- So the word logotype is
only different from logo
because it implies the
typographic part of a logo.
So sometimes logos have
a typed part and an icon
or sometimes they're just
the name of the company
in a typeface or drawn in lettering.
And so, when I use the word logotype,
that's what I mean.
I mean the words of the logo.
So over time, the thing
that is amazing and terrible
and wonderful and awful about
becoming a graphic designer
that has a lot of knowledge
about typographic stuff
is that you can spot all
of the errors in the world
when people are working
with typefaces wrong,
when there's upside down M's
and all that kind of stuff.
But the thing is, if you
went around in the world
and noticed it all the time
and had your laser focus
on that stuff all the time,
it would drive you completely insane.
What I'm hoping that you
guys get out of this class
is the ability to turn that
ability on when you want
but not necessarily for you
to have it on all the time.
I'm very much treated
like a Cyclops from X-Men
where I have these glasses
on that allow me to
exist in the world as a normal human
but then when I really want
to laser focus on something,
I can flip up my glasses
and turn that ability on
and just destroy everything
with my criticism power.
So a really good logotype just serves
the company super well.
It gives you a preview of
what you're gonna expect
when you think about
working with that company,
when you think about downloading that app,
when you think about using that service.
The logo is really sort
of the face of the company
that you first encounter
and you can get a lot
from that first impression.
And that's something that
I think is really important
that sort of separates lettering from,
just commercial lettering
from logotype work
is that you really have to
leave your ego at the door
when it comes to logotypes.
You have to know that the
main thing that you're
trying to do is communicate,
the main thing you're
trying to do is make something
that is as idiot-proof,
future proof, layout proof as possible
and really just quietly
and perfectly communicates
what that client really wants to say.
So when you're talking about logotypes,
I mean, a logotype could
really just use an existing
typeface or a custom typeface
and have it be written out.
The main thing is that you want the visual
identity of the company to match
the personality and the branding
and the vision of the company.
It's just about creating
something that's ownable
for the company, that's
something that you'll hear a lot
from different logo clients,
is that they want
something that's ownable,
something that feels specific to them,
something that feels bespoke,
something that feels like it has details
that are so recognizable that
when someone just glances
upon the logo momentarily,
they'll be able to recognize
that it's from that brand.
Those can be like, broad
strokes style choices
or they can be like, very,
very specific details
within the letter forms,
like a certain ligature
between two letter forms that
you wouldn't see elsewhere.
Those become so recognizable
that then they can't be
separated from the company itself.
So when I'm working on lettering work,
there's a lot more
freedom that I can have.
I can go crazy with swashes,
I can add lots of decoration,
I can sort of layer upon layer upon layer
of these different, cool lighting effects
or decorative effects and
when it comes to logotypes,
you don't really have
that freedom all the time.
You know, it's very, very
rare that you're working
on a logo that the only
place it's gonna be seen
is giant on a T-shirt or giant
on the side of a building.
So you have to be able to make something
that doesn't' rely on all the swashes,
on all the fancy stuff
in order to be beautiful.
And I think that's one
of the things that I love
the most about logotypes
is that it's a celebration
of just simple letter forms
with maybe a few extra details
rather than it being a
celebration of flourishes
or it begin a celebration of illustration.
You know, you really
have to love those basic
letter forms and get those precisely right
in order to make something
that's gonna be a great logo
whereas you can really hide terrible type
in a lot of decoration when it
comes to lettering projects.
So for me, making a great logo
within these brand refreshes
is really just about making a logo
that is less painful to work with.
You know, I work with a
lot of different designers,
a lot of in-house
designers when it comes to
doing these brand refreshes.
And what I really listen to are the times
that they really just struggle
to design around the logo,
where they feel limited
in the kind of fonts
that they can use, where they feel limited
in the layouts that they
could use and I really want
to just make it so that they
feel empowered by the logo
that they're working with,
to make creative decisions
and to make their work
just overall better.
It's really just about how
do I make their job easier
by giving them an asset
that is just super simple
and clean and easy to work with.
So just as a quick overall
of what my process looks like
for when I do these brand refreshes,
first I get the file from the client.
They send me their existing logo
and any assets that they have
that I might want to look at,
they send me mood boards of things
that they're interested in or I'm creating
mood boards of things
that are within the same
world that they're looking
to push the logo into.
We have a great conversation
in which we go over
all the details, the
goals, things like that.
But then when I actually
dive into the work,
what I'm doing is, I print
out the logo as it is
and I put it on the wall
and give it a critique.
I pretend like I'm in art school again
and I go through and
write down all the things
that I see, all the things
that I want to change,
all the errors that I
see within the drafting
of the letter forms, all
the things that I see within
the drafting of the vector art
and just sort of give myself a task list
of all these things that I want to update
and it's when I have that task list
that I can actually dive in deep
and start making those changes.
Logotype refresh work is
just all about iterating
and you want to make sure that you have
a record of that iterating.
That's why I actually
think it's really important
to print out your work as you're working
so that you can see things
next to each other on the wall,
you can see where it's
been and where it's going
and where you want to
take it in the future.
You might be asking yourself,
why do I need to have this
list of things to go through?
Why do I need to go into
this kind of detail?
Why do I need to have a
checklist to go through?
You can absolutely just
sit down and design
a better logo, you can
do stuff intuitively.
But I am kind of a believer that intuition
is actually just the
ability to subconsciously
access facts in your head
so some people are really good at that.
Some people can work
incredibly intuitively and can
not forget things along the way
and somehow are able to make it all work.
I am definitely stretched
a little thin sometimes
and actually having a list of everything
I'm trying to accomplish can make sure
that I don't leave anything at the table.
It can make sure that
something that's so important
as a logo, I don't forget
anything along the way
and it actually also helps
if I'm looking at something
and I know that it can be improved upon
but I'm not quite sure how
it can be improved upon,
I can use this list as
a way to move forward
and as a way to double check my work
when I am not totally happy with it yet
but I don't really know what to do next.
So I have two options for
call to actions for you.
You can either go out
into the world and find
a business that you really care about
that has a terrible logo.
Do not tell them they
have a terrible logo.
Do this privately in your own space.
Reach out to that local coffee shop
or that local non=profit
and try to take their
logo that they might love
and make it just a little bit better
and then share that in the gallery space.
The other thing that you can do is look at
the work that you created a few years ago.
No one is proud of the work that they did
three plus years ago and
take one of those pieces
and critique it as if it's someone else's.
Critique it with a fresh set of eyes
as if you're about to re-brand this work
that actually is not yours.
And I think that that's
actually a great way
to move forward because it's something
that you can take these
new skills that you have
and apply them to your previous work
and see just how much you've grown
over the course of the
last couple of years
and even maybe over the last
few hours in this class.
