The logo design process of a professional designer.

Is a logo important to your business? That very question is often asked by entrepreneurs and business owners from companies large and small.

Whether you operate a business in London, Stoke or Nempnett Thrubwell having a professional logo design, one that attracts the right audience and stands among competitors, has real power in the marketplace.

Logos are used by businesses and non-profits in every part of the world! Logos help organisations identify individual products and services and every professional logo is based on a well-defined brand strategy. Behind every great logo design concept, however, is a ton of research, brainstorming, sketching and revisions to get to that great concept.

Logos are generally commissioned by marketing departments or other individuals within an organisation and created by hiring a professional designer.

If people say that a picture is worth a thousand words, then we say that a strong logo is worth a million.

There are different types of logos, but they’re all signs, marks of identity designed for easy recognition. Orriss Design was commissioned to design a logo for an initiative of the Society of Academic Primary Care called 'WiseGP'. The logo, as pictured below, was designed to reflect the name of the organisation for easy recognition and has since been the driving theme behind all of its marketing efforts.

Logo designed by Orriss Design

What makes a professional logo?

Logos do not have to mean anything and that may come as surprise to you. Their main purpose is to be informative: to convey to whom or what something, someone or somewhere belongs. But, just because the logo doesn’t have to mean anything doesn’t mean it can’t.

A logo’s effectiveness as a mark of identity lies in its degree of how different it is among its peer group. The point is to understand what makes a good logo so that you can judge your logo ideas against a set of criteria.

Five Logo Design Principles

We have a long-standing belief that a strong logo should be:

Simple
Memorable
Timeless
Versatile
Appropriate

As consumers, we are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages or ads a day and each of them has a logo on it.

There are different types of logos, that use different typefaces, shapes, colours. Some of them have a very literal meaning, others are more abstract.

Logos designed by Orriss Design

The logo design process of a professional designer

This is a typical logo design process:

Define the problem.
Gather information and conduct research focused on the industry, its history, and its competitors.
Conceptualising ideas and making decisions on possible design directions.
Developing logo design concepts around the brief and research.
Select the most promising logo concepts and executing them digitally.
Presenting those logo concepts in the context of applications relevant to the specific client.
Improve designs. Making changes if necessary, revisions and arrival on the best solution.
Brainstorm & analyse the uses of the logo concepts.
Develop long-term solutions for the logo/branding.
Deliver the final logo artwork and identity guidelines on time.

Mark Orriss - Owner and Art Director, Orriss Design

Benefits of having a professional logo

Logos and branding are of significant importance for any business large or small. Logos have to inhabit a huge range of environments and branded applications and to look at home in each one.

The designer’s skill is in creating a mark that can adapt and have an impact wherever it might be applied, from posters, literature, websites, and advertising to banners, bags, products, packaging, labels, receipts, uniforms, buildings and, occasionally, landscapes.

All logos are designed to foster instant recognition, not by what they say, but by how they look. They are crucial for communicating with their customers and potential clients.