A graphic design process is the steps between the client’s need to the finished final product. This is important for designers to fine-tune their process to be able to consistently come up with ideas, designs and deliverables that meet their client’s needs.
If you are looking to hire a designer, it’s good to understand the work that goes into a design and in turn understand how many hours it can take. It sometimes appears easy when you see a finished logo but there’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes.
Graphic designers have to be creative on demand regardless if they are feeling inspired at that moment. You can’t just wait around for inspiration to hit you. Having a tried and true process helps you in your creativity and coming up with ideas.
- Client Questionnaire – Once the potential client has contacted me, I send out a questionnaire. It has most of the questions to start the visual branding project. This helps me understand the needs of the client and how they want to use your logo in their business.
- Meeting – This is when I get to meet the client, in person or on the phone/zoom and go over any details that aren’t in the questionnaire answers. It also lets clients ask me any questions or make sure I understand an important detail of their needs. Sometimes if there’s a time crunch, I roll the questionnaire into the meeting.
- Research – I go over all the information I’ve collected and start to make notes and think about how to go ahead. I will look at similar businesses to see what they are with their visual branding. Researching other businesses helps you stand out from them, it’s not to copy their visual branding. I also will brainstorm at this time. I will write keywords and create a word map. This helps come up quickly with different ideas.
- Moodboard – I create a few different mood boards with different colours, patterns and fonts. Sometimes I will add inspirational graphics in a style that I’d like to emulate. Pinterest is great for this too.
- Concept Sketching – I start sketching out roughs of the design on paper. It’s easier to stay away from the computer at this stage. While brainstorming I want quantity at this point. These sketches aren’t meant to be seen or be final versions. Sketch out even the silly ideas. I pick a few of the best ideas to bring into the next phase.
- Digitalization – If I need to I will scan the concept sketches and bring them into Adobe Illustrator. This is where I will vectorize and fine-tune the logos. Depending on the design I could be creating a customized font or illustrating a graphic.
- Presenting Mockups – I present the mockups
to the client. They will approve one of the directions and give any revisions they would like. - Revisions – I revise the client’s approved mockup. The amount of revisions depends on our agreement. I make revisions and end up finishing the design part of the project.
- Format files – This is where I complete the final files. With branding files, there would be a standard sheet, logo files, colour palettes, font choice and any other files.
- Delivery of Final Files – The client receives the final files that we agreed upon in the quote. There are high fives all around!
This is my design process for logo design. Most designers have their way of doing things.
If you need design work and you would like to work with me, please send me an email and we can chat.