Building a Logo
I frequently get asked how long it takes to create a logo. The answer is that it depends. I thought it would help to see my process and the process a lot of creatives take in order to bring you your brand; hot, steaming and fresh.
This case study is of one of my most recent clients, Black Dragon Heating. Thanks to Steve for reaching out and hiring a small local business to take on this project!
Off the bat, one would think to go straight for black dragon illustration and be done, right? Hand it in and cut that cheque! However, those of us that love what we do want to put beautiful, meaningful things into the world. That takes a bit of a process.
Step 1: Whatchu want?
I send out a customer survey to get goals/mood that the owner wants to achieve with their brand.
Step 2: Research
I take a look at inspirational images, well crafted logos, the competition’s logos and sweet looking typography. Below you can see a mood board consisting of dragons, type and logo types I related to for this project.
Step 3: What you talking ‘bout, Willis?
Following that, my goal is to find something that can marry the business and the imagery so that the logo will represent both the literal and figurative intention behind the company. In this case, I was moved by the ducting lines that you see in buildings and how they have specific bends and angles. Specifically, I thought that 45 degree turns and parallels would work in this case.
Step 4: Sketch it out!
After using research to stimulate the idea factory of my brain, I start sketching. Some ideas work out, some lead to new directions and some just hit the wall. There’s a principle in design called The Golden Rectangle. This is a concept to mimic what is seen in nature in order to maximize beauty. ([Insert link for crazy mathematical formulas in natural growth]) I try and build logos around this principle and a lot of what you will see will fit within the rectangle to the left.
Below is a gathering of different sketches I developed and refined based on self-criticism and editing. For example, if we look at the snake dragon on the left midway down the page, I refined it based on the tail fitting the wing and moving the head back to fit fire.
Step 5: Player Selection
After I have a few solid concepts, I take those and refine the sketch direction in order to present these concepts to the client. Steve had said that he wanted the logo to have an intelligent feel, so I took 3 different approaches to that thought. The top concept was based on playing card design. The next concept was based on a crest/shield design that gave it a noble feel. The bottom one was based on chess pieces. Despite the differences in presentation, all implemented the ideas of ducting: thick lines, parallels, and 45 and 90 degree angles.
Step 6: Client direction
With the above three ideas crafted, it’s time to bring in the client’s opinion. With the above choices, Steve elected to go with the chess-inspired one. With this though, he had a couple of requests:
The text be moved up to the right side.
Have a larger flame blowing onto the text.
Step 7: Type
The typography that I had used thus far was inspired while I was sketching and based on nordic typography, following the angle and parallels idea. I used it as place holder to get an idea of alignments, however after trying out some different font choices in the example below, I felt the weight and balance worked best with the original type I created. From there I began testing different letterforms and selecting each based on what worked best for legibility and aesthetics. I wanted to finalize a fully formed type logo so that I could adhere the flame in alignment with the type.
After the word mark was finalized, I began the process of building a bigger flame that could both fit the grid and interact with the word mark. My goal was to have something that was long enough to meet the bottom of the word dragon but not look like a tongue. In the end, the half circle flip met the geometric aesthetic and looked most like a flame.
After finalizing the illustration and word mark, and making sure they balanced well, it was time to move on to the tertiary element of the word heating. I tried a few font choices varying in their spacing and alignment. Generally, one wants something that will fit well with the primary typography. I was initially loving the way that Gotham’s letter G ended with the N, producing a nice clean line (top left), however once I threw in Condensed Din (right side, midway down), you can see how it fits perfectly with the primary type.
I opted expand the spacing on the word for two reasons:
The alignment lightens up the type so that it doesn’t feel so heavy (third down on right).
Conceptually, heat is molecules expanding and bouncing around.
Step 8: Colour town!
Now let me be clear; logos can have overlaying colour gradients. They can have flashes of light and dark and be made to look 3D, but if I asked you what the most memorable and classy looking brands have in common, you would tell me a refined colour palette! Think of IBM blue, Ford’s blue and white, McDonalds’ red and yellow; if you saw those colour combinations together in any other capacity, you would think of those brands. That is the power of a smart logo. I try and limit my logo creations to 3 colours, maximum. As a logo’s complexity is minimized it’s versatility is maximized.
For Black Dragon’s colour selection, I knew I would have to go for three different colours in order to make the flame work, and that they were going to be restricted due to the concept. After all, it would seem disjointed to have something called black dragon with a pink logo. As such, I kept the colour palette literal with a black dragon and red and orange flames.
After presenting Steve with three different options, all falling within the black, red and orange theme, he chose the one below. Personally, I’m in love with how this turned out. It balances well, the alignments match up nicely, the type is new and interesting and it’s conceptually strong. Further down, you will see the all-black version and a vertically aligned variant that were included in the deliverables to provide the company flexibility in all of the various spots they will need to use the logo.
So, in regards to how long a logo takes to create, the truth is that sometimes inspiration hits you like a bolt of lightning and sometimes creatives have to grind the hell out of it. In this case, the client and I were on the same page throughout the process, and all the dots connected fairly easily.
I hope this has shed a little more light on the creative process. Thank you for reading. If you have questions, concerns or comments my contact info is up to the right.
