Tricks of the trade

Hi, let me introduce myself since I am new to this forum. My name is Adrian, I am 18 and i've been doing logo design for a couple of years. I've been working with computers, animation and web design for approximatley 8 years.

My question to all you designers is:


What are your tricks of the trade? When you get a project or a logo to work on, where do you begin right from the beginning? Do you see an image in your head instantly and have to sketch it down? Do you obsess over the screen for hours thinking of something unique?


For me, I usually have ideas right away for logo's, and then I tweak them and come up with variations. For pictures and complex graphics I usually turn to google images and manually trace over a graphic image (weather it be a person, an object, etc..) and I usually end up with basic Icons or silouhettes for my finished logo.

Does anyone else do the same thing? How do you go about obtaining graphics without having to worry about copyright laws?

may I ask you to show us some of your logos? I just love watching logos of others. thanx.

The best and most original trick you can use is hand made illustration;). I do that and it never ceases to amaze people.

Hi, let me introduce myself since I am new to this forum. My name is Adrian, I am 18 and i've been doing logo design for a couple of years. I've been working with computers, animation and web design for approximatley 8 years.

My question to all you designers is:


What are your tricks of the trade? When you get a project or a logo to work on, where do you begin right from the beginning? Do you see an image in your head instantly and have to sketch it down? Do you obsess over the screen for hours thinking of something unique?


For me, I usually have ideas right away for logo's, and then I tweak them and come up with variations. For pictures and complex graphics I usually turn to google images and manually trace over a graphic image (weather it be a person, an object, etc..) and I usually end up with basic Icons or silouhettes for my finished logo.

Does anyone else do the same thing? How do you go about obtaining graphics without having to worry about copyright laws?

There are lots of techniques, but mostly use the same ones you do. I think you're on the right track.

Hi Adrian, I'm new here too.

When designing logos, research on the company helps immensely. Learning their history (if applicable), about the owners, about their target market, things like that can give good insight on "little things" that can make a logo unique and eye-catching.

Also, what I typically do is ask the client to provide me with some samples of logos they like and don't like. I direct them to popular logo-creation websites, to find samples that will inevitably help me in creating something that the client will like. For instance, if they send me a sample logo with a "Swoosh" in it, and they say "I really love that swoosh thingy", I know that I should probably incorporate a swoosh in at least one of my concepts. Similarly, if the client says "I HATE that shade of green in this logo", I'll know not to provide any concepts with that color in it. Again, insight into what the client wants (or doesn't want) right off the bat is very important.

Finally, I'll look through logo collections in both book format (I have many) and online, for inspiration. Obviously plagarism is unprofessional and illegal, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with looking through others' work, that's why the collections are printed and posted online. For example, one book I have breaks logos down into categories... so if I get a client who wants a logo for their Human Resources company, I'll look through the "People/Faces/Humans" category in that book, to get some ideas about how the human form has been used in logos in the past, to get my mind on that track.

Finally, sketching out ideas is a vastly underrated tool. I even find myself skipping this step sometimes! It's so easy nowadays to just jump right on the computer and start designing.. .but the computer is a tool, just like a pencil or paintbrush... so beginning with very quick, basic sketches will generate more ideas, and the more ideas you have, the better chance you'll come to the best solution!

Good luck!

share with us the names of the logo collections books please