My Brand Identity Process: From Brief to Final Mark
A walkthrough of how I approach logo and brand identity projects. Research, concept exploration, iteration, and final delivery.
A logo is not a brand. A logo is the most visible artifact of a brand. The brand is the set of associations a customer has with a company. The identity process I run is about defining those associations first, then drawing the mark that expresses them. Drawing first is how you end up with a logo that looks nice and means nothing.
The brief is the whole project
Half the time I spend on an identity project is the brief. Who is the customer. What do they currently believe. What do we want them to believe. Who are the competitors. What do they all look like. If the brief is wrong, every sketch after it is wrong. I will not start drawing until the brief is something I can read back to the client and they nod.
Explore wide before going deep
I sketch 20 to 30 directions before I show one. Most are bad. That is the point. The bad ones clear the obvious ideas out of the way so the interesting ones can surface. The mistake I see in junior designers is falling in love with the third sketch and refining it for a week before showing alternatives. Refinement is cheap. Direction is expensive.
- Sketch 20 to 30 directions, fast, in black and white.
- Kill 25, keep 5 that point in different directions.
- Refine the 5 to a presentable state, still no color.
- Pick 2 with the client, refine those to final.
- Add color, type, and applications only after the mark is locked.
Test in the worst possible placement
A logo that only works on a hero website is not a logo, it is a header. I test every mark at 16px favicon, embroidered on a polo, printed on a receipt, and stamped on a cardboard box. If it survives those, it will survive anything the client does with it over the next decade.
A logo is not done when you love it. It is done when it still works at 16 pixels on a receipt next to a phone number.