Logo-Designer.me

How Many Logos should a Logo Designer put in their Portfolio?

After being a Logo Designer for a number of years now I have quite a lot of logos that I have created for various clients that could be featured in both my online and paper based portfolio. It is tempting to put them all in and many logo designers choose to feature all their logos within their portfolio which makes sense to show potential clients that you have the experience but is it possible to over do it?

I myself am a big believer that “Less is More”, but having said that it is quite impressive to see lots of work in a designers portfolio if the work is of a high standard. So when is enough logos enough within a portfolio?

My approach to this is to select the best designs I believe I have as well as to get feedback from others about which of the Logos I have designed they feel are in their opinion the best. An excellent way of getting feedback is to post your logos on a blog and ask for feedback on the designs. You can do this on your own blog if you have a good number of daily visits or you can ask to post your logos on a logo design based blog that features designers work. You should be prepared for some negative feedback as well though as not everybody likes the same things and some people just like to be negative

Another point to make here is to not only get feedback from other designers as designers appreciate logos on a more complex level and your potential clients will not usually be other designers. Having said that it is still a very good idea to get some opinions from experienced designers that have been working in the industry for a while.

Once you have received some feedback for your logos you should be quite well equipped to begin putting a list together of your logos that you and others believe to be the best of your work. You should put the strongest logos at the start of the portfolio as you need to impressive from the very first example to keep people interested enough to move on to the next example. If you keep adding the logos in this way until you come to the logos that you feel unsure about.

If you feel positive about adding the logos at the start of your portfolio and not so comfortable with the later ones this probably means you are now adding work that is not showing the best of your ability. I believe that it would be better to add only 8 logos that you felt confident with than to add 16 that you felt unsure about half of.

For Logo Designers just starting out picking and choosing logos is not an option as you will probably have to feature pretty much everything you have just to have 8 logos but if you stick to around this number and replace the weaker ones over time with some stronger examples this will help to build a strong portfolio and when you have lots of logos that you feel confident about you can extend your portfolio until your heart is content.

This is only my opinion and approach to selecting the best logos for a portfolio so I would be interested to hear from any other designers about their approach to this.

I hope this is of some use to somebody and thanks very much for visiting and reading.

What is the difference between a Logo Designer and a Graphic Designer?

Clients have asked me before if I am a Logo Designer or a Graphic Designer and my response usually is that I am a graphic designer that specialises in the area of Logo Design. I do also complete other graphic design projects such as brochures, stationery, flyers, leaflets, etc but the majority of my time is devoted to designing Logos and developing identities for businesses usually based in the UK.

So can Graphic Designers provide Professional Logos?

Yep, they sure can. A graphic designer may not specialise in logo design but most can still create logos and provide them in the necessary formats. One thing I have noticed about general graphic designers though is that they sometimes provide image based logos which look great but this does cause problems when it comes to resizing the logo. A designer should always provide a vector based logo if the client wishes to use the logo at many different sizes. For more information on this please read my article on Digital Files for Logos.

Why Specialise in Logos?

If you are looking to get rich then logo design is probably not the most profitable area of graphic design as there is a lot of work that goes in to creating a logo and clients do not always see this so they often have budgets for you to work with. Large print projects like books and booklets however is probably a different story as clients expect that these items will cost more with all the pages. It would look to a client that they were getting more for their money if they have a booklet designed than just one single logo even if the same amount of time was spent on each of them.

The profitability from designing logos is also reduced now that there is such a great amount of competition within this area. This is not to say that you cannot make a living from logo design, I just think that there are other areas of graphic design that would possibly be more profitable. There is also more ongoing work from clients with design for print projects where as with a logo once the logo is done sometimes its all over if all they wanted from you was the logo.

So if you want to be a logo designer because you enjoy designing logos more than other areas of graphic design then go for it! You may not be rich but at least you will get to design the things you like to design the most

I thought I would put together a list of things that have really helped me to do my job as a Logo Designer so that other designers can have a look to see if some of the items might also be of use to them. If anybody has any other ideas please feel free to post your thoughts.

A List of things that help a Logo Designer do what they do.

1. An Education in Graphic Design – I have been to both college and university to study graphic design but whilst I think a university degree is helpful it is not really essential. It is certainly a good idea through to study a course in graphic design and there are many excellent colleges that offer this.

2. Industry Experience – This is even more important than the education. Get as much industry experience as you can and it is also essential to have a good knowledge of the printing industry as that is where all your hard work is sent to and if you know a little about printing this can save some unwanted disasters and even open up some new creative doors.

3. Books – Yep lots of books on logos, always handy when you have designers block and need a little inspiration but remember there is a big difference between being inspired and being a copy cat

4. A computer – an Apple imac will do the job nicely. It is tempting to blow the whole budget on a super fast computer but the processing power that now comes as standard with the latest Apple imacs is certainly enough for creating logos and other design for print based projects. The super mega fast computers available now are really more for video and animation intensive requirements and also for individuals and agencies with too much cash!

5. A Sketch book – spend more time using your sketch book than your computer and you will create some amazing work. From experience the concept is usually always created using the good old fashioned pen / pencil and a sketch book. Spend a little longer on the ideas and the results will be many times better.

6. Software – In my opinion Adobe Illustrator has pretty much become the industry standard for logo artwork creation. It is also very handy to have Adobe Photoshop to provide clients with various image previews and additional image based files but this can all be done using Illustrator if you wish.

7. A portfolio – It is best to have both an online portfolio and a paper based portfolio. Your online portfolio can be in the form of a website or you can place your work on an existing design based website that allows the promotion of your own work.

Its essential to have a paper / non digital portfolio so that you have something to show clients when you go to meet them as the conversation may soon dry up if you are just looking at a blank sketch pad ready to take notes, Clients need inspiration too and reassurance that you are up to the job.

8. A network you can turn to – It is a good idea to join an online community that shares an interest in logo design and that you can turn to when you need a little help with something such as the name of a typeface or an opinion on a design. There are lots of logo design forums and blogs out there so it is just a case of finding one that suits you.

9. Impressive Knowledge – You cannot really sell a logo until you know what you are talking about so learn as much as you can about typography, design and printing. This will also help to build confidence when talking to clinets.

10. A love for logos – you will really need a genuine love for logo design as you will spend much of your time doing it and if your heart is not in it then it will show in your work and clients will pick up on this too.

Hope that is of some use and if you have any thoughts of your own please share them. Thanks for reading.