The 5 Principles of a Successful Logo or Re-brand: From Concept to Reality.

A good logo is essential for any company or product looking to create an iconic brand. To design a successful logo, it's important to understand that following the five principles of the S.M.A.R.T. system allows companies and products to stand out in a crowded market and form lasting audience connections.

• Simple: Make it easy to understand and identify.

• Memorable: A good logo should be distinctive enough to be memorable.

• Ageless: The best logos are timeless and survive changing trends.

• Reliable: Flexibility and scalability are key to using a logo across different platforms, mediums, and sizes.

• Thoughtful: Every detail of a logo should be considered and honed to symbolize the quality and usefulness of a brand effectively.

Simplicity is key when it comes to logos. A successful logo should be easy to understand and recognize, even when it's been reduced to a small size or displayed in black and white. The best logos are often the simplest ones - think of Nike's swoosh, Apple's bitten apple or the soon-to-be Brisbane Olympian Logo.

Step 1 - Create Design Brief.

The first phase of the logo design process involves reviewing the business and understanding your company’s vision and customer audience. Develop a brief that showcases styles of logos and business you like and dislike. Often working with a design agency understanding your dislike can help us not waste time on design revisions and long-winded design strategy workshops.

A basic brief will cover the following:

• Goals: Does the project have specific goals it must meet in order to be considered a success?

• Deliverables: What are the deliverables that will be expected at the project’s completion?

• Timeline: Are there expectations that the project should be completed within a certain amount of time?

• Project Stakeholders: Who is involved in the project’s decision-making?

• Target Audience: What segment of the population should the logo resonate with?

• Product or Company Profile: What purpose does the product or company serve? What value do they bring people?

• Brand Positioning Statement: What is the core of the brand’s promise to consumers, and how does it see itself in relation to its competitors?

• Budget and Payment: Is there a project budget, and how will payments be handled?

Step 2 - Create Mood Board / Art Direction

The best mood boards demonstrate a distinct trend and represent a certain target market. A mood board can be easily put together using websites like Pinterest.

A mood board is a collection of images that summon up a certain look or idea. To convey the "feel" of a concept, designers, illustrators, photographers, filmmakers, and other creative professionals create mood boards.

What to include in your mood board;

• The colours you would like to use

• Any specific fonts or typography you would like to incorporate

• Any images or symbols you would like to use

• Your company's core values and mission statement

• The overall style you aim for (e.g. modern, vintage, etc.)

• Existing imagery the company uses.

Create an Pinterest - Mood Board

Step 3 - Design Research & Ideation.

As a kick-off for our journey together, Unlmtd Agency loves to facilitate online or in-person design research workshops to reach a better understanding of the journey we will embark on together. In this collaborative gathering, it is best for all members of the core team to participate and engage in planning out the Design Thinking process together to avoid any confusion along the way.

Our goal for the session will be to complete our understanding of the must have objectives to achieve. We will also use the opportunity to answer any questions the team might have and gain alignment on the agile journey we take together.

Upon completion of the alignment workshop, we will move into a phase of 2-3 days of ‘Desk Research’ , analysing existing content, competitors / the inspiration provided, then synthesising by preparing a moodboard (stylescape) for inspiration to start to take into the next phases of brand development.

Research must eventually produce creative output as concepts move from the head to the page. A brainstorming session is a wonderful approach to getting the ideation phase of the logo design process started. During this session, you can capture key concepts and focus on the most practical possibilities.

At Unlmtd Agency, we will take you on several creative workshops to help us ideate, research and refine creative briefs and mood boards into a tangible outcome.

Step 4 - Stylescape

A stylescape is a chance to show a client how a brand will appear and feel. Exhibiting the colours, typography, photographs, language tone, design components, and other brand assets are integrated to create a brand's overall visual identity. Stylescape are use to keep irritations

Our team of designers will work closely with you to develop a comprehensive brand identity. We aim to provide you with the tools to communicate that identity effectively. Our creative and technological procedure will provide the appropriate guide for your brand appliances, integrating the overall strategy and stress test rounds. We develop our brand guidelines on the digital platform, Notion, which allows us to hand over your guidelines in an accessible, downloadable format. 

What distinguishes a Stylescape from a mood board?

Moodboards tend to be a collection of inspirational images, whereas a stylescape takes the images from our mood boards and alters them to fit the brand's proposed identity. They frequently give a broad picture of the brand's new direction.

Step 5 - Brand Guidelines

It's time to deliver the final design files once the client has accepted the completed logo. A reputable file sharing service, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or another, should be able to access all of the folders and files easily.

Here is a quick summary of the various file types a customer can require for the logo designer who is just starting out in the field:

• Print Files: Vector format files are preferred for print because they allow a logo to remain sharp and clear at large scales and low resolutions. Formats include EPS, SVG, AI, and PDF.

• Web Files: The web requires either pixel-based files (JPEG, PNG, GIF) or vector-based files (SVG – Scalable Vector Graphics).

• JPG Files: If the logo design has several colour transitions and gradients, JPEG files work best since they preserve a richer photographic rendering of the original design.

• PNG Files: When a logo design uses only flat colours and forms with little to no shadow or gradient motion, PNG pictures work best.