The process of redesigning a logo
Since Digital Web Magazine had no idea what their new logo should actually look like, they gave me carte blanche for the initial concepts. Not an easy assignment—many questions started popping into my head. Who do I actually design the logo for? Who is their audience? What does that audience feel comfortable with? And so on... The answers to such questions are fundamental in order to create a decent and representative logotype.
The concepts we picked along the way were strongly influenced by the personal flavor and suggestions of the reviewers and my style of design. The most important (and also the most widely varied) perspective we had to keep in mind was the reader’s. The time between the first concept and our final product was about three months. The reason it took so long was probably the persity of thoughts and backgrounds between the reviewers and me. On the other hand, it was a great advantage that such different people could share their opinions and objectives with each other.
The first design was a tryout, a wild guess to test Digital Web’s reactions. I thought something very unique might be a good concept to start from.
After reviewing this tryout, the first thing we realized is that the characters should be more legible since Digital Web is all about highly readable content. Traditionally, the name Digital Web has always been a two-word combination. This concept is seemingly too far away for consideration. A nice sans-serif typeface would be ideal but is not sufficient to function as a standalone identity. Adding a symbol or icon allows us to turn a common typeface into a unique and representative logo. This symbol should also be able to function without the text so we keep our typeface problem for later.
The symbol
Our second set, but our first actual symbol set, was a range of symbols based on the type of concept 1A. These designs could function as an independent symbol and an abbreviation at the same time. Every symbol on this set should represent a D, a W, and possibly an M, though the letter D on concepts 2B and 2C could be confused as a letter C with an attachment on top.
The concepts 2A and 2C could be improved to a thicker and more solid symbol instead of the separate parts they are built from. Concept 3A is what came forth from it but the stripes (and especially the colored one) reminded us too much of a sports brand, definitely not what Digital Web is looking for. More on the colors will follow later.
Except for 3A, I tried some totally new, not too complex concepts on this set. On 3E and 3F we found out the D and the W could be difficult to read. 3C and 3D may have too angular shapes and sharp corners, but we left them open for consideration. 3B definitely came out as the strongest out of this set because of its simplicity and uniqueness. Note that, with some imagination, the colored shapes on 3B form a letter ‘W’ and the negative space on the inside forms an almost finished letter ‘D'. This concept was a huge step forward on our mission and a new basis to continue from.
Next are a number of different variations based on the concept 3B we picked out of the previous set. Note that our favorite concept from set 3 returns on this set as 4N. In this load of experimental designs, I tried to increase the natural and spontaneous value of our logo. For example, the tops of 4D and 4L have this wave shaped edge. Others had a rounded corner at the left bottom, like the complete orange and blue rows. The thing that really did it was the right prong of the ‘W’.
The first three examples in the orange and red rows lost their too technical feel by sharpening the right end. Our logo looks a lot more dynamic in general and our letter ‘D’ remains unharmed. I also tried a different contrast on some of the concepts by coloring the center area black. But the monotone color turned out to be better because a contrast was not really necessary here. The accompanying typeface we would add later on was going to be partially black anyway. Out of this set, we favored concept 4I, because of its new dynamics and still because of its simplicity.
The next step we took was smoothing out the bottom of our logo. Note that the connection between the base and the right prong is smoother and rounder in concept 5A than in concept 4I from the previous set. Another idea was a mosaic version (5B) but it was quickly dumped.
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