A logo design process
Monday 17th March 2014
This is the second instalment of a series of posts which describe the design process I’m working through for a personal project. This post details the work I’ve been doing in developing the brand, specifically a logo for a photographer.
I thought It would be an interesting exercise to share the steps I went through in creating the logo. Although It’s a personal project I’m approaching it as I would any client project. I’ve a brief to answer and goals to achieve through design.
Before starting I set a few basic requirements for the logo:
- It must work in a single colour
- “Henri Cartier-Bresson”, “Henri” or the initials “HCB” must be part of the logo
- It’s structure should be simple and preferably consist of geometric forms.
Also if I could use negative space in a clever way that would be a bonus but this was not a requirement.
Mind Maps
I started the exploration phase by using a technique called mind mapping. I’ve written about this before. It’s a relatively straightforward process of word association and a great way to consider many different directions at an early stage. Using mind maps it’s easy to identify potentially strong solutions and forget the weaker ones. Here is the mind map I created for this project:
Reviewing the mind map I had two clear directions I wanted to explore with sketches:
- Three geometric rings used to represent an abstract camera
- The camera as an extension of the eye concept
Sketching
Sketching is not something I generally spend a lot of time doing. I normally sketch a few quick thumbnails which help me visualise an idea then I move to Photoshop and mockup draft designs to test out my thinking.
For this project however I forced myself to sketch as many options as I could in two time limited sessions. Each session was 25 minutes. The 25 minutes timeframe is based on the pomodoro technique. I use this technique a lot when I want to focus on specific tasks. Here are the sketches I produced for this phase.
Draft designs
Next using the sketches as reference I produced a number of draft designs in Photoshop.
As I was working through this phase I identified a clear winner, number 8. It had everything I was looking for: It was simple in form and would work in a single colour and across different media and applications; It was quiet yet personable using a handwritten font to evoke a feeling of authenticity; It used negative space to suggest a camera as being an extension of the eye – which was a mantra of Henri Cartier-Bresson. I also liked the fact the handwritten font is a throwback to the original HCB logo.
Refinement
At this stage I was happy I had something to work with but the logo needed some refinement of form. I also wanted to try out a number of handwritten fonts and see what effect they would have.
Onwards
So I’ve a logo I’m happy with, my prep work is done and I’ve mocked up a lo-fi prototype to test out a few UI patterns which I feel will work very well. Next I want to move on to my favorite part of the design process: visual design. I’ll post a write up of that effort when I’m done but expect things to be a little quiet around here while I get busy working.