Ugly and confusing things tend to be unpopular. Here are some tips from gurus of good looks on how to seduce the nation’s eyes.
Here are some tips from the designers at Airlock:
Get to know your subject matter. Gather as much information from as many sources as you can. It's important to get a clear picture of what you're communicating and who you're talking to. The what and who, will generally inform the how.
Good sources of information are everywhere. Magazines, newspapers, and books and the web. Google is an obvious place to start.
Links:
This is the most important part of the process. Without a good idea most design work is just a pretty picture. Ideas and style are linked, and sometimes the style can be the idea. But, it's important to have a reason for what you're doing so you can have something to build on.
At this stage you can put all of your research to work. It should give you a good starting point. From there, put your brain to work to turn the research into a great idea!
Try thinking laterally. Usually a clever or witty idea, that requires some participation from the viewer, can leave a much bigger impression. This will make your campaign more memorable. A good way to train your brain into thinking laterally is to create a spider diagram. It’s like a word association game, and can lead you to some interesting places.
At the start of this process don’t throw out any ideas. Get everything down on paper. Brain dump! You never know where a good idea might come from, or when, so keep a sketchpad and pen handy.
Eventually, you’ll feel like you’ve come up with 3 or 4 good ideas. You can then start to hone them. These are new born ideas and will probably need some nurturing and attention to develop into strong concepts.
Resist the temptation to jump onto the computer. Stick with you pad and pen. Sketch your ideas out. Get a feel for structure and layout.
Look at other examples of logos and identities at this stage for inspiration, or to see how not to do it! There’re a few links below. It’s good to look at other designers/companies portfolios to see how they tackle different subjects.
By the end of this process, 1, or maybe 2 of your ideas will have developed into strong contenders.
Links:
A good source of designer's portfolios:
A good source of design books:
This is where you get onto your computer to create your final logo.
The best software to use for this purpose is Adobe Illustrator. There are 2 image types on a computer: rasterized, and vector. When you resize a rasterized image, you will lose quality, it will get blurry or pixilated, ruining the image. A vector will retain its integrity and crispness no matter how big, or small, it gets. This is always a consideration when designing a logo, as it could have many different applications.
It's a good idea to try and get your logo to work in black and white. Due to printing costs, it's likely that your logo will appear in black and white quite a lot. You can add colour once you’re happy with the design.
The choice of typeface and colour will convey different emotions and communicate in different ways, so consider them carefully.
Links:
Once your logo is completed you’re ready to apply it. This may be in a leaflet, signboard, magazine or website. You may want to support your logo with other elements, such as graphics or images.
Sticking to a certain style for these, and keeping them consistent, will strengthen your overall identity, ensuring recognition, which in turn will give your campaign more visibility.
Now you’re done reading… time to get started!
Good luck!