Project and Client

Crezco is a fintech product that employs technology to eliminate unnecessary expenses and frictions in trading for businesses, bringing suppliers and buyers together and supporting their growth. That is a creative and modern solution, especially for small businesses that focus on what matters most, while payment processes are all covered with Crezco. The service strived to set up a solid and trustworthy brand image and communication that would clearly transfer the idea of reliable and straightforward financial operations and business support.

Process

The creative team aimed to create an identity that would translate the key brand vision: to make inefficient markets efficient and speed up economic progress everywhere. Crezco’s identity becomes a communication tool that helps to address a broad and diverse community and conveys the product’s advantages.

The central idea that influenced the visual style of brand identity is the creative approach to the traditional bar charts usually used for financial reports and stats. They were transformed into a balanced and harmonic design system consistently used across all the brand touch-points with its customers, from logo design and animation to the diversity of both tangible branded items such as business cards, clothes, posters, billboards, and digital communication in social media.

The brand color palette is based on several shades of deep green and pale green with accent colors such as coral and beige. Such a combination is flexible for playing with color contrast and setting solid readability and legibility for different channels and spots of visual communication. The choice of typeface fell on the elegant and readable Object Sans.

And here’s a closer look at the logo design based on that approach. It is a combination made up of a solid square symbol based on the ideas of transformable bar charts and the typographic part unveiling the brand name. What’s more, based on shapes psychology, straight lines and right angles of a square give a sense of reliability and security, and people strongly associate squares and rectangles with buildings the reason why they bring a feeling of trust and authority, which also was a good association to set about the financial service.

The approach described above was developed into a set of branded and advertising items to grow brand awareness and recognizability via various customer touchpoints.

Outdoor advertising billboard design

Business cards design

Booklet/notebook design

Branded badges

Branded tote bag design

Advertising poster design

Branded video commercial concept

The design approach set for branding was also consistently stretched to the website, providing information on the problem-solving potential of the service, answering frequent questions, and engaging visitors to try its benefits to amplify their business. Light and airy web pages are built on wisely arranged content uncovered gradually, with easily reached CTA elements for each section. Also, the core navigation in the sticky header is easily reached from any point of interaction with a web page. Solid visual hierarchy and well-mastered negative space make the website balanced and easy to use while smooth and stylish web animation and vibrant visuals add emotional appeal to the user experience.

Obviously, being innovative, technological, and intangible, services like this need to use a lot of text content to introduce their benefits to the customers and convince them to try. So, the effective solution here was to divide content into small logical pieces that could be easily scanned and understood. The designers supported them with simple and clear graphics to make the content perceived and remembered even easier.

Two more small but important details to think over and design were the favicon and app icon, which play a significant role in setting the consistent visual connection across channels.

Considering the actual needs of such a fintech service, the team has also developed the concept of the mobile application, with functional and attractive screens, big noticeable numbers, neat icons, and intuitive interactions, keeping visual consistency with the branding and website design, this way making all the types of connection with the service feel like one integral customer experience.  Take a look at the mobile screens below.

Taking into account the impact of digital marketing via social media channels, it was also essential to think over the social posting templates that would keep up with the general brand approach. Below, you can see some of them, setting the general idea of what could Instagram posts and stories look like.

So, for our team, this project was a remarkable case of collaboration with progressive financial technologies, while the Crezco brand obtained a well-developed and practical design system that supports creating a clear and informative field sharing its positioning as a reputable service that makes direct bank transfers as convenient as card payments but without the fees.

New design case studies are coming soon. Stay tuned!

More Design Case Studies

Here’s a set of more case studies sharing the design solutions and approaches for some of the design projects done by the Tubik team.

FarmSense. Identity and Web Design for Agricultural Technology

Carricare. Identity and UX Design for Safe Delivery Service

Otozen. Mobile App Design for Safe Driving

Uplyfe. Identity Design for Health App

Bennett. Identity and Website Design for Tea Brand

FluxWear. Web Design and Development for Health Tech Product

Magma Math. Web Design for Educational Platform

HotelCard. Brand Identity for Hotel Offers Service

Nibble Health. Identity and UX Design for Healthcare Fintech Service

CSConnect. Website Design for Immersive Experience Marketing Platform

ProAgenda. Identity and Website Design for Golf Management Service

THT. Website Design for Electrical Engineering Service

Originally written for Tubik Blog, graphic and video content by tubik

Сообщение Case Study: Crezco. Branding and UI/UX Design for Fintech Service появились сначала на Design4Users.

Café Com Passagem

Café com Passagem project description from designers:

Café com Passagem is a family business focused on the specialty coffee market located in Foz do Iguaçu-PR. The need for this redesign came with the aim of praising the special Brazilian coffee bean, creating a brand aligned with the quality of the product that is able to reach international territories as well as the expectations of the specialty coffee consumer, who generally seeks knowledge about the world. of coffee and appreciates the stories behind each cup.

Specialty coffee in Brazil is treated in a very meticulous way, a process that involves many people and respects nature. The visual identity was built based on these precepts, with elements that reinforce craftsmanship, manual harvesting, people, Brazilian culture, and sustainability. The symbol in the typography represents coffee and the world, the Brazilian specialty coffee that has gained a prominent position in a global context. For the supporting graphic elements, animals from the Brazilian fauna (mainly from the Paraná region), the legend of Naipi and Tarobá, and drawings that illustrate the wisdom of the past of coffee cultivation were used.

Terrano Engenharia

Terrano Engenharia project description from designers:

The brand was built by reinforcing the terrain’s work fronts (projection, work alignment, topography, and soil analysis) and also supporting the main pillars that the client expects to find in an engineering company: precision, seriousness, and safety.⠀

The colors used in the project represent a gradient of soil colors. Symbols and lines are essential elements in maps, and that is why they were added to the various geometric shapes of the visual identity – from the symbol “T” of the logo that was obtained from joining squares to complementary materials. The formats are generalist to facilitate reading and increase the level of understanding.

Puppen Kids

Puppen Kids project description from designers:

The word “Puppen” used in the logo comes from the German language, which means dolls. The dolls historically occupy a place that brings warmth and affection, in addition to the rescue of free play. They were used in the complementary material as well as in the company’s name, contextualizing the idea of how dressing can be fun, cheerful, and cool.

The purpose of this visual identity is to encourage children to create their own imaginary world, express themselves, and play with comfort and style. The three dolls were strategically designed to initially represent Hannah, João Guilherme, and Isadora, children of Puppen Kids entrepreneurs – the biggest incentive to open a store in this segment. Being a democratic color, yellow is prevalent in Puppen Kids’ visual identity – not imposing any gender barriers.

Check more projects by this team in the Black Pepper Design portfolio on Behance.

New D4U Gallery issues are coming soon; keep up with new posts.

For more inspiration, check the sets of other posts from our D4U Gallery, where we gather impressive creatives to share their art with you, for example:

• creative wine packaging design projects
• sophisticated brand identity designs
• identity and packaging design projects
• logo designs for different business goals
• people illustration gallery
• captivating 3D animation concepts
• impressive packaging designs 
• artistic portrait collages
• childhood illustrations
• 3D illustrations
• book cover designs

Сообщение 3 Stylish Visual Identity Projects by Black Pepper Design появились сначала на Design4Users.

Nothing happens until something moves. (Albert Einstein)

At the beginning of 2017, a lot of companies and Internet resources marked motion design as a big trend of the year. Motion graphics field has evolved like many other technologies, so now it gives more opportunities than ever before. Since customers always look for innovative and fresh solutions, the animated elements have become a significant part of effective design.

A logo is a key part of a brand identity. It creates a powerful image increasing brand awareness and can be the foundation of a successful marketing strategy. The compelling logo design presents the personality of a company or a product that helps to set a connection with the target audience. To bring a fresh breath into the logo design, professionals decided to combine it with motion. It did not take long to see that animated logos are a new must-have in a branding strategy.

An animated logo is a fresh and dynamic way to present your brand identity. Many companies still have only a static variation of the logo while the web allows applying original animation. So, an animated logo is a good chance to stand out from competitors. Besides, it’s easy to show a company character and transfer a certain message attracting clients’ attention via animation.

Let’s see what benefits an animated logo can bring.

• Originality. An animated logo is a great opportunity to let the imagination out of the control. Original graphics combined with different visual effects create a unique way to perceive the logo. It’s like a short video telling a unique story of a product or a company.
• High brand awareness. Dynamic images are easy to remember. An effective animated logo can set a connection with potential customers and enchants users’ attention for a long time.
• Pleasant first impression. People like fresh and interesting ideas and an animated logo is a good chance to surprise them.
• Logo GIFs. An animated logo can be transformed into a GIF, so the Internet users can share it through the web. Logo GIFs may become an efficient tool in the marketing strategy.

Today’s D4U post collects impressive and sophisticated examples of animated logos to get you inspired.

By Tubik

By Anastasiia Andriichuk

By Jona Dinges

By Eddie Lobanovskiy

By Tubik

By Ramotion

By Ramotion

By Nicolas Girard

By Fireart Studio

By Focus Lab

By Stéphane Gibert

By Ramotion

By Hoang Nguyen

By Tubik

By Breno Bitencourt

By Mantas Gr

By Dylan Casano

By Wanda Arca

By Anastasiia Andriichuk

By Fede Cook

By Tubik

By Anastasiia Andriichuk

By Tony Pinkevych

By Joe Ski

By Latham Arnott

New inspiring collections are coming soon, stay tuned!

Useful Reading

How to Use the Power of Mascots in Branding and UI Design

Creative Stages of Logo Design

Branding Inspiration: Creative Logo Designs Activating Negative Space

How Shape and Color Work in Logo Design: Practical Cases

Mobile App Branding: Tips, Strategies, and Examples

How to Create Catchy Flat Illustrations

The Role of Branding in UI Design

6 Creative Stages of Design for Branding

Сообщение Animated Logo: Dynamic Way to Present a Brand появились сначала на Design4Users.

The creative challenges that designers meet in this sort of project are numerous. They have to:

• make the design of packaging that will quickly set the connection with the target audience
• keep up with the laws of harmony and visual hierarchy to make the key details the most noticeable
• find the solutions for making the packaging both practical and aesthetic
• keep the hard balance between recognizability and originality
• combine beauty and information in the way clear to buyers
• keep the consistency with the general brand and promotion strategy if it exists.

Today for our D4U inspiration section, we have collected the examples of sophisticated and well-thought packaging designs to get you inspired.

By Tough Slate Design

By Erik Musin

By Bea Janoni

By Socio Design

By Socio Design

By BR/ BAUEN

By Squad Ink

By Socio Design

By The Birthdays

By Alireza Jajarmi

By Alireza Jajarmi

By Alice Pesenti and Miguel Cano

By Paula McGloin

By Eskimo Design

By Kenny Coil

By Tom Cavenau

By Zooscope

By Shinya Design

For more inspiration, check the examples of more packaging designs, food photography, animal illustrations, childhood illustrations, 3D illustrations, and other posts from our D4U Gallery where we gather impressive creatives to share their art with you.

Сообщение Ahead of the Pack: Sophisticated Packaging Designs появились сначала на Design4Users.

Earlier we have already published the glossary posts with key notions for the topics of business terms and abbreviations useful for designers as well as highlighted some aspects in more details in the free ebook “Design for Business”. This time let’s add some deeper insights into the essence of setting and exploring the target of the product and the mutual influence of design and marketing have on each other.

Marketing

“Marketing is a contest for people’s attention”. Seth Godin

Definition. In general terms, marketing is the set of studies and methods devoted to the management of exchange relations. Basically, it is the multi-layered process whose aim is to connect the products with the customers. It can involve the variety of advertising and promotional activities, market and customer research, organization of sales, direct and indirect communication with the target audience. In terms of tough and diverse competition in most markets nowadays, marketing is the strategy and the trophy to achieve is users’ and customers’ attention.

Design aspect. Design and marketing have been supporting each other for many decades, so there are two basic directions of their connection.

The direction from marketing to design means involving techniques of marketing into the design process from the early stages of product creation or updates. The cases when marketing strategy is thought out from the stage of ideation on the future product makes the design even more meaningful: not only do designers create the product solving users’ problems or satisfying needs, but also set the channels and ways how the product can be noticed by the customer, how it can get interesting for a target user and what are the ways to show its benefits effectively. Knowing all that stuff, the designers can find the appropriate UX – the logic of the product and UI – visual presentation of its features. Each tiny element or aspect like the color or shape of a button to the global approach to color palette, the choice of fonts and the space between elements on the page or screen, every transition and micro-interaction designed properly and applied wisely can have a huge impact on the success of the product and its ability to fulfill the business goals.

Web design for e-commerce: Vinny’s Bakery

Moreover, it must be said that high-quality user-friendly product is the best marketing strategy. That is why design plays a crucial role as it creates the features and the wrapping able to attract users and engage them, spark the wish to use it again, and make it helpful so that users could have a solid reason to love it.

The reverse direction from design to marketing means that design itself becomes a powerful way to present the product or even the person on the market. Design solutions applied for creating commercial, corporate, or personal identity through branding become the foundation for the marketing strategy, in most cases starting from the moment when the product gets its sign of distinction such as logo or icon. Designers create visual support of the promotional campaigns from posters, leaflets, and brochures to complex sets of branded items and corporate interior style of point-of-sales. As long as people are the creatures of not only physical but also social and aesthetic nature, the design is going to take a big part of any business success.

Corporate branding: design of business cards

Anyway, marketing is the point where people who create the product and those who build the bridge between the product and the customer should have the same goals: to provide users/customers with something that will be helpful and satisfying their needs. To do that, first of all, it’s important to set the group for which it is created and analyze what its preferences are.

Target audience

“In sales there are going to be times when you can’t make everyone happy. Don’t expect to and you won’t be disappointed. Just do your best for each client in each situation as it arises. Then, learn from each situation how to do it better the next time.” Tom Hopkins

Definition. The term “target audience” comes from the spheres of publishing, in which it means the readers intended for the particular book or edition, and marketing, in which it sets behind the group of customers potentially interested in the particular product or service. The quickly developing sphere of digital products such as websites or applications absorbed this term immediately meaning the audience which presents the potential users of the specific app or website.

Certainly, for many creators, it can be hard initially to find out what their target audience is: they would like this product to be used and loved by everyone. Still, in real life, it’s a sort of utopia which can become a death knell for the product. Selecting the core target audience and then, if needed and possible, broaden the abilities of the product to make it attractive and useful for the broader circle of users in many cases proves itself as a much more successful and effective strategy. Setting the priorities, it’s easier to concentrate on key functionality and make it faster than trying to satisfy everyone at once.

App design for wedding planner

Design aspect. As we mentioned in the ultimate guide to creating a mobile application, user research, and market research are highly advisable to be done at the start of the creative process to provide the designer or the creative team with understanding what their target audience is:

• -what their interests and wishes are
• what kind of communication and lifestyle is convenient and common for them
• what problems they have and which of them the designed product solves
• what are the typical environments when they use this kind of products
• where they could get the information about the product
• what could stimulate them to try the product
• what could engage them to get back to it again after the first experience
• what could involve them into using the product on a regular basis
• what could make this product different from the others on the market for the target users.

Joel Anderson said, “You can’t just open a website and expect people to flood in. If you really want to succeed you have to create traffic.” Design is one of the powerful methods to do it, especially in cases when it’s strengthened with appropriate copy and general content selection. Creating custom graphics, supporting microinteractions with motion, writing clear, concise and informative copy, choosing readable fonts and nice color combinations, setting landing pages for specific purposes instead of sending the user to the tons of information on the home page of the website, you can directly attract and create traffic that will give profits and support the thriving business.

Funny and bright design for Toonie Alarm

Minimalistic and elegant design for Upper App

Targeting

“You can’t wait for customers to come to you. You have to figure out where they are, go there and drag them back to your store.” (Paul Graham)

Definition. Briefly, targeting is another term from marketing widely applied in the sphere of digital design. It is usually associated with the strategy and techniques of the particular target audience to find the best and the shortest ways to attract their attention to the particular product.

Design aspect. The scheme is very simple: when you shoot without seeing your target, the chance that you will score exists but its miserably slim. If you shoot seeing the target, the chances grow. The closer you come to your target, the higher becomes the possibility of hitting the mark.

This metaphor successfully works in both marketing and design. Having set who the potential user of the designed website or app is and researching the basic and extended data about this group of users, designers are able to create the solutions which will get close to the user along one or several factors. Let’s briefly review what aspects and factors can influence this process setting the directions of targeting.

Geographic targeting. Location of the person is important to set the cultural background as well as the natural environment of using the product. It means that even one product can be different in some visual features or operational performance to satisfy users from a particular country or region, up to having different names to sound more catchy or informative on the local market.

Gender targeting. If you know that your target audience is mostly men or mostly women, this kind of data can have a great impact on design solutions based on the psychological and perceptional differences. Even such a basic aspect as the color choice can be highly influenced by the gender of the core target audience.

Psychographic targeting is grounded on knowledge of motives that move the user to try this type of product. It is based on a deep knowledge of the typical lifestyle, interests, etc.

Demographic targeting happens when creators and marketers are focused on catching attention and involving a particular demographic group, for example, based on age, ethnicity, income, qualification, marital status, having kids, etc.

Behavioral targeting is based on defining the target audience along the particular models of behavior, for example, young adults regularly visiting night clubs or people buying coffee and drinking it on the go.

Night in Berlin App

Understanding the process and methods of targeting and getting this sort of knowledge enables designers to choose the shortcuts to users’ needs and wishes. That is why in cases of outsourcing design it’s highly advisable to take all the chances of getting maximum possible information about the potential users and business goals from the customer. One of the good methods is creating user personas, user stories, and user cases, on which we will give more details in our next posts.

Recommended reading

Hopefully, these insights will somehow help designers to get closer to the market creating goal-centered products for various businesses. Before soon, we will definitely provide you with new posts and thoughts on this theme, meanwhile here is the list of recommended articles that could be helpful.

Personas Make Users Memorable for Product Team Members
5 ways design and marketing can work together better
One Persona to Rule Them All
Designing for your target audience
Matching site design to your target demographic
Short but Vital. Key Abbreviations in Design for Business
The Importance of Design in All Marketing Campaigns

Originally written for Tubik Blog

Сообщение Design for Business Goals: Explore the Target появились сначала на Design4Users.

We have already published case studies with the stories of creating logos and brand identity concepts at the early stages of their business path. However, this time the story will have another flavor as we are presenting you the case of logo redesign for a company that is already recognized and actively operating on the market. The task for Tubik team was to create the new brand identity not breaking already gained links and associations.

Task

Redesign of a logo and creating the corporate identity for a commercial and holistic landscape firm Andre operating in landscape maintenance, tree care and design.

Process

First of all, it was important for the designer to study the conditions and philosophy of existing logo functionality, details about company activities and business goals and customer’s wishes about the redesign process. It should be mentioned that redesign for existing companies and products can have different levels of breakaway from the existing versions: some companies decide upon fully new design which has nothing in common with the current branding, while others keep the track of changes carefully and gradually, with minor alterations eliminating the risk of losing recognizability on the market.

The second approach was taken as a basis for this particular story because Andre is a company that has already won its audience on the market. That means any design change should be done with respect to the company’s history and philosophy as well as brand image grown through the years. Therefore, new design had to take its roots from the existing branding, but offer some refreshment and add some trend.

Certainly, to find the sign representing the brand, the designer needs to know as much as possible about the brand, its business goals and statement. Andre is a medium-sized company based in the USA and providing all sorts of services linked to landscape care and design of any complexity. The company is family-owned so its name origins from the last name of the family. The customers wanted a new logo to be quite classic, memorable, enduring and setting the strong association with land care. So, it was important initially to provide the visual sign that will instantly inform observers about the nature of the business and create positive vibes via the harmonic combination of shapes and colors.

After the market research and getting deep into the requirements and background of the company, the designer worked over the first series of sketches and offered the first version for the redesign. It was based on the round shape and featured green leaves as the central element of the composition. The designer also selected the corresponding version for the name lettering so that it looked readable and harmonic in combination with the image, supporting it but not overloading general visual presentation. The combination of several shades of green with light-blue set the image connected to key concepts of business activities: nature, landscape, plants, trees, sky. The designer applied smooth and rounded lines of different stroke weight and provided the variants filled with color as well as glyph one.

Another concept offered more linear and geometric variant also featuring the leaf motif and using a shape inside reflecting the form of capital A letter.

Although the offered style was appropriate, the customers insisted on applying the mascot in the logo image. The choice was made in favor of a bird and the designer offered the graphic option featuring the bird as a logo image. It also was applying the form of the leaf in the image used separately, but in combination with lettering, the leaf was placed closer to the letters.

One variant of a logo featuring the bird mascot used the image with the shorter beak and an eye featuring the mimic expression of the smile.

The idea of “smiling” positive expression was also tried in the variant in which the bird was inscribed into the circle. The beak directed upwards moved out of the circle setting the feeling of progressive flight, while the wing featured the form and visual marks of the leaf.

The general concept of applying the bird in the logo was set and agreed upon, but the customer and the designer decided on trying another iteration experimenting on simplification of the bird’s silhouette to make the logo not only attractive and meaningful but also clearly visible and legible in any size. This stage of creative search resulted in a new shape combining the visual concept of a bird and of a leaf in one image.

The final choice was made in this direction, which efficiently presented the mascot in clear simple forms, preserved color combination associated with the nature of the offered services and vibes of green and natural background.

Now let’s continue this story to unveil the further process of applying the logo and chosen the stylistic approach for the set of branded items presenting general corporate identity of the brand.

On the basis of this stylistic approach, the designer developed several variations applying the same color palette, typography, mascot and general visual perception for building the consistent and harmonic corporate style presented via different visual details on branded items. For all of them, three core visual elements supported the consistency of performance: the mascot showing the cute hummingbird, green leaves instantly associated with trees and plants and the lettering showing the brand name of the company.

Business Card

The first item to get into the set was a business card. No wonder: in the modern world, the business cards is not a sort of fashion, but a must-have for serious branding and business communication, especially in the domain of services. It is the real sign of respect to the customer. So, it should be not only informative but also stylish and easily readable. The designer provided two options of placement, horizontal and vertical, to set higher level of flexibility for possible goals and wishes that company can have in the future.

Vehicle branding

The next object of design exploration was branding for corporate vehicles. The company uses several options of vehicles which regularly do considerable business routes, therefore, neglecting such an effective advertising carrier would be unreasonable. So, the designer worked over the variants of harmonic placement of catchy and stylish branding elements for different models of vehicles.

Light background provided effective combination with the green palette of identity design presentation and set the high level of visibility and readability, important for this method of advertising.

Correspondence

One more direction of corporate branding for Andre company had to deal with correspondence, both physical and digital. In this field, letterhead and envelope were created for physical letters and also the special template featuring branding signs was designed for corporate emails.

Banner Design for indoor trade show

No secret that branding is not only about the logo and brand name but also the general style of visual components dealing with the brand, such as photos for websites and blog posts, banners of all kinds, posters and so on. One of the design tasks was to create the banner for an indoor trade show. For it, the designer created unique hand-made letting for the slogan copy to add originality for general visual perception and setting the strong emotional associations with a brand.

Jar design

Another object of design was a jar for candies or other stuff of this sort. The concept below shows the monochrome design with high level of readability which could efficiently work for the objects of this kind.

T-shirt

One more task for the designer was certainly connected with corporate T-shirts which could be effectively used as another nice and natural carrier of information enhancing brand recognizability and awareness. Again, the designer chose the light background as the basis of providing the airy and universal solution to the fast and clear presentation of the logo. Still, other variants featuring different color combinations and visual elements placement were offered to the set so that they could be used for a variety of purposes in advertising campaigns and everyday brand presentation.

On the basis of all the design solutions, the clients got the brand guidelines setting all the details of designed solutions as well as wrong variants of using the logo that could harm the perception of the brand image.

This case of a comprehensive design of corporate identity has become another proof that user research, market research, thorough attention to the customer’s requirements, and inspired creative search together make a great basis for efficient, informative, and attractive branding.

If you want to know more about creative stages of the design process for logos, welcome to read our free e-book Logo Design.

More Branding Design Case Studies

Quisine. Branding Design for Food Delivery Service

Logo Design: Collection of Creative Logos for a Variety of Brands

Dicey. Logo and Mascot Design for Party Game

MYWONY. Storytelling with Brand Intro Design

Inspora. Brand and UI Design for Virtual Stylist

AppShack. Logo Design for a Digital Agency

LunnScape. Identity Design for a Landscape Company

Binned. Brand Identity Design for Cleaning Service

Reborn. Identity Design for a Restaurant

Originally written for Tubik Blog

Сообщение Design Case Study: Corporate Branding for Landscape Firm появились сначала на Design4Users.

Logo is the basic mark of brand identity, the most prominent symbol of brand image, and the foundation of an effective marketing strategy enabling its connection with the target audience. One of the misperceptions in the world of business is that if the product or service is good, it doesn’t need additional investments of time and money into its promotion. However, it doesn’t work like that: without brand identity, even the high-quality product can get lost just because users or buyers won’t get even a slim chance to learn about it or try it. On the contrary, a strong branding strategy sets the immediate connection of the product or company and its essential benefits with the sign that represents it. Brands, products, and companies need their own personalities that will attract people in the way it often happens with a personal relationship.

Showing personality in your app, website, or brand can be a very powerful way for your audience to identify and empathize with you. People want to connect with real people and too often we forget that businesses are just collections of people. (Aaron Walter)

Worldwide famous designer and artist Karl Lagerfeld once said “Logos and branding are so important. In a big part of the world, people cannot read French or English – but are great in remembering signs”. Knowing how far he went in the sphere of design, it’s really easy to believe he’s right, considering that plenty of big and small companies proved that via their marketing experience.

In our previous article, we looked a bit closer at five types of logos all of which function successfully nowadays. Continuing the topic, today we suggest going deeper into the stages of the creative process in logo design on the basis of extensive studio experience in the sphere.

The process of creating a logo for Upper App

Logo design flow

One of the key characteristics of the most efficient logos is their simplicity. On the one hand, it becomes a challenge for a designer to create a sign which is both simple and at the same time recognizable. On the other hand, it can give clients the illusion that logo creation is a sort of simple operation that needs a couple of hours and doesn’t require special skills, too much time or effort. That is quite a mistake and such an approach will bring branding to nowhere.

Efficient logo design is a complex strategy that includes all the stages of design and marketing process such as:

• setting the task
• user research
• marketing research
• creative search
• choice of style direction
• choice of color palette
• testing in different sizes and environments
• creating a style guide setting right and wrong cases of logo use etc.

As we can see, logo design is a tricky process: many steps should be done to get an efficient result. That is the reason for plenty of companies including startups, beginning their way in the sphere of business, to trust this essential task to professional designers. Practice shows that the logo, which is thought-out to the slightest details and tested properly, is a worthy investment.

Let’s look a bit closer at each stage.

Setting the task

This stage is the foundation of all the design process. This is the time when the designer should get as much information as possible from the client to mark the right way to the goal. It is well-known that the one who walks without a destination in mind will possibly come nowhere. In design (not only the logo and branding direction) it works the same way: to get the result, you should clearly set the goals from the very starting point. It doesn’t mean that the goals will stay totally the same at the end of the journey: they can modify more or less in the creative process. Still, if the goals are not set at the start, the creative process can get easily transformed into a mess.

That’s the first step to designing anything: ask “Why are we doing this?” If the answer isn’t clear, or isn’t clear to you, or just doesn’t exist, you can’t design anything. Stop working. Can you help set those goals? If so, do it. (Yes, it is part of your job. Anything that helps you do your job is part of your job.) (Mike Monteiro “Design Is a Job”)

Designers should always be ready that clients often don’t know in detail what they want. They just want a beautiful logo that will bring success to their business. That is natural and that is the reason why they hire a designer. In our earlier post devoted to stereotypes about designers, we mentioned: “your customer doesn’t have to know all the nuances and peculiarities of the design process. That is why THEY are customers and YOU are a designer.”

Moreover, the thing, which we have checked in practice, is that communicating with clients you should get not only their wishes but also try to get the ideas and reasons behind these wishes. If you understand why your customer wants to see particular colors, shapes or transitions, it will be easier for you (if necessary) to justify other methods of realization for these ideas which would give the result desired by the customer.

The more information you get from the client, the better it is for setting the right direction. Design briefs, calls, and Skype conferences, chat in Slack, brainstorming sessions, mood boards can all form a good starting line for productive work.

At this stage, it is highly advisable for a designer to get the data about:

• the nature of the product
• the target audience
• geographical targeting (if available)
• the keywords with which the company represents its identity
• preferred color palette
• potential carriers and surfaces at which logo will be used
• the need for consistency with existing corporate identity (if available)
• preferred type of logo
• the necessity of mascot design.

Obviously, the list is not totally full, still, it contains the most important positions needed for setting a general design goal.

Research

This is the stage when being based on the established task and aims, the designer has to get deeper into the environment in which the future branding sign will function. The research stage usually moves on in two directions simultaneously: user research and marketing research.

User research means getting deeper into details of the core target audience, knowing their preferences and psychological peculiarities, the influence of color and data carrier on their emotions and experience, the sources of information, and creative performance ways that encourage them and make them active.

Marketing research means exploring the market segment, primarily from the perspective of creative solutions used by competitors. Logo design presumes to create a unique sign that will make the company or brand stand out of the crowd and draw potential customer’s attention. Neglecting the research stage and relying only on their creative intuition and talent, designers risk failing this task as they will not know the conditions of the logo functioning and will not be able to make it efficient and original.

Creative search

This is the stage when armed with loads of data and seeing the path, the designer sets off in the creation process. The aim of this stage is to develop one or several stylistic directions which will allow fulfilling the branding goal and marketing needs. In all fairness, it has to be added that the branding design process like every single personalization activity is very individual in each particular case. Sometimes it happens that the requirements from the customer are so clear and details are collected so carefully at the previous stages that logo direction is set during the first iteration and needs only to get polished. In other cases, especially in cases when requirements are blur or competition at the market segment is really high, various directions should be analyzed and different variants have to be tested to get the one which will be effective and original.

This stage can include the creative outcome of different fidelity levels, from rough pencil sketches to sophisticated digital samples. Any of them can work efficiently, the choice of strategy depends on the designer’s expert decision of a more effective presentation way according to the client’s requirements and specific type of logo. Speed and urgency of the project, as well as its interconnection with other design processes like for example interface design, can also influence the choice of presentation format. You can observe the variety of creative stages in our case studies on branding.

Early sketches of the creative search for SwiftyBeaver logo design

Early sketches of the creative search for PassFold logo design

Early sketches of the creative search for Tubik logo design

A creative search of mascots for Saily App logo

The outcome of the creative search is the selected style and type direction (for example, flat or skeuomorphic, colorful or monochrome, featuring the mascot or not and hundreds of other general stylistic details), color palette, basic shaping and placement of the logo (say, round, square, triangular; using landscape or portrait placement; perhaps setting several variants of shapes and logo elements placement, etc.)

Polishing the details and finalizing the concept

At this stage, the designer develops the chosen direction and works over the slightest details. People staying far from the design process can be stunned by the level of fidelity and sophistication over the image presenting future branding signs. Sometimes, it takes hours of work to develop the variants with tiny changes set in millimeters which still influence the general harmony. This is the time when designers can experiment with forms and lines, hues, and shades, still, at this stage, they work within the already set general stylistic concept.

Shades and shaping variations for SwiftyBeaver logo design

Color combinations for Passfold logo

Background color options for Saily App logo

Mascot variations for Andre logo

The outcome of this stage is the finalized version of a logo visual presentation.

Testing

Designers, believing that the preparation of final high-resolution graphic assets for a logo is the finish of the journey for them, make a big mistake. As well as for any design task, post-design testing of the created result is the must-do. For the logo, it is a vital condition of efficiency and success. It should be tested on different surfaces and devices, in the wide diversity of settings and environments, sizes and resolutions, alone and surrounded by other logos. If such an option is available, it should be tested by people directly representing the core target audience. The results of the testing should be thoroughly analyzed and sometimes they can significantly influence the final logo alterations.

Visual perception and mental associations are deep and vital human element making a great impact on any design element’s effectiveness and attractiveness. There are loads of factors, some of them so slight and deep that it’s impossible for the designer to predict them. Among those factors we could mention:

• geographic location
• color perception
• gender
• age
• religion and beliefs
• level of education
• minor and major disabilities
• psychological peculiarities
• technology awareness.

The list can be continued longer and longer and amaze designers and customers by its diversity level. To avoid the issues of misunderstanding or misperception, as well as risk getting lost in the environment of other logos and icons, testing becomes the integral design process stage.

PassFold logo testing

Saily App logo tested as a game character

 Toonie mascot tested on the app screen

Design4Users logo tested in print

Creating a style guide

Last but not least is the stage when the designer accomplishes the style guide for the approved and finalized logo. The guide should include clear and informative instruction of correct and incorrect variations of the logo use. It becomes the basis for a brand book and enables customers in the future to inform any sides involved in the creative process like print shops, for example, to keep the rules of harmonic presentation of the logo.

Features of an effective logo

Whatever is the choice of type and style in logo design for a particular brand, any logo should include basic efficiency features:

• simplicity
• originality
• versatility
• recognizability
• the consistency of use
• appeal to the target audience
• informativeness
• memorability
• longevity.

Considering that all those traits should preferably get combined in one logo, hiring a specialist for this job is definitely a worthy investment. This flow will cost less time, effort, and money than profits lost later because of poor non-harmonic branding.

Lion browser logo icon

If you are interested to see the full practical path of logo design we keep here in the studio, welcome to look over the case studies of Ribbet, Passfold, Tubik, Saily, SwiftyBeaver, and Andre logos designed by Tubik team. They contain descriptions and illustrations for all the stages of design process.

Recommended reading

Here are some more articles we could recommend for those who would like to get deeper into the topic of logo design:

Identity Design: 5 Basic Types of Logos.

Get started with logo design: 10-step guide

Zero to Logo: The Creative Process in 7 Steps

The Logo Design Process From Start To Finish

12 Essential Rules to Follow When Designing a Logo

Originally written for Tubik Blog
Welcome to read free e-book “Logo Design. Creative Path to Effective Branding”

Сообщение Creative Stages of Efficient Logo Design появились сначала на Design4Users.

We have already published several case studies showing the process of logo creation in detail and also provided deeper considerations on correlations of branding and user interface design. Today using the background of diverse practical experience, let’s get deeper into types of effective logos illustrated with Tubik team designs.

What is logo?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the logo is “a symbol that is used to identify a company, and that appears on its products”.  Even this quite broad definition contains the obvious message: logo somehow becomes the first visual association that is brought out when people think over or hear the name of the brand. As any other visual element, the logo itself can contain and transfer the message about the nature of goods or services presented by the brand, the tone, and voice of the company’s communication with the customers, the general brand image.

Logo design usually becomes the basis for the whole brand strategy which is often fixed in a special set of rules and guides about the brand strategy called a brand book. An efficiently designed logo can definitely increase the recognizability of the brand or company which enables the business to achieve its goals, be it selling more goods, involving more customers, getting more subscribers, or obtaining wider recognizability. In addition, a logo is a sign that makes the product or service different from its competitors which is also an important pre-condition of the company’s fast and successful development.

Most logos look like a simple sign and that makes people think the process of its creation is fast and simple, not needing too much effort or special skills. And that is quite a mistake. Efficient logo design is a complex strategy that includes all the stages of the design process and marketing process such as:

• user research,
• marketing research,
• creative search,
• choice of style direction,
• choice of color palette,
• testing in different sizes and environments,
• creating a style guide setting right and wrong cases of logo use etc.

That is why a great deal of companies including startups, which only start their way in the sphere of business, prefer to trust this essential task to professional designers. Practice shows that the logo thought-out to the slightest details is the worthy investment.

Types of logos

Historically companies tried different variations of visual elements to strengthen their branding: some of them preferred images or mascots as the central element drawing attention while others favored the idea of nice lettering immediately showing the name of the brand. Through the decades, designers outlined five basic types of logos.

Icon/ Symbol

The logo of this type is represented with the visual element of high symbolic potential. The image can represent the name of the company, perhaps its mascot or the sign that symbolically shows the nature of the product or service.

Lion browser icon

fOxygenic logo

Saily logo

Elephun Logo

Logotype/ Wordmark

This is a widely used type of corporate identity mark represented by artistic lettering featuring the full name of the brand. It is a well-know fact that different sorts of types and fonts can immediately transfer the messages and whole stories to their readers and this trick is frequently applied by logo designers and marketers.

Ribbet wordmark

Toonie wordmark

Lettermark

This type of logo uses the technology close to the previous type but features only the first letter of the brand name presented in an artistic manner. This sort of logos is often effective in small sizes, for example, app icons, when reading the full word is difficult. However, they need special attention in the aspect of originality and recognizability as it can be a complex task to make this one letter different from the other same letters representing other brands.

Passfold logo

Combination mark

Combination mark is usually the logo applying two techniques simultaneously: symbol or lettermark and wordmark. In this case, observers obtain two different sources of information, being able to see the image and read the word representing the brand identity.

Genius bar logo

Andre logo: different variants of lettering placement

Tubik logo

Swiftybeaver logo

Emblem

This is also a sort of visual element combination. The difference of this logo kind is that it inscribes the wordmark or lettermark presenting the name of the brand into the symbolic image instead of placing it over, under or beside the symbol as it is done in the previous case. The logos of this sort when created thoughtfully feature the integral and compact identity sign. The Design4Users logo is accomplished in this style.

Features of an effective logo

Whatever is the choice of the creative direction in the logo design for a particular brand, any logo should include the basic number of efficiency features:

• simplicity
• originality
• versatility
• recognizability
• consistency of use
• appeal to the target audience
• informativeness
• memorability
• longevity

Logo design for Passfold

The provided set of logo design features doesn’t really look simple to be combined in one sign. That is why this job is advised to be done by professional designers. Even tiny disharmony, inappropriate color combinations, lettering illegible in small sizes, and tons of other invisible mistakes can considerably reduce the profits and customer trust to the brand. A logo is the sign able to connect or disconnect customers and sellers in split seconds so its creation definitely is the food for thought and object of thorough attention.

Originally written for Tubik Blog
Welcome to read online or download free e-book Logo Design. Creative Path to Effective Branding.

Сообщение Identity Design: 5 Basic Types of Logos появились сначала на Design4Users.