Logo

In this tutorial you will learn the basics of creating a logo to meet a clients specifications. The tutorial is in four parts:

Part 1 - What makes great logo design?

Part 2 - How to meet a client brief.

Part 3 - Example of meeting a client brief.

Part 3 - Create your own logo that meets a client brief.

Part 1 What makes great logo design?

Watch this YouTube video which talks through the hidden meaning behind many famous logos.

There is huge amount of guidance on this if you Google 'Good logo design tips' and my advice would be to read a few of the webpages that come up. Below is a brief overview of the most frequent top tips:

  1. Know the brand

  2. Make the design reflect the nature of the business

  3. Choose colours carefully. Think about their meaning

  4. Pick fonts carefully. Think about the potential customer

  5. Choose the type of logo (symbol, text, both)

  6. Keep it simple

  7. Make sure it's memorable

  8. Make it scalable (will it look just as good tiny on a business card and massive on a billboard?)

  9. Make sure it looks good both in colour and black and white

Have a look at the worked examples of good and bad logo designs at the bottom of this webpage.

Task - for each of the top tips above, find a logo that is a great example of that tip. For example, the Apple logo is a great example of making it scalable.

Part 2 How to meet a client Brief

What is really important to remember when creating a great logo design is that you are not creating it for yourself. You are creating it for a client. What you might want to create might not be what the client wants. No matter how lovely your finished logo is, if it doesn't meet the clients expectations they will not use it.

There are number of key steps to work through if you are going to meet a client's brief:

  • Step 1 - Ask the client what they want from the logo. If they are unsure, you will need to ask them some questions. The most important of which is: what is the name of the business! Get them to write it down. You want the correct spelling. Ask them if they have a specific colour scheme in mind. If they say blue for example, you must delve deeper into which shade of blue. Ask them what type of business it is. There may be some imagery associated with that type of business. Such as a mechanical cog for an engineering business. Ask them what type of customers they have. Are they young and hip or older and more conservative? You will need to reflect this in your design for them.

  • Step 2 - Ask the client (if they are able to) to send you some images of example logos they like. Or possibly a sketch they have drawn. If the client isn't able to do that, then you will need to create a mood board of these things to discuss with the client at the next meeting.

  • Step 3 - Create some prototypes. These could be hand drawn, or you could create some very quick mockups on the computer of the type of thing you were thinking of. Show these to the client and get their final opinions.

  • Step 4 - Make the final logo. Send to the client. Done.

Below is worked example of a logo I created for a real client. Once you have read through it, have a go at creating a logo for yourself in part 3.

Part 3 Worked Example of meeting a client brief (WAGOLL)

Step 1 - The client was pretty clear about what they wanted from the logo. I was told the name of the business was 'Blooming Beautiful Scents' and they wanted the words 'fragrances, home and beauty' underneigh. They wanted a black 'smear' in the background and the font needed to be gold.

Step 2 - The client was really helpful in providing two images of a logo they had tried to create themselves. This was invaluable in telling me the font style they liked, and gave me a clearer idea as to what the 'black smear' in the background meant. They were very clear that the gold colour of the font was not right. Below are their images:

Step 3 - I set about creating some prototypes. In Photopea I selected the brush tool and created a variety of different black smear effects by changing the features of the brush. Made it smaller or bigger. I created each smear on a different layer in Photopea and hid the layer each time. So I had a bunch of hidden layers all with a different smear. I then Googled the RGB code for 'gold' and used this to set the correct gold colour for the font. I then searched the font list in Photopea to find a similar font to the one in the client's images. Once I had written the text, aligned it correctly and made it the right size, I unhid each smear layer at a time and saved each one as a separate JPEG. Below are all my prototypes. I sent them all the client for them to review.

Step 4 in the first few prototypes (not all shown here) there was a mispelling of 'Beautiful'. So that was changed. There was discussion around whether the 'F' in 'Fragrances' should be upper or lower case. So I sent two final copies of the logo. One with an upper case 'F' and one with a lower case 'f'. We discussed whether the text 'Fragrances, home and beauty' should be in the same font style as 'Blooming Beautiful Scents' and I advised against it from a graphic design point of view. I then sent the finished logo to the client in a variety of different image types (JPEG, PSD, PNG) so it could be used on a variety of different media.

Below is the client's chosen logo:

Task

Having read the entire process on how to meet a client's brief, decide which of the steps above you think is most important and why.

Part 4 Create your own logo to meet a client brief

In this part you will be introduced to a client brief and create a logo that meets that brief. You can work in a pair, taking it in turns to be the client and the graphic designer, or you could work on your own and be both. You will both begin by being the client and creating the client brief for each other.

Step 1 Create a client brief:

  • Google search 'random word generator'. Whatever random word you get is the name of your business. Make a note of this.

  • Then search for 'random business idea generator'. Whatever random business idea you get is the type of business. Make a note of this.

  • Then use this website to generate an appropriate colour that is relevant to the business. Type in words that are associated with the business and choose a colour that you think would match the brand. Make a note of colour's code.

Brilliant! You now know what type of business you have, your business name and business colours. If you want to you can add some other simple details such as what you want the the logo to look like. Or you can leave that up to the graphic designer.

Now share your client brief with the graphic designer answering all the questions they have.

Step 2 Create a logo in response to the brief:

  • Have a meeting with the client and talk through all of their requirements. Remember to ask important questions so you know exactly what you have to create.

  • Create a selection of prototypes for the client. Make sure the background of the logo is transparent. Ensure you follow the advice in part 1 of this tutorial. Share this with the client and get their opinion and identify any changes that need to be made.

  • Make the changes and save the logo in a variety of different image formats (JPEG, PNG). Then send all the different file formats to the client in an email.