Logo Design Idea Generation Techniques

Hey Logo Geeks! Ian Paget here. I’m back with another podcast that’s created to help you make a living designing logos. This weeks show is a solo episode where I’ll discuss idea generation techniques for logo design. But before diving into that I want to ask you a couple of questions: How good are you at designing mood boards? and How good are you at translating a client brief into a visual solution?

If you’ve answered yes to both questions, Adobe have a mood board design challenge for you that you’ll enjoy, called The Perfect Match. To take part in this, head to theperfectmatch.co/play , choose a brand from their website, then design a moodboard for that brand using Adobe Stock Assets. Just by doing that, and submitting an entry you’ll receive a gift, but on top of that, if your design is chose you’ll be invited to be part of Adobe's monthly live streaming game show where you could win $1000!

It’s a Huge opportunity to prove your capabilities, and to get in-front of a huge audience! So if you’re excited to enter, or want to simply learn more, head to theperfectmatch.co/play I’m keen to see you all enter this - it’s worth spending 30 minutes to enter, and if you do, share what you’ve done in the logo geek community on Facebook.

So this week I’ve decided to hit record, do a solo episode, and the topic of focus will be a very important one, and that’s to discuss the techniques I use to come up with ideas. Without a good idea, you have no logo, so generating ideas is the most important step of the process. But, I know that staring at a blank piece of paper can be daunting, so I carry out a few idea generation exercises to help me along the way. Let’s dive into each of these.‍

Word Mapping

Word mapping is an amazing technique that I use to help me think of ideas outside the box.

I start by writing down a word related to the business in the middle of a piece of paper.

The words can be related to the company name, the type of products or services they offer, their tagline, their values… anything that I feel could help me generate ideas.

I’ll then draw lines extending from this, adding as many associated words as I can think of. To speed this us I’ll frequently use an online thesaurus.

As an example, if I was designing a logo for a property letting company, I might start with the word “Estate Agent”. I would then add associated words around that such as Rent, House, Moving, Property and Flat.

From the word ‘Moving’ I would add words such as Delivery Van, Boxes, Packing, and Tape.

I’ll then repeat the exercise for as many words as needed to spark ideas.

Whilst I’m writing down words I frequently picture a potential idea, so I’ll sketch that down before returning to my word map, where I’ll keep adding words to ensure I explore the possibilities available to me.

Word Mapping helped me when working on the logo for British Overland, an adventure company who hire out Land Rover Defenders for exploring the stunning landscapes that Britain has to offer.

I started out with the word ‘British’, which eventually lead me to the word ‘Lion’. This single word allowed me to picture a lion running across the British Overland, which was the concept behind the final logo.‍

Picture Mix & Match‍

Another exercise that I like to do in combination with word mapping is to draw icons, shapes and symbols related to the words.

Google can be a handy tool for this exercise. If you search one of the words you wrote down, followed by “symbol”, you’ll see lists of commonly associated objects, icons and marks associated with that word.

Sketch everything you see, and looks for opportunities to combine objects to create a new symbol.

As an example, I worked on logo for the company Astro Blue Properties, who are an estate agent based in Manchester, UK.

I first googled ‘estate agent symbols’ where I came across images such as houses, keys, contracts and location pins. I then googled ‘Space Symbols’, where I found rockets, planets, aliens, telescopes, moons and satellites.

It was only when seeing everything roughly sketched on paper that noticed I could combine a rocket shape with a house, resulting in a really effective solution for the business. By happy accident, the combined shapes also work well as an abstract ‘A’ lettermark too.‍

Can you tell a story?

One of my favourite approaches for idea generation is to visually tell a story.

This is something you can draw from the project goals, or from any further reading you might do on the business or service offering.

As an example, I worked on a logo for a business called Soul Somatic who offer a type of therapy called Somatic Experiencing (SE) which is designed to help heal trauma and other stress-related disorders.

The therapy works on sensations in the body that are stuck following a stressful experience. By bringing attention to these sensations, such as the emotion of anger, our body will follow the natural intuition for action that was previously suppressed. Completing that action brings closure to the previously stuck impulses, addressing the root cause of the trauma symptoms.

Through research, I discovered that ancient indigenous communities, like those from the Amazon rainforest, had healing systems that draw on the body’s natural healing energy in the way SE does. For reference, I looked into tribal ceramics, body paint, headdresses and art where I discovered that swirl like symbols, representing energy, were used throughout.

The final logo includes 2 of these ‘energy’ swirls, to form a letter S, but this also helps to visually explain SE. The first swirl represents the original trauma. The second then shows the trauma being experienced a second time in the form of therapy. To show the release of pain, lines shine out from the second swirl like sun rays.‍

The 4 Categories‍

In Michael Shumates book, ‘Logo Design Theory’, he theorised that logo concepts are broken down into only 4 categories.

I had Michael as a guest on the podcast a year or so back, so you can hear him explain this approach in his own words - just head to https://logogeek.uk/84 which I’ll also link to in the show notes for this episodes.

The 4 categories are; Corporate Activity, Corporate Ideals, Corporate Name and Abstract. Knowing this can provide a framework to reference when generating ideas.

1. Corporate Activity describes the logos that show something about the product or activity of the company. For example, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) shows a giant panda to symbolise endangered species, the US Open Tennis Championships uses a tennis ball in flight, and a burger is used in the Burger King logo.

2. Corporate Ideals reference something about the qualities or ideals that the company aspires for, such as superiority, strength, speed and accuracy. This can be seen in the Nike swoosh, which has been designed to represent a wing of the Greek goddess of Victory, the Barclays logo features the heraldic eagle, a representation of courage and power, and The Premier League logo features a lion, which is depicted in English heraldry, implying the belonging to royal blood.

3. Corporate Name are logos that simply reference the name of the company, and often have nothing to do with the product or service itself. For example, the apple in the Apple logo, the bell in the Taco Bell logo, and the whirl in the Whirlpool logo.

4. Abstract logos say very little about the company, but can be unique and distinct. For example, the Slack logo includes a stylised hashtag, the Mitsubishi has its 3 diamond symbol and the McDonalds logo features its golden arches.

If you then consider that you only really have 3 possible components to work with, a wordmark, lettermark or symbol, then you can easily plan out potential ideas for each that considers these 4 concepts. If you were to sketch just one idea for each you’ll immediately have 12 ideas... and if you sketched out 3 for each you’ll quickly have 36!

Design the negative space

When you’re designing on a white background, your eyes will focus on everything in colour. But when you invert the design and place it onto black, the negative space will become much more visible that you might have expected. That means that if there are any unusual shapes, they might become an unwanted distraction, so be sure to consciously design the negative space in your designs.

On occasion you can take advantage of it, making the negative space a design feature.

As an example, when I was working on the logo for Conservation Evidence, a resource to support those making decisions about maintaining and restoring biodiversity, I developed an idea that combined a book with the leaves of a sprouting plant. By happy accident I noticed that the negative space could resemble a tree of life, so I further developed the logo so that the tree became a prominent feature of the design.‍

Use Semiotics to Assist with Decision Making

One question you might have when translating the project goals is how do you know what style is right? What font? What shapes?

I could give surface-level advice, but if you understand semiotics you'll be able to start to answer these questions on your own.

From the moment we’re born into this world we learn from the things we hear, see, touch and smell. As a result, we’ll begin to associate colours, shapes and forms with different areas of life.

As an example, if we were to look at traffic lights, we all immediately know that red means stop and green means go. If I was to ask you to assign a colour to boys, and another to girls, I can guess most would pick blue for boys and pink for girls.

This isn’t knowledge we’re born with. They are signs that are taught and have been established over a long time period through the culture we live in.

We carry cultural lessons like this with us through life, so when we encounter a brand for the first time we'll ultimately use all our cultural experiences to help figure out what a brand is all about.

That’s what Semiotics is. It’s the study of signs and symbols (words, images, sounds, gestures, and objects), and looks to understand how any meaning has been created.

I interviewed consumer psychologist Dr Rachel Lawes, who wrote a book on the topic. She has a fascination with the semiotics of weddings and explained to me that in the western part of the world brides are keen that their wedding be different, and something special and unique to them. But what makes any event special is the repetitive features, and with a wedding, it’s the dress, bridesmaids, the ceremony and so on. But if you were to take away too many of these features it no longer feels like a wedding, and this is because all the semiotic signs that made it a wedding have been stripped away.

This logic applies to logo design too, and the reason why earlier in the book I mentioned the importance of appropriateness. Whilst differentiation is key, if you’re designing an identity for an accounting business, you’ll want to leverage all the cultural cues that make it feel trustworthy and credible, which naturally determine font styles and colours. If you don’t leverage these attributes you’ll be facing an uphill battle of re-educating the masses.

The world is full of visual cues that we can take advantage of when working on a logo design to subconsciously communicate messages and adding meaning.

If you're anything like me, understanding the role of Semiotics will open your eyes. You’ll start to learn from everything around you. You'll become more observant, will ask more questions, and will be open to new experiences that allow you to better understand the symbols you see, and where their meaning has come from.‍

Sketch Everything… Even bad ideas

I’m a messy sketcher.

I see so many ‘perfect’, carefully drawn out logos when browsing social media, but in most cases, this isn’t real and can be intimidating for those new to the industry.

What you’re seeing is a refined sketch, and not the planning and development that went into it.

When you’re generating ideas, only you need to see it. That means it doesn’t matter what it looks like. Scribble, play and have fun. Get the ideas out of your head... even the rubbish ideas.

You’ll often think up boring, unoriginal or silly ideas, which you might immediately dismiss, but draw them anyway.

Once down on paper, you’ll sometimes realise that they have potential, or may form the foundation for an unexpected idea that you wouldn’t have considered if you didn’t note it down.

So let ideas develop on paper rather than in your head. Don’t sit thinking about them. Just draw, and keep drawing.

I usually sketch hundreds of ideas, sometimes the same idea over and over again with slight variations. But I’ll keep going until I have a handful of strong ideas that I feel have real potential to develop further.

And I’ll never stop at just one good idea. I’ll keep experimenting and exploring to explore the potential of the project.

I like to spend at least a day exploring ideas on paper, if not more, as having a good idea is the most important part of the design process. It’s also substantially faster to explore possibilities on paper, so I’ll keep going until I have a solid plan before jumping into Illustrator.‍

Combating Creative Block

Hopefully, the techniques described in this book will help you explore plenty of great ideas.

But unless you’re insanely gifted, coming up with an original logo that correctly represents the business, and differentiates from the competition too is really, really hard.

Because it’s hard it will mean that you’ll frequently feel that you’re making no progress or that you’ve hit what’s commonly referred to as ‘creative block’.

But don’t worry! It happens to everyone.

I’ve had days when I’ve worked all day long sketching ideas, only to reach the end of the day without a single good idea. That feeling sucks, but you need to keep going and accept that muddy mess of exploring ideas is part of the design process.

You might have hundreds of terrible scribbles and weak ideas, but all you need is one incredible idea. So keep going until you find it.

Of course, if you ever feel completely drained of ideas, it’s ok to take a break. Go for a walk. Get some rest. Play a game. Do the washing up. Sleep on it if needed.

You’ll return with a fresh perspective. You may even find that during the time away, without even thinking about the project, you’ll dream up unexpected ideas... so keep a sketchbook in your back pocket just in case!

Ideas can come from weird places, so don’t give up! Trust the process.

Select the best ideas

Once I have several pages of scribbles, notes and ideas, and feel I have exhausted the possibilities, I’ll pick up a highlighter pen and will circle the ideas I feel are the strongest and worth developing further.

My ultimate goal is to find the most suitable logo for the business, so I’ll always refer back to the goals of the project when making my choice.

Most of my ideas will be pretty darn awful, but there’s always a few that have real potential.

There’s normally one or two that I feel are very strong and feel me with excitement, so I’ll always circle those. But there might be one or two directions that have something happening but need further development to be perfect, so I’ll circle them too.

Most of the time, after selecting a few directions, even If they’re rough, I’ll proceed to develop them on a computer, which I’ll discuss in the next section of this book.

On occasion, if the design is particularly complicated, or if I want a break from the computer, I like to do the bulk of the development and exploration on paper. Tracing paper can be really helpful for this, and is the way logos were designed before computers came along. The idea is that you sketch your idea on paper, then overlay tracing paper to re-draw, improve and explore the possibilities of the design. Continue to overlay tracing paper to rework the design as many times as needed until you feel it’s perfect.

So I hope this solo episode has been useful for you! If you have other ideas and tips to expand on this, please share them in the logo geek community on Facebook! You can find that by heading to logogeek.uk/community

So that’s it for this week! I’ll be back the same time next week for another exciting episode of the logo geek podcast!