So you've decided your logo needs an overhaul, or perhaps you created something quickly just to get an idea, or new business off the ground?
We all need to start somewhere and unless you've got a convenient graphic designer friend what do you do? You could buy a ready made logo online, you could use one of the many ubiquitous online logo design companies or you could produce something yourself using the likes of Canva. However the outcome is nearly always going to fall short of your expectations and won't produce the results a carefully crafted logo will achieve.
1. PLANNING
We will presume at this stage that you've settled on a name (if you haven't give us a shout - we've helped a number of companies create a shortlist to choose from).
As part of this process you will have been thinking of your audience, your aims and objectives, how you want to be perceived, your competitors and your likes and dislikes.
These are important factors to use as a brief for your logo designer who will also want to know your colour preferences, existing logos you like or dislike, style preferences such as contemporary / traditional / simple / detailed etc.
As an example the following diagram is is the brand decision wheel we produced when we originally created the KYAK name and subsequent logo...
2. BEGINNING THE WORK
Once the design studio has received your brief they will begin by sketching initial ideas, researching existing/similar logos and marks, exploring suitable typefaces, looking at possible symbols and shapes and brainstorming ideas and concepts which combine all of these elements.
You will then receive a number of concepts to consider (depending on the company you use this number will vary however we aim to provide a minimum of three different concepts for you to choose from) which all have a different response to the brief.
Since you should be working closely with your design company this stage should very much be a joint discussion. Once you've had time to digest the initial concepts and circulate them around friends and family to gather feedback, you should then have a conversation with the designer working on the project to discuss how these can be developed into one final solution.
3. DEVELOPING THE SOLUTION
Using your feedback from the initial concepts, the designer will then work on producing a final logo. There may still be a few minor tweaks and changes required but at this stage you should be very close to receiving the final version.
At KYAK we like to show the logo in a variety of mocked up scenarios so you can see how the logo will potentially work in the real world, this could be in the form of a business card, a poster or even on the front of a baseball cap!
5. PRODUCING DIFFERENT VERSIONS
Once the logo has been approved the design studio will create a suite of versions suitable for use across a range of applications. For example a small png logo to be used as your social media profile picture, a jpeg for your email signature and vector (scalable files) versions that can be increased to any size - all ready to adorn the tail of a Boeing 737!
Ok that last one may have been a slight exaggeration but you get the point - this variety and flexibility is another reason to use a professional. You don't want to have a beautiful logo produced only to find it looks pixelated on a presentation or you have to pay more to have your logo reproduced into a suitable file type.
6. SHOUTING FROM THE ROOFTOPS.
Once you've got your hands on your swanky new logo don't sit back admiring it for too long!
You only get one chance to launch it to the world and at KYAK we're happy to help you do this by putting a marketing plan into action to post, pin, click, link, shout, nudge, wink or whatever it takes to get the logo out there and to start the process of attracting customers and of course making money!
7. GET IN TOUCH.
We hope that this blog post has given you an insight into the process of producing a logo. It's perhaps not as simple as you may have thought and therefore the adage of 'you get what you pay for' is never more true than in this situation. You can see some of the logos we've produced recently below.
At KYAK we don't charge for a chat, so just pick up the phone or drop us an email. It could be the start of a beautiful collaboration and more importantly a beautiful logo!
