First Logo

[hseiken]

Actually I value each of your opinions very much and after sending it to TJ and he wants to keep it the way it is after I fixed the lettering thanks to you guys. Now I have a new problem, I should not have sent it to TJ as now I have decided to scrap it and give another try at creating a bike out of flames. By the way since I told you how my friend TJ is paying me I think I should actually tell you a holiday story. I called it a tune up on my bike, well it is actually a bit more involved than that. You see I am handicapped and confined to a wheel chair and TJ just before Christmas he came up with a wonderful idea. In exchange for creating a logo for him he is taking 2 of my old wheel chairs combining them and modifying the final product so that I can race in our local 5k race next summer so that was his Christmas present to me. So as untalented as I am this logo must be my best. So thank you for your critique and will post my attempt at a bike.

When dealing with a client, you really have to think 4 or 5 steps ahead.

This is professional advice and you can ignore it or take part of it or all of it, but just know I had to pay a lot of money at school to learn this, and you're welcome to use it or discard it. It's the internet and I'm just an internet nobody here.

When doing a logo for a client, I personally use the 3-2-1 system. Basically, you create 3 RADICALLY different drafts after talking with the client. If they have their ideas they absolutely want in the logo, you do 3 radically different takes, as far from each other as you can possibly get. If they say, 'you're the artist, do something' then it's up to you to ask THEM questions about their business and what they want to portray themselves as. It doesn't have to be super complicated or deep. The client might even just say, "I want something cool' Well that's awesome, so do 3 RADICALLY different ideas of cool.

After that, show them what you've done. They will say 'i like this about this idea' or whatever. Listen to them and you'll get a list of things to look at, you might even get a response like, 'I absolutely LOVE this one' and such. Whatever the response is, you listen to them, and make 2 more versions. These will take into account their input based on your initial 3. Make THESE two as radically different as possible. They might not be all that different overall depending on their reaction to the first three. For instance, say you do one they just say 'that's the one'. Insist that you'll do two variations of that idea/concept. Because this IS concepting. It's not logo designing yet. The logo is the culmination of the concept. So the 2 versions of the 'i love this one' might be, say, One is more iconographic and the other is more 'realistic'. Or you might play with colors, etc. You still give them choice within that realm of what they already said they liked. Alternatively, the client might also say 'i like the colors of this, but the style of that'. So you do two radically different, as much as possible variations of those elements they said they preferred.

Then, you'll present them with those two versions. They will still be able to say very little about them other than colors and style. At that point, you've narrowed down, with the customer/client, what they're after. And there's a chance, too, that they say, "I still love this one you did originally' and that's absolutely fine. The thing is to make them feel like they're involved, but you keep their choices down to minimum. Never give into just 'Yeah, but move this here a little', and have no cap on how many times they can say that. most clients THINK they know what they want, but they're not a graphic designer, they just 'see cool stuff' and think that's what they want. It's YOUR job to make NEW cool stuff and show them what their business identity is in graphics.

I know that seems like a lot of garbage to read through, but I hope it helps and good luck on the redraws. I think graphic design is a fascinating field, but I see all too often the 'get it right the first time' sort of approach and it's very much not that at all. It's like writing, you're going to go through a lot of drafts and polish things up and finalize things as you go. The initial idea might be gold, but will need some finessing to make it just right. Treat everything you do on that journey as ideas and don't be married to an idea until the client makes a choice then treat it like your baby and make it the best you can.

Loves and good luck!

PS if you'd like, I can show you a project I did with a client so you can visually see what I mean...one where I did all these steps and what they ended up with. It's up to you whether this seems like an approach you'd feel comfortable with but I'm more than willing to show you an actual case of where it worked out for everyone, which ultimately is the goal! You get to be creative and the client gets something they like.