One Concept Approach

by Ben Toalson | Dec 22, 2014 | Uncategorized

You had a few questions about the logo design process, so I thought I’d go ahead and outline that here for you.

First of all, the short answer to your question is that I do not provide options, nor do I show concepts along the way. This seems unconventional because there are many designers who do, but I believe they do so to the detriment of the project, and I’ll explain why.

Design, at its core, is problem solving. The designer’s role is to take the content (i.e., name of the organization/business) and goals (i.e., capture the attention of the target audience and move them to seek more information through an effective visual representation of our organization/business) provided by the client and, through objective decision making, craft a solution tailored to meet the client’s goals. So a professional designer doesn’t ask questions like, ‘which solution will the client like best,’ or ‘which solution do I like best,’ but instead asks, ‘which solution is the most effective at helping the client reach their goals?’ The reason the professional designer is able to make objective decisions is because he/she understands in great detail how color, imagery, space, shapes, type, proportion, balance, etc. all work together to speak most effectively to the intended audience.

So for designers who are making subjective design decisions, basing their solution on the stylistic preferences of the well meaning, but non-design-educated client, or even on their own personal stylistic preferences, the design may be very pleasing to the client, but will fall short when it comes to accomplishing real goals.

In logo design, if the client happens to represent the target audience, then it is likely that they will also find the design appealing, but the sole purpose of the design should be to meet the client’s goals.

As I said before, this approach is a deviation from what I believe to be a very unhealthy convention in the design industry where the professional is subjecting their clients to design decisions they themselves are capable of and responsible for making. In other words, if I come to you with more than one design, I haven’t completed my job as a professional. If I ask for your input during the concept phase, I am putting my responsibility off on someone else. When I come to you with a completed design I should be able to (and I will) walk you through my design process and demonstrate for you how each decision I made along the way was made with your stated goals in mind. By the end of my presentation, regardless of whether or not the logo matches your stylistic preferences, I should have you convinced that the design I created is the best solution for meeting your goals.

So, in a nutshell, here is my process:
1. Gather information from client: I collect info about content, goals, existing branding requirements, etc.
2. Research: I learn more about target audience, the history of business/organization, and whatever else I need to make informed decisions during the design process. Here I learn what stylistic direction will be most effective in meeting the goals of the client.
3. Gather inspiration: Once a style or set of styles is found to be most effective, I immerse myself in that style, so I can refresh my mental store to effectively design in that style or style set).
4. Sleep on it: I allow the gathered inspiration to sink into my subconscious. This is vital for unlocking unique ideas and creative approaches to styles.
5. Conceptualize: Here I do a quick sketch of several ideas, not putting pressure on myself to be perfect, just letting the ideas flow onto the paper.
6. Identify Solutions: I look through the concepts and identify the strongest solutions. If I don’t feel I’ve yet created any effective solutions, I will continue to conceptualize until I do.
7. Narrow Down: If I have more than one concept, I take a little time to refine the concepts so I can make a better decision about which will be the most effective solution. Sometimes this entails combinations of the best parts of each idea.
8. Hand Draw the Design: Rather than jump right into the digital world to create the final design, I find it absolutely necessary to create a version of the design by hand. This slows me down enough to see the little nuances that I can bring out to really make the design shine. It also gives me another run through so that by the time I sit down with the design on the computer, I’ve already drawn it out several times.
9. Digital rendering: Here I have the design in the digital realm and make the minute adjustments necessary to make the design perfect. I also dial in the color.
10. Once the design is complete, I save the file in a universal format that can be used by almost any designer for almost any medium, and deliver it to you with the final invoice.

The reason many clients like having options is that they are afraid they will not get an effective solution from the designer. They believe that the more involved they are in the process, the more likely they are to get a solution that they like. Unfortunately, this shifts the focus away from meeting actual goals. There are many designers out there who are making good designs, but are not providing good design solutions that actually accomplish their client’s goals, so it makes sense that there would be hesitancy when it comes to entrusting a designer with such a large task.

I stand by my work. I am confident that I will be able to demonstrate for you how my design will effectively meet your goals and reach your intended audience. I want you to do this project with me only if you feel can trust me completely with this process. I’m excited at the possibility of working on this for you, and I understand your decision either way.