Getting to Simple Is Not So Simple

This is about a project case I’m sure most designers can relate to, because at some point in your design career, this could happen to you.

This project is a complete branding overhaul for a woman-owned business. I really like this client and believe in what she does. I support her unique approach and vision she has for her business.

The overhaul begins with the logo mark. The right place to start as everything going forward will reflect around the new logo mark. Best of all, the client really loves simple. Simple is good. It makes for a great logo mark. (See an earlier post about Chermayeff & Geismar’s Design Process)

Her current logo mark is busy, dark and has the over-used, misused typeface Papyrus. She knew it wasn’t doing her a lot of favors, so having successfully designed a logo for one of her programs, she asked me to help her with a total branding re-vamp for her business.

We met and discussed what she envisioned for her new logo mark and branding. I listened. I took careful notes. I got it. Or so I thought. The trouble was the little sketches and visual examples the client showed me for direction were so simple and at the same time felt awkward, elementary and unsophisticated.

Conscientiously or sub-conscientiously, perhaps I was feeling I was being designed at. This is something I try never to do to a client. Instead, I make them a part of the process and approach projects in the spirit of collaboration.

This was the complete opposite of the “client who has no idea of what they want, but they will let you know when they see it.” My client knew what she wanted and it was my job to visually interpret that and only that. I should be so lucky.

Unfortunately, all my interpretations of the ideal simple logo fell terribly short of what she envisioned. At each round, my head said this looks good, this will work, but in my gut I knew it wouldn’t feel right to my client. My gut was right. Even providing rationals for each direction didn’t sell her on any of it.

At one point, I felt like I was headed for a design-crisis. Stuff like this doesn’t happen to me, not after years of experience ~ I almost always capture the expectation for a logo mark in the first round. There maybe a little tweaking involved, but in general, the solution is seen by the client in the first presentation. This is not say this is easy. Far from it. It takes a lot of time brainstorming, exploring, sketching, researching, and finessing to arrive at the right solution. The pressure is always present when it comes to creating a rock-solid logo mark that is going to work for the client, but more importantly, for their target audience.

This is when all the inner critics come out and start chanting crap, like “you’re a hack, you have no talent as a designer, you might as well give up…” The thing is I didn’t want to give up and I certainly didn’t want to let the client down. Did I tell you I really like this client?

So what did I do? I took my client’s examples and suggestions and reproduced them, literally, even though as I did, they looked awkward, elementary and unsophisticated. She had to see that. But something happen along the way. A break through. I took the simple elements and found a solution. I just had to step back and not think about it so hard. The bonus is I could live with and even be pleased by the result. My worst fear of “please don’t make me design something ugly or stupid and have it out there for the world to see” evaporated.

Then I remembered what Chermayeff & Geismar’s said about the design process. When a new logo mark is created often times it has no meaning to the client or anyone else for that matter, because it is so new. It hasn’t gained recognition and it doesn’t have a history. It becomes the job of the designer to sell the client on a new logo mark, explain all the reasons why it look will work. The opposite happened here. I had to get my head around my client’s vision and understand what her logo mark needed to represent. She knows how her business works, its history and reputation. It’s far newer to me.

In the end, what I created resonates with my client. She loves it. It represents her interpretation of what her business model is about. It will be new to her audience, though. It becomes my job to strategically build meaning for the new logo mark through a fresh, new website and marketing materials that will resonate with her audience. My client has an excellent reputation for what she does. Having a very simple logo mark will make her memorable as all good simple logo marks do.

Note: I may share the before and after logo marks as well as more details in a later post. Right now, the project is underway and nothing has been formally introduced or launched.

Related articles

• Examining The Design Process: Clichés and Idea Generation (smashingmagazine.com)
• 60 Highly Clever Minimal Logo Designs (matamala.wordpress.com)

Advertisement