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My Logo Design Process

Logo design is a more comlicated process than many clients expect. Here’s the process I like to follow to help me narrow down concepts and finalize a successful logo.

1. Before putting pencil to sketchpad I need ideas. I ask for as much existing information about the brand that I can get my hands on. I need to know who the target audience is and what the product is all about. Sometimes this is readily apparent, other times not, so its important to tell me as much as they can. Also, any particular ideas the client has about what the logo should look like should be presented at this point.
2. Once information is collected there I’ll research similar brands and competing products to find out what seems to be working and what doesn’t. Also, I don’t want to copy a competitor inadvertently.
3. Now I’ll do some hand sketches. I want at least 10 that I’m happy enough with to present to the client. These are rough and represent ideas in their most basic form. I’ll present these sketches to the client, get input and narrow down to three ideas.
4. At this point I’ll start to flesh those three ideas out more fully. I’ll develop them more fully and start making decisions about color, font and how the icon will be rendered. At this point we will have three simply rendered logos comprised of a mark and logotype that can live on a page together or independently. I’ll ask the client to select a final logo concept
5. Now I will finish rendering the final concept, tweaking and finalizing the logo. I’ll deliver 4 vector-based files to the client with the logo in Black, Spot Color, CMYK and RGB.

• design
• logo
• process

The Great Thing About China…

You can criticise it and its policies behind its back by posting to your favorite social media site. So thanks China! And way to go on blocking social media sites and message boards just in time for the big 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. You guys are the best! Perhaps if you hadn’t murdured those peaceful protesters 20 years ago you’d be able to let your people use Flickr today.

Its a damn shame.

• politics
• global
• China
• Human Rights
• Satire

MODx Revolution (2.0) Beta released

The first Beta release of the stellar CMS - MODx Revolution (2.0) was released over the weekend. Its a complete rewrite of the codebase and promises to be even slicker and better than the original MODx. I’m just now really digesting MODx, and am very excited about the new upcoming version. Can’t wait for the final production release!

Check out MODx at modxcms.com

• modx
• cms
• web dev

Star Trek Micro Review

I watched ‘Star Trek’ last night. It was a wild ride, a good science fiction film and definitely worth the price of admission. There were a few wrinkles that strayed from the classic portrayal of these characters and a simple explaination that should be good for all but the most hardcore of trekkers. I would definitely recommend to anyone who doesn’t “hate space movies.”

I had small criticisms, but my only real reservation about film is that it seemed to lack the empathy and optimism of ‘Star Trek’. Even the scenes with Leonard Nimoy left me feeling like Roddenberry’s vision of the future was being stuffed into a broom closet. The future just didn’t look that much better than the present, and I think that missed the mark.

• Star Trek
• movie
• review
• Gene Roddenberry
• science fiction