Branding and logo design

What a brand identity includes

• Logo system: primary logo, secondary/stacked versions, an icon or mark, and clear space and minimum size rules.
• Colour palette with exact values (HEX, RGB, CMYK, Pantone).
• Typography for headings and body.
• Imagery style: photography, illustration, icons.
• Tone of voice (with the copywriters).
• Applications: business cards, social templates, letterheads, packaging, signage.
• All of it documented in brand guidelines so anyone can use the brand correctly.

Logo types

Wordmark (Google), lettermark (HP), pictorial mark (Apple), abstract mark (Pepsi), mascot (Amul girl), emblem (Starbucks), combination mark (text + symbol).

The logo design process

1. Brief: business, audience, values, competitors, where the logo will appear, likes and dislikes.
2. Research: competitors, category clichés to avoid, mood boards.
3. Sketch: dozens of rough ideas on paper.
4. Digitise the strongest 3–5 in Illustrator as vectors.
5. Refine: balance, spacing, optical adjustments; test at tiny sizes (favicon) and huge sizes (hoarding), in one colour, and in reverse (white on dark).
6. Present with context (mock-ups on real applications) and the reasoning behind each concept.
7. Deliver final files: AI/EPS/SVG/PDF (vector), PNG with transparency, JPG; colour, black and white versions; plus a mini guideline.

A good logo is simple, memorable, timeless, versatile and appropriate.

Vector vs raster

• Vector (Illustrator, SVG, EPS, PDF): made of paths; scales infinitely without quality loss. Use for logos, icons and illustrations.
• Raster (Photoshop, JPG, PNG): made of pixels; loses quality when enlarged. Use for photos and photo manipulation.

Check yourself

• What files would you hand over at the end of a logo project?
• Why must a logo work in one colour?
• Vector or raster for a logo, and why?