"How do I create a customized business logo independently?"
For a better reading experience, I would recommend going to Quora for my original answer.
Thanks for the A2A.
As Sophia has pointed out, it is better to get a professional designer to do it for you simply for one single reason - Time. Given enough time (and sufficient effort and drive), you can learn to do it yourself, no question. The problem arises when you factor in your return versus the time invested into learning it. You might save a few hundred to a few thousand bucks, which should be less than what you make in a month’s salary. Now, consider the years it takes to achieve some level of competency in design (not master it), is the trade-off worth it?
In the spirit of learning, I’ll share some of my usual mantras to designing a good logo:
It’s not about the designer, or the client. It’s about their clients/customers.
Perfection is not when you can’t put in anything else. It’s when you can’t take anything else out.
Give it layers. Make the design intentional and thoughtful. Make it cater to the masses, but at the same time, keep a little personal piece of your client in there. Imagine if your client is ever inquired about their logo, you’d want that logo to tell a good story. Oh, so the reason why we went with the fish icon was because my late father and I used to go fishing all the time; it was thanks to his teachings and advice that gave me the inspiration for this company. I feel like a part of him is watching over me every time I look at the logo.
I’ll show you a short logo design project that I’d done a few months ago to illustrate the minimum amount of work that needs to go into creating one. Keep in mind, this was on the lower-end of the logo cost, the project was small, the owner already had an a few ideas in mind, and they trusted me to do my job, so everything went pretty smoothly.
Initial Concepts:
Business Name: QC Sniper
Photography Business
Based in Charlotte, NC
Keywords (determined together with Client): Lens, Camera, Queen City, Crown, Cross-hair, Scope, Sniper, Single-color
Minimal, unobstructive to highlight photography works, not detract from it
This was one slice of the initial designs which I cobbled together for this presentation, pardon the mess:
Which evolved into something like this:
A pretty good start, but then the client decided that they want to change the name to Asher Photography due to my earlier comment that using the phrase QC Sniper might a bit confusing to some, not to mention the negative connotation with the Sniper and Crosshair part due to all the shootings we’ve got going around.
So, using the whole Q and C concept as the lens for the camera no longer works. Back to the drawing board.
50-something concepts later, I decided to go back to the whole Charlotte-inspired design. And then I came across this:
Source: Lost the ink, so Google?
That’s the top of the Bank of America HQ building, located in Charlotte, NC. It looks like that for a reason. Charlotte is also known as Queen City (named after Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III of England) to the locals, and the top of the building was designed to resemble a crown.
Source: charlotte
So, I really wanted to feature that building, along with the other skyscrapers that are iconic to Charlotte in the logo. Variants after variants, edits after edits, and a few weeks later, I arrived at this.
Final Result:
Featuring the three iconic buildings in Charlotte (from left to right): The Duke Energy Building, the BoA HQ, and the Hearst Tower. All in a format reminiscent to the old-school Minolta camera, while referencing the more modern photography app located on your phone. It also resembles a crown. It’s minimal so it doesn’t compete too much with the imagery. It’s instantly identifiable as a photography logo, but there is a story behind it, one that is unique to Charlotteans, and unique to the owner himself.
Source: A History of Minolta Innovation
See if you could spot all three of the buildings.
Looks pretty straightforward, eh? Took me 6 years to partially master the software, another 5 in college to learn the theories, the movements, the design guidelines, and another 2 to learn to market all those skills, so far. The journey only gets longer.
PS: I do feel like I could take out a bit more for the building details to make them even stronger at smaller sizes. I had a variant lying somewhere but I couldn't find it, whelp.
Edit: Fixed some of the source links.
