and if you want to learn more about hiring me to create a custom logo for you, here are all the details.

Learn more about Kate and her biz, Telltale Media, here.