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Asking Questions
The first step in logo creation is to fully understand what
you want your logo to say. What kind of business image are you
trying to convey? Who is your customer? What is your objective?
It's not making money by the way. That is always a by product
of something else. You are providing a necessary product or service
to customers. Business is essentially an equal trade between a
seller and a buyer. A well designed logo can project trust, quality,
professionalism and good service. Of course, it can also convey,
shoddy products, poor service and incompetence. In other words,
your great logo will be a reflection of that busies or entity.
The Toy Doctor.Net
My fictional company is dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment and repair of
damaged toys. Our promise is no toy is beyond saving - for the right price
of course. The Toy Doctor is a profit making enterprise. But The Toy Doctor
also has a heart. We know when we mend a broken toy we also mend the broken
heart of a child. Okay, I'm getting a little maudlin but you get the idea
of why this company exists and it's goal - not making money - mending damaged
toys.
The Toy Doctor has two audiences, kids and their parents. To
parents I want to convey a professional service at a reasonable
price. To kids I want to convey trust and a child like love of
toys. So I am trying to satisfy two types of customers.
Phase 1 - Paper or Pixels?
Some designers prefer to start using a sketch pad and pencil while others go
right to their computer and crank up Corel Draw or Illustrator. I normally
use a combination of the two. I can scratch out ideas a lot faster than on
a computer. For this particular project I jumped straight to my computer
and Adobe Illustrator. My first step was to enter my company name in several
default types and styles. I can now see how many company name looks visually.
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BORING!
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Phase 2 - Focus on the Important
Look at the three words - The - Toy - Doctor. 'The' is really not the equal
of the other two words. I want to emphasize 'Toy Doctor.' One way to de-emphasize
words is to shrink them down, avoid using caps or soften the color.
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De-emphasize unimportant words
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As you can see 'Toy Doctor' stands out more because I shrunk
'the.' It's usually a good idea not to worry about color in this
design phase. If the logo looks good in black/white it will look
even better in color. The current font for the logo is far too
heavy for my company's personality.
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