Impressions - February 2020 - 41

Remember to charge appropriately for
your time. Some shops charge an hourly
rate for the initial logo creation, while
others absorb it into the final price.
Creating a Logo

Full Color vs. One Color

For the purposes of this article, let's consider a logo created for an
air-conditioning maintenance company. Knowing the type of
business for which you're designing the logo helps narrow choices
for the graphic's starting point. Figure 1 shows examples of options.
When it comes to picking a design, either you or your customer
can choose the graphic.Your customer may not be able to "see"
the final product in his head like you probably will.That's why
I prefer to choose the image.
If the customer wants to see more than one idea, create multiple
layouts using the same or different images. In this instance, I did
two layouts, which usually is enough to get started.

This design was intended to be printed on T-shirts, vehicle
signage, and promotional items and stationery, so we wanted
it to be in full color for a nice visual impact.Today, full-color
graphics and printing are much more economical than ever.
Such images will have more impact and leave a longer-lasting
positive impression compared to single-color designs.
However, a design still must look good and hold its own -
even in a single color. There may be times when a one-color
layout is necessary and you want to ensure the logo still will
work (see Figure 3).
While this logo was created using a full-color image, I incorporated a complementary color scheme of blue and orange.
Both "cool" and "warm" colors seemed appropriate in this
instance to reinforce the HVAC concept (see Figure 4).

Thumbnail Sketches
The most valuable thing I learned in art school is to never
start a project - no matter what it is - without spending 10
minutes doing thumbnail sketches. For this design, I did two
sketches in less than five minutes (see Figure 2).They don't have
to be detailed or intricate; just basic shapes usually are needed
at this stage.
As you can see in these sketches, there's no detail - just
placements. I actually liked both versions, so I stopped after
they were created.When it's time to go to my computer, these
sketches will provide direction. Otherwise, I would risk wasting time pushing pixels around with no long-term result or
goal in mind.

Garment Color
It's important to know which garment colors the customer
wants because that will help you decide which colors to use
in the logo layout so that everything is visible and legible. For
this design, the customer didn't want white shirts because the
workers always are in an attic or outside, which attracts dirt.
Gray or another dark-colored shirt were the preferred options.
With that in mind, colors for the additional elements were
chosen that would work against different shirt colors.You may
find that you have to provide two versions of the logo so that

Figure 2

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Impressions - February 2020

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