Logo Design
Designing a logo is just one part of the larger branding services at Big Human, but its impact on a brand is significant.
Do You Need a Logo?
As it’s often the first thing a customer sees, its role in brand perception is immeasurable. Think of the most memorable logos you’ve come across — McDonald’s, Apple, Google, and Snapchat are a few that might come to mind. Designed with simplicity, versatility, and relevance in mind, these are logos that can withstand the test of time and appeal to a wide audience.
As our logo design services are grouped under the brand strategy umbrella, research is a large part of our process (more on that below). A thorough understanding of the landscape, where the company wants to go, and who its ideal consumers are is paramount to developing the “right” logo.
Our Logo Design Work
Over the last decade, the Big Human design team has developed countless company logos. For Gemini, we chose a logo mark that balanced momentum with stability, and it balanced a sense of new tech with traditional finance. Our rebrand of pet tech company Whistle involved a new logo mark that focused on precision and featured a single line that represented the meeting of two data points. With Plentiful, we took a more literal approach, using an icon that clearly showcases what the company does: getting families the food they need.
Whether we’re creating unique visual identities for startups or embarking on a refresh of a well-established enterprise company, we generally take the same approach. We leverage all brand strategy, positioning, and discovery findings to develop initial brand territories to pursue. From the client’s chosen territory, we begin to iterate through review, narrow options, and create two to three brand ID options with logo, colors, typography, and visual style. When we’re aligned on the winning concept, or designers complete the brand aesthetic — along with a logo, this could potentially include icons, illustration, photography guidance, video/motion guides, or other collateral.
What Our Clients Are Saying
"The team was consistently easy to work with, responsive, and always game to innovate and find new ways to communicate our brand to the audience. The engagement was completed with brand guidelines that we continue to implement at conventions and sales events."
Joseph Piekarski, CEO at 1800Wheelchair
A well-designed logo is one of the first steps in establishing a professional image and credibility in an industry. At Big Human, we believe it’s important to consider the long-term vision for the company and how the logo will evolve as the brand grows. A flexible logo design that can adapt to various applications and mediums is crucial for a startup to stay relevant in the future.
For large companies, a logo redesign or refresh is one way to evolve the brand’s image and appeal to a new audience. However, it’s important to approach a redesign with caution as a well-established brand may already have a strong association with its current logo. That’s why we always lean conduct thorough research and gather insights from both customers and employees before making any changes.
Typically, logos can’t stand alone. They’re part of a larger visual design system, which our designers create. A cohesive set of design principles, guidelines, and elements that work together to create a consistent and visually appealing brand experience, a visual design system is used across all digital and print touchpoints.
When people ask us, “What makes a good logo?” there are a few different items we like to highlight. One of those is ensuring that the logo can be used effectively in a variety of media, such as websites, social media, print materials, or products. This means is also has to be scalable, so it’s legible whether it is used at small sizes or large sizes.
Our Logo Design Process
Our research-based logo design process is iterative and thoughtful. See what a typical engagement looks like below.
Research and discovery
Conducting research is an important step in the logo design process as it helps to understand the target audience and competitors. This is also the phase where we’ll look at the industry, competitors, and target audience to gain insights and inspiration for the logo design.
Defining the brand
Before a logo is designed, our strategists embark on another aspect of brand strategy, one we like to call brand positioning. This is where we’ll identify the core values and message of the brand, as well as its larger brand personality and potential brand territories.
Sketching out ideas
Based on the brand territories, our designers begin to sketch out logo ideas. On average, we’ll sketch around 80 different versions of a logo — sometimes even more. These, of course, will be narrowed down for client review and approval.
Refining and iterating
As the final logo comes into sight, we refine the design until it effectively communicates the brand's message and appeals to the target audience. Basically, we want it to be perfect and exactly what the client wants.
Finalizing the brand guidelines
When the logo is complete, our team will then generate the visual brand guidelines, including implementation examples and concepts.
Our Work
Logo Design Services at Big Human
If you’re looking for just a logo, Big Human might not be the best fit for your project. If you want a logo along with a larger brand strategy and visual design system, we’d love to collaborate. In the meantime, take a look at some of our logo and branding work here.
