Creative Development Process

Creating a logo, website, and marketing materials to represent your organization deserves a careful process of collaboration between you and your designer.  I follow a thoughtful workflow structure to guide me through the creative process.  Every client is unique, and my workflow allows plenty of space to adapt to each client's specific needs while ensuring a thorough job.  Check out my process below.  To see specific examples of this process in action, click the relevant example on the right.

Step 1:  Understand

Meet with the client in person, or via skype or phone. During this time I seek to gain a thorough understanding of the business: its core values, the image it wants to portray, the customers it's trying to attract and retain, and any special considerations specific to their needs.  I also seek to understand the unique aspects of the company that differentiate it from its competitors.  In other words, what makes them and/or their products special?

Behind the scenes: creating the Sun Dog Raspberries logo

Step 2:  Research

Conduct research on competitors and similar organizations, including their branding, marketing strategies and emphasis, market share, and target demographics.

Conduct research on the client's target audience.  This includes gathering demographic information such as age, gender, income level, location. Then  delve into psychographic information which includes things like values, hobbies, interests, etc.  This information combines to help define the target audience and determine the best ways in which to reach them; what might be of interest, and what might turn them off.  All of this is critical in developing branding strategies that deliver results.

Step 3:  Imagine & Create

Brainstorm ideas pertaining to the client organization and the image it wants to convey, taking into account the information gathered in step 2.  Create a series of quick hand-drawn sketches for logo ideas based on the brainstorming exercise, then meet with the client to narrow down the choices.  Many times this means combining aspects of one image with aspects of another (or more).  Sometimes this prompts the client to request the inclusion of new elements.  This is a highly collaborative process where we roll up our sleeves together to develop the logo that best meets your goals.

Step 4:  Refine

After meeting with the client and narrowing down the design elements, I then create quality digital mock-ups.  This is where the design really gains legs and starts to become real.  At this point, the image is relatively close to its final form.  I submit to the client digital images with various color palettes and fonts (unless previously defined).  Choosing a font and color scheme are important branding elements, and should be carefully considered since these choices will impact other marketing materials.  Any final alterations in the image can be requested at this time.

Step 5:  Deliver

The final design is completed based upon the feedback received in step 4.  I deliver the image to the client for final approval.  If further changes are required, those can be taken care of but may incur an extra charge depending on complexity and other factors.  Once final approval is received, I supply the finished product to the client. Unless otherwise requested, the files I provide are color versions and optimized grayscale versions of the logo in various formats and sizes:  the native Adobe Illustrator file, .pdf files, various sizes of .jpg or .png for office use.  I can also supply additional file formats if required.