From Concept to Creation: Designing the Crimson Logo
My Design Process
It's easy to get carried away and start designing right away because I get energised whenever I get a new project to work on. I have to resist the urge, though. I have a convenient process to follow and with it I am almost guaranteed to succeed. This process follows these 3 steps:
Research and Inspiration
Firstly, I like to feel a surge of inspiration for every design project I tackle. I look at the client's industry for trends and norms. I also take into account what the client is about. Sometimes, when the inspiration to start isn't there, I look at what the client's competition is doing. This usually sparks ideas.
For Crimson, which is basically my graphic & web design business before I rebranded, I wanted something colourful and extravagant. I wanted the logo to scream "graphic design" at first glance. Therefore, I came up with some very colourful and busy concepts.
Design Decisions
I'm ready to fire up my graphic design software once I get inspired and motivated. But there's one more thing I need to check out in my checklist. The design decisions.
What colours am I going to play with? Do I use playful, sketchy, professional, elegant, or bold fonts? What about the icons in the logo or lack thereof? These are the questions I need to ask myself in the design decisions phase. This phase sets a clear path for me. When dealing with many projects, I can't afford to waste time on a design I might have to squash later. So I have to tread carefully.
For Crimson, I focused on the extensive use of the crimson colour. I contrasted it with white to make it really standout. It sounds like an easy decision to make but it really isn't. Crimson comes in so many shades, and so does white. So I had to go through many pairings just to find the right one. But once I figured out exactly what I need the logo to look like, designing the logo became easier.
Iteration and Refining
Finally, I get to send some drafts to the client after designing the first concepts. In this final phase, communication is key. The client's feedback is what shapes and informs the final design. Sometimes a few tweaks here and there are needed to get what works best for the client.
When I came up with the initial logo concept for Crimson I used more colours, and iconography to represent "graphics" and "websites". However, I stripped it down and ended up with a minimalistic design. I removed the "websites and graphics" text right below "Crimson". I removed the big globe representing the internet and websites. Furthermore, I removed the splashes of colour that represent the idea of graphic design.
The minimal design complemented Crimson's minimalistic design style approach. Additionally, it was easier to intergrate with Crimson's clean look on the website and social media.
However, I did not get rid of the initial logo design. Instead, I kept it along with the stripped down design. These two versions became the primary and the secondary logo. One ideal for print and documentation, and the other ideal for the web and social media.
Lesson Learned
One thing I learned from designing a logo for Crimson is that sometimes less is more. I really like the clean, simpler, and minimal version of the Crimson logo. This inspired me to really work on my minimalistic design style that is now very apparent in my portfolio.
