I recently created some logo design work for a screen printing and embroidery company called Accent on Life. This project was a lot of fun to work on. Whether you're getting started with design work or if you've been doing this sort of thing for a while and you're interested in getting some inspiration from someone else's process, I hope you enjoy this post.

Here are some of the steps I take: 

01. ASK QUESTIONS

I send a questionnaire to my clients asking them questions about their company, what's important for them them to communicate in their logo, etc. This is an important first step that helps me know where to start and makes sure I'm touching on all of their key needs for the design. I built this questionnaire right into my website, which helps me keep it clean and consistent - it also sends all of the information to me in an email.

02. CREATE A PHYSICAL STORYBOARD

After I get all the answers back, I start putting together ideas on a storyboard. I prefer doing this on physical piece of paper with a pen or pencil. 

On the storyboard I used for this design project. On the storyboard, I write down ideas, colors schemes, etc. This is pivotal for me getting a project off the ground. I don't try to make this step perfect, in any way. I just have to get it out of my head quickly - then I go back and get more detailed. Because of the questionnaire, I knew three features were really important to this brand:

1. Ocean
2. Beach
3. Lighthouse

I wanted to pull these three things together in a special way for this design, and there were a couple of options that I knew I could put together digitally. But I had a vision for a hand-drawn, watercolor seal that I wanted to give as an option.

Option 1 is a seal logo with lighthouse on a beach with a wave crashing onto the shore. (Even though you can't tell from this picture. HAHA! I was going to redraw it for you in this blog, but decided to let it go and let you see the very rough version.) This brings in all the key features outlined by the client in a unique way for them to display for their company. I envisioned the seal to be paired with a hand-selected font that matched the look and feel of the seal.

03. BRING IN ADDITIONAL HELP

This idea of the seal really felt like the right logo fit for this company. I began working on designing some of the alternate options, but I knew that the look I was hoping to achieve would require some additional help. 

I called on my dear friend Caitlin (who also helped design the artwork in my logo) to help bring this design to life. I sent her my storyboard idea of the seal logo, along with a color scheme that I had proposed and received approval on from the client.

I told Caitlin that I wanted it similar to what I had drawn (I recreated it for her. HAHA.), but I wanted it to feel a little more whimsical. I sent her some examples of what I considered to be whimsical, but also told her that it needed to have hard lines, as it would need to be easily embroidered on shirts. In just a couple of days, she sent me this preliminary drawing. She's amazing! It was everything that I was hoping for. She tied all of the elements together in a balanced and meaningful way. Once I saw this, I got even more excited!

The final product was just perfect! We digitized it and started working with it to add the font logo to the seal.

04. PACKAGE THE DESIGNS IN AN ATTRACTIVE WAY

Once I had all the design work complete, I put it together in a PDF booklet to easily display all the options. It's my goal that the presentation of the design work be as well thought out as the logo itself when my client is selecting a design.

Accent on Life ended up selecting the above logo combination. It was a joy to work with this company. If you need screen printing or embroidery done, please check them out - they do great work: www.facebook.com/accentonlifefl

Also, if you have any design needs, please check out my services page for more information.

|  Credits: Author, Photography, & Graphics - Jacintha Payne |