The Logo & Identity Design Process
What’s in a brand?
A brand is simply a distinguishing feature of a business that identifies them from the rest of the crowd. Every business has a brand to some degree, be it a trademarked name, a logo, or a visual style that is common throughout their communication material. We focus on developing visual brands that are unique and memorable, and communicate who you are to your audience with maximum effect.
Every identity design job that Daydream undertakes is classed as a design project, which is broken down into several distinct stages. Each stage is made up of a set of specific tasks that are performed in order to reach a milestone, or deadline set at the end of each stage.
Below we describe the typical workflow for an identity design project from the perspective of a client, to help you gain an understanding of the various stages and tasks involved in any website design project.
Consultation
We begin every design project with a face-to-face meeting, free of charge and with no commitment required. We will ask you a few questions on topics such as your business history, your client / customer base and what goals / outcomes you would like to achieve with your business. This enables us to gain a clearer picture of your business, so we can better assess your design needs. We will also ask you about the nature of the design project to be undertaken and what issues are to be solved. These discussions help to formulate a design brief, which is then formally presented to you for review, along with a quote.
Quote and Service Agreement
A detailed quote is then sent to you, outlining the time required to perform each stage of the project along with associated costs. If you are a first time client, a service agreement is also included with the quote – this document further outlines the working relationship between yourself and Daydream, so you are fully aware of our obligations to you and vice versa. Once you return written approval of the quote and agreement, the project is then considered to be live.
Research
We conduct extensive research into the design problem stated within the brief, and this involves reviewing the picture of your business along with your position in your industry’s landscape – this includes looking at where you are positioned amongst your clients, prospects, and your competition, and how you are currently interacting with these groups. We collate visual examples to help build this information, and then we compile our research findings together to help determine which design direction shall be most appropriate to solve the design problem. This is presented to you as a written document for your review prior to continuing with concept designs.
Concept Designs
Daydream will begin a series of brainstorming sessions and will generate an array of concepts out of these sessions; We tend to generate at least 50 ideas for a typical branding job – these ideas are then filtered to weed out the weaker concepts, and promote the stronger concepts. Concepts first take form of rough pen and paper sketches, out of which the stronger concepts evolve into more formal drafts.
The filtering process continues until the top 3 concepts remain; these are polished and then presented to the you for assessment and review. Each concept comes with a rationale which explains the concept’s origin, meaning and relevance to the design brief. Concepts are also considered to be close to, but not finished versions of the proposed identity and as such there may be further evolution of the idea during the Development stage.
You get to choose 1 concept out of the selection for further development, or you can opt to have new concepts created altogether if none are deemed suitable.
Development
The chosen concept is then formally drafted using Adobe Illustrator, and much care is taken to create a clean and high-resolution version of the concept design. The draft is analysed for quality on a detailed scale, taking into consideration the various applications of the design in print, digital and other media. We test your logo to see if it holds up on a billboard, right down to a fax letterhead.
From there, we develop a black and white (one colour) version of your logo for usage in specific applications – for example, if you are printing your logo a one colour postcard, or creating a fax letterhead for low-resolution reproduction, the use of a specially designed logo can help protect the integrity of the logo, and your identity.
Delivery
Eventually a series of digital files are created that contain your identity design, which are then distributed to you. You may also choose commission additional design projects, eg. stationery designs or website designs, to feature your new identity.
For full information on what is supplied to you when we commission a logo, take a look in our FAQ section.
FAQ’s
When you design a logo, what do I receive?
We supply you with all the finished artwork you require to use your logo across a variety of media, be it billboard signage down to websites. As part of the project, you will recieve a logo package containing:
- High resolution versions of your logo in full colour, and black and white (1 colour)
- These design options will be supplied as original vector files for the following applications:
- Vector illustration (EPS format) for professional print usage
- 300dpi (high resolution) JPG file for digital / everyday print usage
- 72dpi (low resolution) PNG file for website / digital usage
- A PDF file for proofing and for your records.
We also advise you on the best practices of using your identity in the form of a PDF style guide, which you then pass on to anyone else who uses your identity design to help encourage consistency in the usage of your identity.
Who owns the copyright to a logo?
According to Australian Copyright law, the designer (or author) of an original commissioned work holds the full copyright title to the work. Therefore, the designer will own full copyright of the identity design produced, even after the work has been paid for and passed onto the client, unless there is an agreement to the contrary. The client is granted a “license” by the designer to use the work for the purposes that it was commissioned, however this does not extend to the right to manipulate or alter the work, or claim the work as their own original creation. Copyright is also automatically applied to anything created by an author, and no registration of copyright is required by law.
However, as stated earlier, there may be an agreement in place which negotiates or transfers one or all of these rights from the designer to the client. It is standard practice for designers to sell additional copyright entitlements to the client for an additional fee, and this fee varies depending on the nature of the rights to be transferred and the nature of the work.
Why won’t you create a logo based on someone else’s artwork or design?
Creating an identity based on someone else’s idea or design without their permission can land both the client and designer into legal trouble, as it may be an infringement of copyright law and the Trade Practices Act. It is for this reason that we insist on creating a truly original concept design and not a derivative of someone else’s creation, and the benefits of having a unique logo design are also elaborated below.
Why is it important for my branding to be different to the rest?
One of our primary goals is to provide you with an identity that is wholly original, and markedly different to your competition. If you have more points of difference in your business identity, you will be more easily recognized by your clients and prospects, and you will build stronger associations with your audience. Every branding concept we create is individually tailored to the client and the design brief, and we do not recycle old concepts or incorporate prefabricated elements such as clip-art. We want to give you an identity design that belongs to you, and doesn’t imitate or steal elements from anyone else.
Do you also design business cards, letterheads or websites as part of the logo design project?
We do perform these services, however we class these services as separate projects and we will provide you with an additional quote for these on top of your identity design, should you require this.