Nuno Melo - Logo Grid

I often get people asking me what's my process of designing a logo from start to finish, i'm gonna describe it here on this post.

1) A quality project starts with quality questions - i always start by asking the client three questions - "What keywords would you best describe your business with?", "What logos do you identify your business with the most?" and "Who are your main competitors?"

2) After having the information provided by the client i get my hands on my favorite book for inspiration - Logo Modernism - and i start collecting several logos that may be related to the project.

3) At this stage i grab my pencil and notebook and start sketching out ideas - good or bad - the important is getting them all out of your mind into the paper, filling at least 3 or 4 pages.

4) When i have those pages filled up with sketches, i select the best ones (two up to six) and i vectorise them on computer, on black and white. I always create concepts that work on black and white.

5) Now it's time to present these concepts to the client and decide with him along with the feedback you guys which concept is the better to move forward with.

6) The best concept is chosen and now i get back on Adobe Illustrator and refine it - it's time for the Grids - which you are seeing on this exact post, in order to make the logos balanced, i aim to only use circles and straight lines. Sometimes i also use ovals.

7 ) Type comes in now, as well as lockups - trial and error play a big role here - as well as making sure it stands out from the main competitors of the client's business.

8 ) Now it's time for colors, i like to have at least 9 different color combinations to choose from, again, as distant from the competitors as possible.

9) Having the concept refined and coloured, i test it on small sizes as well as mockups to see how it looks on real life - by now i like to "field test" it on Social Media to see how people react to it.

Hopefully by this stage a beautiful new mark is born.

I hope you liked the read. I'm curious, what about your process, is it similar or do you have any major difference?