5 Steps to Follow When Creating Logos for Clients

For many graphic designers, designing or creating logos and visual identities for companies can be overwhelming, but don't be intimidated! Designing a logo for a company or project is one of the most rewarding things you can do if you are a graphic designer.

To achieve this, you can't dive headfirst into the logo design. Before starting with the sketching phase, we need to perform a series of steps that will help us narrow down the options and focus the shot much more. We need to approach the logo design from a more systematic point of view.


In this article, I want to explain, in detail, 5 steps we must follow when creating logos. I think they will help you to take into consideration all the actions to be performed. I am not going to talk about the features that the logo or your solution should have I will only list and develop a series of steps to follow that are key when creating logos. Graphic designers used these tips to create a logo for the company paperhelp (https://www.paperhelp.org/), which allowed them to create a beautiful logo in a short time.

What is a logo, and what is it for?

Before commenting on the steps to create logos, I think it is interesting to review what a logo is and its use.

A logo is a graphic or symbolic representation of a brand whose mission is to identify the company, not to promote it. We need to distinguish between promotion and identification.

The purpose of a logo is to help people remember you, for better or for worse. Distinguish yourself from the competition. A well-designed logo can be essential to impact the audience and attract potential customers.

Before creating logos, consider the following. A logo must be simple, representative, and original. With these 3 characteristics, we will favor the logo being scalable, long-lasting, memorable, and relevant to the audience.

Remember, logos have an exclusively identifying mission, never promotional. Therefore, let's avoid introducing descriptions of services or products inside the logo that do not contribute anything. Design the logo, and you will contribute to making it more memorable.

5 steps to follow to create logos correctly

Now that I have clarified what precisely a logo is and its primary function, we can start listing the steps to create logos for our clients.

It is worth mentioning that these 5 steps are not exclusively steps before the logo design process. Instead, we are talking about complementary steps.

Steps 1, 2, and 3 will need to be carried out before the design process, while the last two will examine the proposals made after the third step.

Let's get down to it.

1. Sit down with the client (interview phase)

To create logos, we must always start with a first interview phase, where we will sit down with the client to define the brand and prepare a briefing.

Graphic designers help our clients to find the best solution for their problems. To better perform our profession, we must establish a close and trusting relationship with our clients.

In the first step to creating logos, a physical interview is ideal. If you are not in the same city or do not have the means to physically sit down with your client, you can also opt to have a video call.

In this first interview phase, we will need to listen, observe, learn, gather, understand, and even interpret the company through our client. We need to get an objective view of the context and their needs.

Reflect and assess what makes that brand unique. A well-defined brand will help attract potential customers. When creating logos, the logo design should try to coordinate with the company's values and the values they have in common with their audience.

It is also essential to work with the client on a list of concepts or keywords that will help us describe the brand in this interview phase. This list can be used as a starting point to design the logo.

To finish closing the briefing and that list of keywords or concepts representative of the brand, we leave you some recommended questions. They will help us know how the client interprets the brand in his head and approach the problem from a more objective point of view.

• Tell us a little about the current logo, how it was conceived and what connotations it expresses to you?

• Who is the audience? Who is the target audience for this logo?

• Do you think this logo has recognition among your audience? Do you have recurring clients?

• What is the future of the project? Where do you see yourselves in 5, 10, or 20 years? Will you have the same products or services?

• Who is your competition? What other projects represent a risk to yours?

• What unique idea, feeling, or personality would you like to convey if you did not have a logo? What would you want people to see or feel with your new logo? It should be a simple concept or feeling.

• Any ideas or preferences about color?

• Is there anything I haven't asked about the logo that you would like to tell me about?

2. Conduct a research phase

When creating logos, the more information we have, the easier it will be to design a solution that reflects our thoughts. Once we have a better idea of the intention behind the logo design and who the brand is behind it, we can start to gather some inspiration and check what the competition is doing.

An excellent way to start is by assessing competitors' logos: What are they like? What logo format do they use the most? Are we talking about symbols or icons? Where and how do they apply their visual identity?

You can collect references and visual material that inspires you to design your project. However, only incorporate images that will help you achieve your goal. Collect everything that catches your attention. Think about other logos, typographies, color palettes, free stock photos, textures, etc. Any visual elements that inspire us and support the first step's mission and values we have defined.

Only then, after completing this research phase, can we start sketching potential logos.

3. Choose the most appropriate format for creating the logo

Once we have learned everything we can about the client, to create logos, we must think about which will be the best approach to the brand. To do so, we will ask ourselves a straightforward question.

The approach we take to each brand will depend on several factors and each case, but it is usually advisable to dispense with the symbol unless there is a need to include it. Why?

The reason is quite simple. A new isotype is an unfamiliar symbol to people. It must be learned. It takes time, money, and resources. In addition, people are exposed to a constant saturation of icons and symbiology. It generates a specific resistance to learning something new.

But, on the other hand, when an isotype is assumed and learned correctly by society, it becomes a representative symbol of the brand that can combine a lot of communication strength. Think of brands such as Nike, Apple, Mercedes. their logos may come to mind. It would be a strong reason in favor of using an isotype.

So it will be necessary to study the feasibility of using or not using symbols in each case and with each client. For example, if the company name is very long, perhaps utilizing a sign can help us unify its text and increase its visual impact. The first example that comes to mind is the National Geographic logo.

If we contribute to increasing the attention on the logo with the symbol, we can include it with a compelling reason. On the other hand, if the word is short, perhaps creating a wordmark makes more sense, as Google or FedEx, for example, have done.

And before deciding on a logotype, an ideologue, an image type, or an isotype, we must also study where the logo will be applied. Let's not forget that legibility is crucial. Whatever we write in a logotype must be legible, either inside a symbol or in a word. We are identifying a company or brand. People have to find it easy to read at first glance. And remember, the reading of a logo should not depend on interpretations or explanations.

We also need to pay special attention to redundancy. Let's avoid showing as a symbol something that is already read in the word. Sometimes it is more appropriate to offer something that complements or helps to connote something more positive than showing the obvious.

After this third step, we could get our hands dirty and start with the logo design process.

4. Put the logo proposal to the test

Once we have a series of logo proposals adapted to our client's context and scenario, we can proceed with step number 4: we examine all our logo proposals.

We need to assess the scenarios where the logo will be applied. Study well its legibility, adaptability, and representativeness. Once again, it will be helpful to remember the seven characteristics that a good logo must have.

Always ask yourself how a potential client would perceive each proposal once we have included it under some mockups. These photomontages will help us to get a better idea of whether or not they can work.

5. Sift and select your favorite logos

Once you have examined all your proposals, it is time to select your favorites.

Always try to be objective and select the logo proposals that best solve the client's problem.

Of course, evaluate well the number of logo proposals to present to your client. I think that more than 4 proposals submitted at the same time will only confuse your client. It has been proven that the more options they have to choose from, the longer it will take for people to make up their minds.

Be smart. Go ahead and sift through your proposals. Select and present your favorites, i.e., the ones you think are best suited as a solution for your customer. I'm not talking about the ones you like the most since your personal opinion will not contribute anything here. Always be objective and use the data you have obtained in the first steps.

The client likely chooses a logo for its functionality, which is fine, but it is your responsibility to ensure that these solutions also have an artistic value. So try to include in your final selection the sketches where these two characteristics coexist.