Branding

03 Organize. The main branches can represent larger categories such as synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, related compound words, clichés and stock phrases, and so on. Try using a different color for each branch you develop.

04 Subdivide. Each main branch can feed smaller categories. Work quickly, using the process to free up your mind. For example, the idea of “invention” can take you from the names of inventors to processes and feelings.

Also called “radiant thinking,” mind mapping is a form of mental research that allows designers to quickly explore the scope of a given problem, topic, or subject area.

Mind mapping can help you expand the scope of a problem and look at it from diverse angles. Mind mapping was developed by Tony Buzan, a popular psychology author who has promoted his method through publications and workshops. Although Buzan delineated specific rules for mindmapping, such as using a different color for each branch of the diagram, his method is employed more loosely and intuitively by countless designers, writers, and educators. Ferran Mitjans and Oriol Armengou of Toormix, a design firm in Barcelona, called the technique “a cloud of ideas.”—Krissi Xenakis

____________

Paul Rand Process Book Presentation

NeXT logo by Paul Rand

________________

We Will Follow a Specific Design Process:

1. Creative Brief

Complete a creative brief that outlines the following:

a. Goals & objectives

b. Audience

2. Research & Discovery

Reference: Do online research

Get a job folder to place all research, sketches reference and related items.

Create electronic casebook file with sketches, show research, reference etc. Can be a PDF or Word doc.

3. Sketching and Conceptualizing

Do a brainstorming activity and idea to generate ideas for your design concept. Using your research, graphic and conceptual sources, begin designing.

Create a minimum of 20 thumbnail concepts. These should be quick sketches that highlight a concept/idea.

4. Rough Draft

Choose the best concept from your thumbnail drawings and create a tighter draft.

5. Design

A successful design communicates its message directly and powerfully through visual impact, interesting color, graphic/image and text combinations.

SIMPLICITY

Remember, less is more.

This is one thing to keep in mind when creating a logo. Design focused, clear concept. Make it simple and clean. Do not include extra typographic furniture and unnecessary elements. The best logos possess a few elements integral to the core concept.

APPROPRIATENESS

Target audiences should play important role in creating your logo.

Your logo needs to be appropriate for its purpose.

For example, the Fedex logo, it works for its audience but would it work for a restaurant?

MEMORABILITY

A logo is more than a design. It should be your identity, and symbolize you. It is your brand in design. If a logo is forgotten, you are forgotten. Trends come and go.Your logo should stand out and stand the test of time.

VERSATILITY

Your logo should remain functional and adapt:

Your logo should retain concept when used in different ways.

______________________________________

Creative Branding Process Interview

from a virtual salon with Armin Vit of. UnderConsideration
online network Brand New, popular blog for opinions on corporate and brand identity work
https://underconsideration.com/

https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/

Video of the webinar, at Type Directors Club TDC
and on the TDC YouTube channel.
Type Directors Club
https://www.tdc.org

Type Directors Club Youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjKXDLrb6mrftD1NW-r4l5w

https://www.tdc.org/news/qa-questions-and-armin/

Where does your inspiration come from?
I really love graphic design so I look at a lot of it, which gives me a wide vocabulary to draw from. Also, sunsets.

Do you have any techniques or ‘design principle checklist’ for motivating new directions in your exploration phase? Or is it a really free-flow approach like free association until something sticks?
Nope, no techniques… I just go. I think it’s almost like a muscle, the more you train it, the more it responds.

How many days does design process take?
From initial client conversation to first round design presentation about 3 weeks. We spent a good 3 weeks developing two of the options in parallel because neither he nor us were sure which one would best. Then it was about another month to get the logo approved by the board of directors, about a week to prepare final files for them and then they were on their own.

How long do you typically take for your exploration process?
2 to 3 weeks.

How long does it take you to design the initial logo options?
Between 1 and 2 week

How many logos thumbnails do you sketch on paper before you move to the computer?
It varies, sometimes 3, sometimes 20. There is no minimum I make myself do.

Curious about your hours estimate for a logo design? And roughly how much time do you spend in the concept stage?
Oh, I’m a wreck when it comes to estimating because I always spend more time than I first imagine spending. Working non-stop on the concept stage I will probably spend 8-full-working hours a day for maybe 7 to 10 days.

Do you give yourself time limits per sketch idea?
No, not really. I’ll dig at it until I get to something good. Sometimes I do have to force myself to stop on one specific idea so that I don’t get too obsessed with it.

Process-wise, how do you schedule your time for logo projects like these and allow for enough exploration, before the first presentation?
Yeah, definitely. I will usually state in the proposal that we need 4 weeks — it’s usually 3 weeks but I want them to know that it won’t be immediate.

Do you come up with concepts first and play, or do you play and develop those concepts later? Seems like the latter but I’m curious.
Play first : ) but as I’m playing I’m always thinking if what I’m doing can be rationalized.

What details influence your decision to eliminate ideas?
It usually has to do with expandability… meaning, can I see a logo expand into both a visual language and into a useful system. If I feel something doesn’t have legs for the long run, I’ll abandon it. Also, if I can tell it will suck.

How do you push yourself to come up with more concepts? Do you ever feel stuck at 1 or 2 concepts?
I can usually power through 3 – 5 different solutions without a problem but I always feel like I have to have 7 to 10 to satisfy my curiosity and yeah, plenty of times I will feel like I have nothing else to do. A trick that often helps is to ask “What Would X Do?”… so “What would Michael Bierut do?” “What would Jessica Hische do?”, etc and sometimes that will trigger different directions.

How important of concept and storytelling of logo in present day?
VERY! Because anyone can make a logo that looks good, even robots, so it’s all about the story behind and around it that makes a difference.

When you’re facing 6 small variations of an idea (ie – the different triangle shapes in the BOND Mill logo), how do you determine which one works best when you’ve been staring at it for hours or days? How do you keep touch with reality?
In that case I think it comes down to the applications… and that’s why I always show some renders and mock-ups to see which one has more potential to work as a system.

How do you decide on the typefaces that form a typography system and match (or not) the type in a logo?
I try to find typefaces that are useful and simple so that the client can get the most out of them. Something too weird or esoteric, I think they’ll get tired of it quickly. So I try to find logos that either complement or contrast the logo.

How do you know when to stop? Experimenting, doing more versions… I assume choosing the final one is more the client’s task?
When I feel satisfied with the exploration… meaning, do I have enough variety here? Do we address what the clients are asking for? If we have managed in the first few explorations then we’ll stop because, yeah, this process can go on forever.

Is it essential to have your own style in branding nowadays?
Nope. I think your style should adapt to what the client needs, not the other way around.

What are your favorite resources for finding typefaces?
I love TypeWolf. He is able to point out some really cool things. And every now and then in the marketing emails of MyFonts or even Creative Market, I’ll see something that catches my eye.

Do you think it’s a good idea to engage the client in the ideation and sketching phase before moving forward executing and crafting many options? did you try this before?
Some designers swear by this but I would never do it. This is ME-time. I really do think this is where the magic happens and, at least for me, it happens best in isolation.

How do you get yourself out of getting overly attached to one idea? I find it can sometimes make me “blind” to other ideas.
I ask my partner to slap me out of it. It’s probably the hardest thing. I do get very attached to specific ideas. So, I don’t have good advice on how to not do it because I haven’t figured it out.

How do you stay confident in your work and not worry about what others are creating?
I worry. A LOT. So, I think that because I worry so much, that makes me work harder, which gives me a confidence that I am doing something right somehow.

Presenting
Can you talk about providing clients with options or multiple concepts to choose from? Is this something you typically do or try to avoid?
I like to show options and let the client choose. I think there is no single right answer to a logo/identity project so the client should be able to choose a direction they enjoy and are comfortable with. I show between 3 and 5 options.

Do you present all options to the client or narrow it down to 3? The One Logo approach is gaining steam in the design space.
I present all good options. Sometimes it’s 3, sometimes it’s 5, sometimes it’s 7 — which is way too much and I don’t do that anymore. I’m not a believer in the one-solution approach but that’s me.

Do you typically show 6 options? Have always been told to only show 3-4, so as not to overwhelm the client. Is this an outdated rule?
See answers 1 and 16 above + no, overwhelming the client is a real thing. I have showed as many as 7 and the client had no idea how to move forward.

How much of your rationale do you share with your client? How do you support your decisions on symbols, colors, typefaces, etc.?
I share a lot, almost all of it. I want them to know that the decisions are not completely gratuitous and then I think that the more abstract thinking and way we talk about logos is beneficial for them to talk about their brand. I try to justify every decision with something regardless of whether the justification is overly simply or overly philosophical.

If you can’t present to the client in-person, do you send them a video/screenshare of you walking through it or do you just send the PDF?
Never a PDF on its own. It’s a recipe for disaster. You want to at least have them on the phone and walking them through it.

When you are sure a certain option is *the one* but it’s not selected…. what do you do?
I cry a little inside but then move on. I never push any one solution on a client.

Has it ever happened that the client did not like any of the options presented?
Yeah, it sucks. With one client I went through four rounds of completely different directions. In the end, I think it was my fault for not asking the right questions.

When you’re pitching these ideas are they pitched as finalized or do your clients choose a direction and you refine further from there?
Clients choose a direction and refine from there. We always assume there will be a second round where you can address concerns from the client and bring the logo further afield.

How do you manage the conversation around presenting several logo design concepts as well as a variety of color choices at the same time? How do you narrow it down with the client without having to iterate on lots of different ideas?
If color is completely up for grabs, from the beginning I will tell them that the colors chosen are interchangeable and if they see a color they like in one option we can easily apply it to another option. That’s why I always show the logo in black and white first so that they can see the idea first. I very rarely have super strong opinions about color, so I’m happy to go with whatever makes the client comfortable.

What do you do if you end up hating or otherwise struggling with the option the client likes best?

I think about the paycheck : )
Kidding aside, yeah, it happens so it’s really just about getting the job finished properly and quickly and just moving on. Not every project can be great.

How do you manage situations where clients like aspects of different options and then ask you to combine them for round 2?
If it makes sense, I have no problem combining elements of different ideas and I have been in 2 or 3 situations where that was the case where the client was right in bringing two ideas together. If I know the combination will not work I simply tell the client that it will be like trying to combine an Italian dish with a Thai dish and that those specific ingredients, while good on their own, were not meant to come together.

Has a client ever chosen your least favorite concept? How do you prevent that?
So far, never my least favorite. Most often is the second favorite. I think clients can tell when you are not excited about an option so if you can’t get them excited about something they won’t do it for it.

Production
You use multiple files, each for a specific exploration—is there some limitation to using one file with multiple artboards, or is that just your preference?
Pure preference and probably comes from the fact that I started using Adobe Illustrator before multiple artboards were a feature so I have always used each file as single-use. Also, the less vectors and fonts you have in a file, the quicker it is to open them and go through them.

Animation
What program did you do the simple logo animation and how did you show it as animation in the InDesign presentation ?
I use Adobe Animate and I generate an MP4 or MOV file from there. The presentation itself is given in Keynote, so I embed the video there. Before getting into Keynote I do the presentation itself in InDesign and simply leave blank spaces for videos later.
Having a simple animation in a branding project brings a change? if yes how? What all factors come to play?
It’s amazing what an animation can do (for the better) as it can bring to life an entire concept in 2 to 3 seconds.
How do you make 3D version of logos in illustrator?
Effect > 3D > Extrude and Bevel

Business
What are you charging lately?
Non-profits between $10,000 and $16,000; for-profits between $20,000 and $40,000. This includes logo exploration, basic guidelines, and some templates.

How do you go about the charging process? Is it project-based or hourly? Does it vary if depending on how big / small the client is?
We do it project-based and it will depend on the financial capacity of the client. For the same amount of work we’ll do it just the same for $10K as $30K. We usually break down the total by phases so that the client at least sees some breakdown of how their money is being spent.

When does agreeing to a limited scope make it not worth doing a logo anymore—at what point do you pass on a project, or do you ever pass on a project?
Yeah, we’ll pass on projects where we don’t feel there is any satisfaction anymore. The ideal is to do logo and identity and then the implementation. I’m usually okay with dropping the implementation phase. I’m sometimes okay with dropping the identity design and just designing the logo, but that’s usually when projects start to get questionable — if they start haggling about how many explorations they want to see then that starts to be a red flag.

From where do you get clients??
These last few ones have been from good old-fashioned networking. When we moved to Bloomington I made a HUGE effort to meet other people who are not designers and that was very hard.

COMD2427 D036 Fall24

Professor John De Santis | Fall 24

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

Support

Accessibility

Copyright

Creative Commons

The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

Support

Accessibility

Copyright

Creative Commons