Oversaturation of graphic design market with half-baked contractors and subpar marketplaces (Fiverr and Upwork, yes, I’m talking to you) has brought up a delusion that logo / brand identity design is something that can be successfully done in a few days. However, to those of you with any understanding on this matter, it sounds akin to trying to squeeze 8 hours of sleep out of 3 hours (but worse).

Whether you’re a business owner and you’re thinking about rushing everything design-wise, or a brand identity designer looking for a way to educate your clients on this sensitive topic: read on.

It heavily depends on the company size and ambitions of the brand, but creating an effective visual identity system can take anywhere from 4–8 weeks for a fresh startup to 2–6 months for a mid-size business and even longer for large corporations. Please note that I’ll be only covering professional work that stands the test of time, not some quick $15 clip art logo hacks.

In order to understand where all that time goes, it would be useful to break down the whole process of creating an effective identity system. There are no shortcuts or hacks that wouldn’t severely affect the quality of the final product, so the following is just the essentials in any serious logo / visual identity design process.

1. Discovery phase / Design brief

So you reached out to that amazing designer after getting impressed by his/her portfolio, you got to know the ballpark prices, and you have a good feeling that this could turn into a great collaboration. It all starts here, whether you conduct a face-to-face meeting at a coffee shop, or have it over Skype or email, this is your perfect chance to set clear expectations for the project. Usually a productive discovery phase will go in the following order:

The very first engagement of the client with designer (usually over email).
Filling in a project questionnaire to identify / document the project needs and goals.
Chat with follow-up questions to build upon the design brief.

2. Project proposal / Upfront payment

Once the project scope is established, it’s time to propose an agreement to kick-start the project. It’s essential to set the project goals, scope and expectations as clear as possible at this stage between the parties to avoid any misunderstandings in future. Once both parties are ready to begin the project, the upfront payment (usually 50% of the full project price) follows.

3. Research

At least half of the project’s success comes from a quality time invested in research. That’s how you make sure the right visual solution is tailored right for that specific brand and resonates with its target market. If done right it will also significantly reduce the risks of any kind of trademark issues (You can read more on this here). The main stages of researching the brand are:

Researching the industry with all its quirks and characteristics.
Researching the direct / indirect competition to make sure the visual identity design stands out and is not confused with any of the competing brands.
Researching the target audience (Age, gender, location, preferences/interests/lifestyle, occupation, income, etc.).
Researching the core brand values and vision with their relation to the competing brands.

4. Brainstorming

This is where the actual ideas get generated. More often than not a combination of a few relevant ideas is far more powerful than the sum of its parts. Mind-mapping is one very useful technique to generate and structure ideas. A central keyword/idea is written in the middle of the page and multiple associations start to branch out until you’ve got a full page of ideas.

5. Sketching ideas

The funnest stage for most designers I know of. The process usually goes along these lines:

Before proceeding to the actual sketching, it’s very useful to draw on multiple different references and create a mood board to capture the right look & feel for the company. Here you can see some of my favorite resources for visual inspiration.
Taking that beloved pen and paper, honing in and drafting dozens of rough concepts.
Taking a step back to reflect on the concepts.
Narrowing down to only the strongest few of them.

6. Presentation

As a designer, you should never present the logo / visual identity system and simply ask the client if they ‘like it’ — it’s both unprofessional and inefficient. It’s one of your main responsibilities to guide the client through your design decisions and explain how the given concept achieves the project goals. This process includes:

Writing down a rationale that outlines all major design decisions and describing how those decisions satisfy the brief.
Showcasing a narrow selection of strongest concepts in various context, using mockups of various size and form factor. That way it’s easier for the client to see how each concept would work in real life situations.
Asking the client which concept aligns best with project goals.

7. Back to the drawing board (optional)

It’s ideal if you nail the general direction on your first try, but sometimes there’s a need to revise. It’s in the best interest of both parties (both client and designer) to make sure that the need to revise is as objective as possible, meaning that it should always align with the project goals defined in the project questionnaire.

Identifying which project goal(s) exactly aren’t achieved with the current design direction(s).
Once identified, starting again from point #4 of this list.

8. Refining & polishing

Once the client approves one of the presented design directions, it’s at this point that designer’s inherent perfectionism really comes in handy.

Rebuilding the logo and all the graphical elements with proper geometry and logic (if not already in place).
Making sure all the lines, objects and typography align perfectly, tweaking the optical alignment till perfect.
Taking a step back to reflect and make the final touches with a fresh look.

9. Preparing the design package

It’s not enough to simply ship the approved work to the client: it’s critical to save the client’s time and trouble and prepare all the necessary lockups, layouts, color variants and other deliverables, and ship all in proper vector/raster file types for both web and print use to ensure the visual identity is well prepared for all kinds of use case scenarios.

10. Managing your brand identity

The project is complete, but your brand is never really done. It’s an on-going process to ensure your brand is communicating effectively through all the customer touchpoints, and that it’s evolving along with your target audience. This includes, but is not limited to: Maintaining brand consistency on social media platforms, crafting ad campaigns, refreshing website content, designing new merch, etc.

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If you like what you read, visit my logo & brand identity design portfolio site, and follow me on Behance, LinkedIn and Instagram.

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Designing an effective logo & brand identity system: The PROCESS