Vision218

Vision 218 wants to show you something that is very stressed in design: the process!  The process helps designers create solid design and concept through planning. Great ideas happen on a whim, not good design. To show an example of the design process we will take you through the process we used to make a logo for Herman Cleaner’s, Vision 218’s first client.  They are eco friendly dry cleaners that do not produce the hazardous waste that most other dry cleaners do. To check out their site go here. The logo on their site is the final logo that we made through the design process.

 

Research is first and most important; after finding the problem of course! While researching many ideas may be considered, mainly the audience. The audience is the people who are going to be seeing the logo the most. The idea of knowing the audience can get as specific as what job they have and the age group. Research can be as easy as doing a Google search or asking the client questions would help lighten up the research.  Doing the research will open doors to ideas and with those ideas thoughts will evolve through thumbnails. During your research it is also important to keep the idea of concept in the back of your mind. It is important for the logo to have some meaning and connection to the client.

 
 

The next step is thumbnails. This is the point where all the ideas in your head are dumped onto paper. Everything idea you get is a justifiable thumbnail; do not censor your ideas. Do not sell yourself to one thumbnail’s idea, the main point of thumbnails is to get an idea on paper, from there it will evolve into something greater. Having a few ideas down does not mean you are half was done with your project. Try getting around 16 thumbnails, but having more is good!  You could also try combining ideas to form some freaky hybrid idea! That is definitely a good thing because no idea should be left behind.

Above are the examples of the thumbnails we did for Herman’s Cleaners.  As shown, the concept of ‘eco friendly” and “green” is put into the logotype.  The leaf and the hanger were played around with a lot throughout the processes.  Different things were tried, some worked and some did not.

 

The rough stage would be very difficult without your thumbnails. Instead of sitting at the computer trying to figure out what to do, the ideas that were put on paper will make transferring it on the computer much faster (unless you aren’t so snappy with the computer). The roughs will not be totally perfect, but they will be one step closer to a completed project. Actual typefaces can be applied and images can be used.  At this stage, color can be played with as well, but it is best to start with black and white.

 
 

This is the logo that was chosen out of out roughs to be further perfected and eventually become a final product. At this point the logo should be so clean and tight that from this point to final stage there should be barely any changes. Very knit-picky details will need to be considered and cleaned up, especially the kerning. There is a huge difference between the rough stage of this logo and the comp stage (not shown). The type got thicker in “Herman’s”, “CLEANERS” was justified across “Herman’s”, the “e” tip was thinned out, the color was changed, and the leaf above the “n” was tossed out. It is important to pay very close attention to details because once it is presented to a client, it would be unprofessional to take it back because “you made a mistake”.

 
 

The final stage of the process is where the logo is complete and ready to be given to the client. Make sure when you give the client the files they are all ready to be printed. Also, make sure to have color options with your logo/project, but they have to be clear to the client and others who might be using the files. As seen above the colors that are within the logo are shown below and the specifics are within the blocks of color. This logo is a four-color process, with a gradient within the “e” and black color is used for the rest of the logo.

That is the process of creating a logo.

Hope you enjoyed this blog entry about the design process!