Here we are at the point where the rubber hits the road in the brand development journey. We’ve learned all about your organization through R&D and the brand workshop and described your brand in detail through the brand frame. Now we get to the arty part: creating an identity that reflects all the chatter.

Between the core values and the personality we’ve defined for your brand, we usually have an idea of the general direction the creative needs to go. In the case of Green Jay below, we knew we wanted to do something very specific — utilize a bird, which reflected the company name as well as the concept of “ecological landscaping” from the brand frame. We offered one option that diverged from this idea, if only to show that our concept was the right direction. And we wanted to use green to reflect the sustainability value of the company. Anything else felt “off-brand.” In the case below, we nailed the logo on the first round and were able to complete the identity design very quickly.

Green Jay Logo Design Concepts
First round of logo concepts for Green Jay Landscaping

How does the design process work?

I usually start by writing down keywords that must be incorporated into the design. They will reflect the brand frame, of course, but go a little beyond so they are more aspirational. I will also do some visual research at this point, to get inspiration from images across the Internet. And then I play around with the typography and experiment with color until it just feels right. Next come sketches of the logo, combined with some vector work in Illustrator until the logo options feel real enough to present to the client. I shoot to present three to five initial logo design options. Sometimes there are more if they are coming very easily. I never want to overwhelm, but I do like to share a variety of looks for our client to react to.

From here, the client chooses one design direction. We’ll iterate on that a few times until the logo is finalized. In the case of Green Jay Landscaping, they chose option 5 with no revisions!

Next we move on to the proof of concept in order to flesh out the full look of the new branding.

Check out our logo design portfolio ›