How to improve your logo design skills
Are you someone who wants to improve their logo designs?
There are several things I wish I had learnt at the beginning stages of logo design.
With out a doubt, these could have saved me a whole year of designing ‘below average’ logos.
Discover how to become a better logo designer, and ultimately charge more.
Where should I begin?
If you are determined to improve your logo design skills, you should:
Stop designing - Acknowledge where you currently are with logo design, and understand where you want to be.
Start designing - After reflecting, work towards the level of the designs you admire with the help of logo design books and daily challanges.
Stay simple - Remember that high paying clients need a problem to be solved in a simple and efficient way. Dont create over complicated logo designs.
Speak to design friends - Be around designer friends that can assist you when evaluating your work.
Share your work - Get your work seen by others which will open doors for you, and ultimately bring you in high-paying clients.
Stop designing
Yes this sounds crazy but it needs to be done and you will understand why…
When was the last time you took a day, week or if so a month to setback and reflect on your work? The chances are, you probably haven’t.
Improving is about understanding your current position, knowing it can be better. You can only do this when you pause, and reflect on your logo designs. Be realistic with your work and acknowledge your current level as a logo designer. To become a better writter you need to read more, the same can be applied to designing: to become a better design, you need to ‘look’ more. Observing great logos, shapes, and objects, help us understand and identify how they are formed.
Logo design books are the best resource to help you accomplish this. Logo design books usually contain the best logos created by disciplined expert designers. By purchasing these books, you will absorb the quality of ‘high-standard’ logo design.
Have a read through The best logo design books, which contains a list of the best logo design books available to purchase, as well as an in-depth review.
Challenge your self daily
Created by Maya Studio
Its now time to pick your pencil back up, and start getting creative.
After taking a break, by now you would have integrated a high-standard of logo design, in your subconscious allowing you to work towards it.
How do you know this?
Well, I encourage you to set your self daily challenges (preferably 36 days of type) and produce a variation of at least 4 logos each day (starting from A-Z then 0-9) -- There are many other challenges to take on as a logo designer. Discover other challenges to improve your logo design
I guarantee you will notice a difference in the work you produced before taking the design break, compared to after.
Additionally you will identify how 99.9% of logos found in logo design books, have one thing in common; simplicity.
Keep it simple
Created by amprako design co.
As mentioned, by now you may have identified what is consistent with all the great logos, which is simplicity
It’s easy to add to an image, but harder to take-away and still have value. McDonalds, nike, and apple, all have simple logos that consist of one idea - letter, symbol or a fruit. This is simplicity at the highest level, as the companies story is still being captured.
Logo designers are experts at making things simple. When being hired, clients themselves have a problem of communicating a clear message. Now thats when you come in…
Some times you may get the urge to add more to a logo, but that actually increases the noise and distracts the audience. This is important to remember.
Keep it simple and clean, thats what high-paying clients are looking for. To understand more about logo design fundamentals, have a read through what makes a good logo design
Have designer friends
Being a designer can get lonely as it requires early mornings and late nights zoned in on a logo design. This actually is a bad habit that needs to be broken- well not the early mornings and late nights of hard work, but the long periods of working in isolation.
Working alone can feel motivating as there is nothing that can distract you, but sometimes you may need to take a break and reflect with another designer on your work. Sitting for long periods and designing may cause you to not see the things that other people will.
Getting opinion on your work from another designer is highly recommended as two brains are better than one. Vital questions such as:
“Have you tried making the stroke thicker?”
“Maybe try this typeface?”
“Will that logo design work better in this style?”
may only be asked from a designer other than yourself, and can make a huge impact on the finished product.
Additionally, having regular meet-ups, zoom calls or phone calls with your fellow designers is without a doubt motivating and highly re-assuring. Freelance design can be hard at times, and it’s important to understand that you are not the only one struggling. Speaking to designer friends can be very useful as you can share thoughts on areas you both may have experience from.
Get your work out there
Hard work pays off, and It is now time to create opportunities for yourself.
No one will see your work it if they don’t know about it. Theres a higher chance your work will be seen when you promote it.
Promoting doesn’t necessarily mean tweeting “Hey, does anyone need a logo design?”. Promoting your work is best done by simply sharing it on social media such as LinkedIn - “Created this logo for a snowboarding company. I wanted to portray how advanced the craft of snowboarding is, as well as emphasising the luxury of the brand”
There are several tested and proven ways to gain exposure as a logo designer. Discover step-by-step how to gain exposure as a designer.
You need to create opportunities for your self by exposing your work to a wider audeince. Creating the work is the hard part, now the easy part is to share it.
Share your work on social media platforms, as this may open doors for you.