Logos and Branding

While my branding work is very heavily illustrative and organic, I’ve also created many simple clean designs. Below are samples from the course of my career.

What is involved in creating a logo?

Initial Brief
The process is straight forward. I start by getting an idea of the client’s preferences and needs.
• What does your company sell?
• What message are you sending the world?
• What kind of imagery are you leaning toward? Colours? Lettering styles?
• What kind of imagery do you not want to see? (this is important!)

Brainstorming and Sketching
Once I have the client’s information and a good understanding of their organization, I get to work with brainstorming and sketches. Brainstorming can involve research and notes; basically fuel for getting the creative juices flowing. Now we’re ready to sketch. Concept sketches can be anywhere from very rough to quite refined, but often they are small simple drawings sketched loosely. Once we have a good handful of solid concepts to show, I send them to the client.

First Look
At this point the client can pick and choose concepts that stand out from the sketches. There are no rules here. Mix and match elements. Pull a text style here, an image there. We are still at the drawing board so the sky is the limit. Once the client has chosen sketches and/or elements they like, I go back to create more refined sketches.

This process continues until we have a drawn concept the client is happy with.

Vectorization / Digitization
This is where the magic happens and a drawing becomes a logo. Creating a vector image involves drawing out the concept digitally in Adobe Illustrator. A vector is a digital drawing that can be scaled to any size without losing its quality. So, you know how some images go fuzzy when you try and blow them up? Vectors don’t!

This point also involves adding colour, fonts, and any other fine tuning that couldn’t be achieved by hand. While many of my logos have hand lettering, I still often test out typefaces and fonts that may or may not work. It all depends on the clients needs.

Final File Package
Once the logo is digitized, I create several variations and file formats, including black and white/grayscale, all white, official colour ways, as well as text-only and image-only files if possible. The various file formats provided can be used in several applications including web and social media, printing, signage, embroidery and car graphics, and much more. These files include PNG, JPG, and TIFF images, working vector files (AI and EPS), PDF files, and more. All of these file formats are explained in a brief overview doc included in your final logo package.

And finally we have a bona fide unique logo just for you! Files are packaged up and sent via drive upon payment. The above process is for a single logo. If you’re interested in a full branding package, let me know!

Enjoy your one of a kind logo!