Obviously, every designer will have a slightly different approach, but most would agree that running a discovery phase and developing a brand strategy is absolutely essential.

Logo design is not art, so we shouldn’t just start coming up with logo ideas out of thin air based purely on our sense of aesthetics.

Logos should serve a specific business purpose, which is why you should be objective during the design process in order to create something that is appropriate for the company.

Logos are at the heart of all brand communication. They are literally everywhere, so they should stand the test of time.

In the foreseeable future, we don’t see ourselves redesigning that logo, so we want to give ourselves the best chance at designing a logo that lasts.

Before you start experimenting with type, color, and shapes in Illustrator, you must first create a brief for your client and lay the groundwork for your creative exploration.

Now, different designers will approach the discovery phase differently.

Some designers may send out a branding questionnaire or have a discovery phone call.

However, I run my proprietary brand strategy framework with my clients before beginning any design work.

Therefore, I conduct the strategy workshop with my client, and during that session we go over a series of branding exercises that help me extract all the relevant information about the project.

The second step involves taking all the information from the discovery phase and conducting further research to draw insights I can use later in the ideation phase.

Knowing the industry helps you as a designer get a sense of the environment your logo will live in.

During this phase, you will attempt to better understand the client’s field so that you can provide solutions to them that will be effective.

You now have to know what can work and what is appropriate for your company, and importantly, how to distinguish it from its competitors.

Understanding an organization can be achieved by experiencing it from a customer’s perspective.

Therefore, stepping into the client’s shoes and analyzing the industry and competitors is an essential step in logo design.

It will help you steer your creativity later on and you will avoid making a mistake of designing something that is too similar to their competitors.

During the strategy session (5th exercise), we start doing some competitive analysis with my client and now I take it further and conduct additional research.

I gain insights from navigating competitors’ websites and evaluating their brand identities.

Then I take notes on what are their strong and weak points, so that it can serve me in the next step—the brainstorming step.

In the brainstorming phase, I simply outline my strategy for generating logo ideas based on the discovery and research conducted.

Here, I am looking for a look or a style that will convey my client’s brand personality (the third part of my strategy framework).

In order to brainstorm ideas and create moodboards, I use the brand personality and tone of voice exercises.

Here I also use the mind map (9th exercise of my strategy framework) to start looking for visual representations of the most important keywords distilled from previous steps.

As a result, I created three different mood boards that function as visual collections of strategic insights.

After reviewing the strategy, I browse websites like Behance, Dribble, and Pinterest to find some visuals that would make a great art direction.

Throughout this process, I am searching for fonts, colors, styles, etc. that embody our brand strategy.

Our next step is to discuss those possible solutions and decide what direction to take.

We narrow our focus with mood boards to stay objective, so that our sketches in the next phase are based on solid strategic understanding.

Drawing logos is where creativity comes into play, but since I’ve done my homework, I can evaluate my sketches against clearly defined criteria.

Depending on the designer, they may use a sketchbook or begin right away on the computer, but most logo designers sketch logos by hand, using pens and paper.

Since sketching by hand gives you an immediate sense of artistic expression, I strongly believe that every logo designer should begin this way.

Another important decision is whether we need a symbol or simply a typographical treatment of the brand name (wordmark).

With my client, Medihuanna, the name is pretty self-explanatory (Medical + Marijuana), so we went with a distinctive wordmark.

Furthermore, we decided that a shorthand symbol would be useful, so that it could be used even in small sizes where the full name would be illegible.

Now, sketching logos is time-consuming, so you should take breaks and let your ideas develop in the back of your mind.

When you return to your project after a break, you can have a fresh perspective and renewed enthusiasm, which will make you much more productive.

Also, you’ve probably heard that the best ideas usually emerge at the most unexpected times.

In the midst of your conscious mind being occupied with other tasks (like driving a car, or exercising), your unconscious mind comes up with some really great ideas.

Because of this, I always recommend designers carry something they can sketch on.

Usually, this step takes a few days as you really need to go for quantity and draw a lot of logos.

We need many great ideas, so that in the next step we can pick a few strong ones and execute them digitally on a computer.

After you’ve drawn a lot of sketches, you can judge them against the strategy and select the best ones to be executed digitally.

Therefore, don’t rush to execute every single idea you have, but rather focus on concepts that you feel can work well for your client.

By now, you should have a pretty good idea of what might work for your client and what might not.

In case you are not satisfied with your sketches, you can go back and forth between sketching and designing until you come up with some really exciting logo concepts.

Once you have a few strong logo ideas, you can simply design vector graphics with Adobe Illustrator.

In this case, I merely recreate those sketches on a computer and then create multiple variations of each idea to arrive at the best option.

It can take quite a while (a few days to a few weeks) before you can actually execute your ideas in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

To experiment with different colors, fonts, spacing, alignment, and so on, I always make a new copy of my logo so that I can always go back to the previous version.

In this step, you’ll simply explore different ways in which you can execute your logo sketches in order to arrive at the best aesthetic.

When you do this the right way (and do not rush this step), your logo concepts will improve and become stronger very quickly.

After I’ve completed designing my logo concepts (and am pretty happy with the results), I just have to give a presentation to my client.

Make sure you only share with your clients those solutions that will be effective-don’t make the mistake of showing something that you’re not proud of.

The three logo concepts below are the result of the disciplined but creatively open process I describe here.

All three concepts revolve around the strategy, even though they are different.

Using business cards, a book cover, and a bag, I demonstrated to my client how these logos will appear in real life.

How do I know what kind of mockups should I create? I identify the key marketing initiatives that my client would be interested in exercise six of my strategy framework so that now I am able to select between 3 and 5 mockups using these findings.

Again, you may need to go back and forth between designing your logo and testing it on applications until you arrive at a great logo design.

The only way to test the viability of each logo concept is to create beautiful mockups to see how it looks in real life.

I am confident that your client will be very impressed with the accuracy of the presentation if you follow my steps.

As for the first concept, the client liked it so we tweaked a few details, such as the leaf alignment, so that it appeared more balanced.

Clients can sometimes be skeptical about your logo design concepts, but this is just because all new logos are strange at first.

The only time we can truly embrace and understand a logo is after it has been adopted officially.

During this step, you might want to tweak a few things, combine elements of different ideas, and refine the designs before final approval.

We then discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each solution with my client and select a preferred logo design.

As soon as you have your client’s approval, then it’s time to deliver the brand identity package that includes logo artwork and a style guide.

Again, you will know exactly what kind of files you should deliver based on the applications outlined in the strategy section.

In general, however, you should include basic variations of the logo, such as full color, black, white, and monochrome.

Logo files should also be saved for different uses in print and digital (vector and raster) e.g. AI, ESP, PNG, JPG etc.

Keep the client informed about any commercial fonts used in the logo or brand identity in case they want to design other applications in the future.

Lastly, you should develop a style guide that would show how to use all the logo variations (like safe space, placement on dark vs. bright backgrounds, etc.).

You can also specify in your style guide other elements of brand identity such as color palette, typography system, photography style, illustrations, animations, and other elements.