The Do's and Don'ts of Logo Design

[Vive]

I'll be honest with you guys - for a long time I've been more of an illustrator than a graphic designer. I don't think it prevents me pursuing my interest in graphic design but I'm not naive enough to think that I'll simply fall into a career in the industry without any real knowledge of the expectations. However, I'd like to learn. Please do permit me my fairly basic questions, and in return I will not irritate you with any false assumptions that graphic design is a mighty easy beast to conquer ;)

One thing I've always had limited knowledge of is logo design and branding. The only art course I ever took touched on it, but not to a professional extent. I'm just starting some voluntary work / work experience for a creative company local to me, and the lady running it touched on some ideas for things I can get involved with, and one thing she mentioned was helping to improve their branding. From reading other topics, I've gathered you folks know your stuff, so I'm just wondering: what would you consider the do's and don'ts of logo design and branding?

Any advice, however simple you consider it, is welcome.

Thank you for your time and patience :)

[bigdave]

Research research research! To successfully brand a business you need to know as much about it as the client.

When a client says they want a red and pink star on their logo, dont believe them!! Often they're unable to express what they mean and so spout something random!

[Paul Murray]

Look at other logos, not for inspiration, but to see what to avoid. Strive for something unique.

And I believe in working on a design on paper until it 'works' and then moving onto recreating it using software. It's tempting to look at a design you've created digitally and think it's done because it looks polished, when in fact it's flawed in some way.

In a lot of cases it can be quicker to explore ideas with pencil/paper than it is to do it digitally.

[Dave L]

A creative company who want the work experience guy/gal to improve their branding?

[Vive]

A creative company who want the work experience guy/gal to improve their branding?

Help, not do it all myself. I might not be a field expert but a fresh pair of eyes and an extra opinion never hurt anyone. What better way to learn? :)

Thanks for all these comments, folks!

[bigdave]

A creative company who want the work experience guy/gal to improve their branding?

many moons ago I did a work placement for a design agency as part of my degree. The only task I was given for the 2 weeks was to re-design the company logo.

I think the 're-brand our business' thing is quite common for work placements as it means the student has something to do but isn't let loose on real projects.

[Dave L]

Ah - right: that makes sense.

[kayleighmcardle]

One thing you need to be careful of is fonts that a very similar to famous brands, it makes it look as if you are trying to copy, and when branding something being unique is key.
I like to use photoshop so I can put everything on separate layers, this let's you take a risk have a few designs just by showing hiding layers.
my best advice is let loose and be creative!!

[spottypenguin]

One thing you need to be careful of is fonts that a very similar to famous brands, it makes it look as if you are trying to copy, and when branding something being unique is key.
I like to use photoshop so I can put everything on separate layers, this let's you take a risk have a few designs just by showing hiding layers.
my best advice is let loose and be creative!!

Yes but you can easily use layers in Illustrator and hide / show them.

I'm not picking on you in particular but as you mentioned it, I have to say I have NEVER used Photoshop to design a logo and I don't know anyone who does because it is raster not vector meaning you lose the scalability. It's OK for the odd web graphic, maybe even a one off flyer but a big No No for logo design for me.

[kayleighmcardle]

Yeah your right, ours go onto our websites, so it never needs to be changed in size, so if anyone copies the image they can't rescale it, If I do just a logo which needs to be used for various thing such as business cards ect then illustrator all the way.