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Ten things you'll need to be a great logo designer. #1 - Ability to draw. In order to deconstruct a visual into it’s raw components, you need to be able to draw the visual in the first place. The globe and swoosh phenomenon of the late 90’s happened because a whole bunch of people, who couldn’t draw, managed to get their hands on cracked copies of Adobe Illustrator. The internet let them pretend to be logo designers and the industry has never been the same since. If you’re not at least a marginal illustrator, logos probably won’t be your bag. We're not talking museum quality illustration, but if you still render stick-figures it’s time for some drawing classes. #2 - An eye for type. Logos almost always consist of art and typography combinations. You’ll need to love fonts, typography and letterforms. You’ll boast a collection of hundreds, if not thousands of fonts. Some hand made stuff too. You’ll need to understand kerning and why auto-spacing, even in the best software platforms, is just 'okay'. You’ll also need to know how to outline fonts. You need to understand some basic type psychology ie: Serif equals conservative, Italic equals fast. #3 - Working knowledge of Illustrator. A capable logo designer needs to know the ins and outs of at least one pro-level vector based software package. You’ll need to know .eps, CMYK logos, PANTONE spot color logos and how they factor into the development of a logo. Being able to throw a bevel onto some text in Photoshop does not make you a great logo designer. Once your wonderful new logo is finished, it's only a matter of time before it hits a printing press. Technically speaking, file formats better be up to snuff, so a working knowledge of prepress is equally important. Doesn’t matter how nicely your 72 dpi JPG logo looks on a monitor If it can’t print on a business card, it’s only half a logo. #4 - Allergy to logo template software. There is no chance, none at all, that anyone using so-called logo creator software of becoming a great logo designer. Same goes for those Flash driven do-it-yourself web sites. It’s clip art logos with a fancy interface. It’s not great. It’s not design. They’re not logos. #5 - Ability to ignore trends. By the time something has become a trend, it is over. Copying what is now a trend, means that you’re developing a logo that’s out-of-date in the eyes of 95% of the design community and will be hackneyed in about three weeks. Think Web 2.0. Stay original. Focus on unique. Try to be timeless. Trends are called trends for a reason. They end. #6 - A thick skin. You need to be able to ignore comments that are almost guaranteed to rile a designer up in the ego department. If statements like ‘looks like clip art‘, ‘I could have done that myself’ and ‘my kid could have done better’ run the risk of bringing on a major depression, best look elsewhere for a career. You also need to be able to deal with the ’surely this will only take a minute’ and ‘can’t you just press a button’ variants. Statements like “it costs how much?!!!” needs to be like water off a duck. #7 - Ability to ‘Let It Go’. Avoid getting ‘married to your artwork’. The logo is for the client. They may have just butchered your great award winning concept, but they’re the ones that need to connect with their design and use it for the life of their company. The client may not recognize your graphic design brilliance, but does that really matter? You can also put your favorite version in your portfolio as an example of ‘what could have been’. When it comes to design taste, there’s no right and wrong. There's only what the client likes. Design is ultimately like any service industry - if the client’s happy, you should be too. As designers, the client certainly wants our help, but may wish to have some creative input - from passive observer to full-blown art direction. With the resultant destruction of your original ideas. You may not want to take credit for the less-than-stellar artwork their logo has mutated into, but you should be satisfied that you’ve made their day. The next project may be an award winning one. #8 - Ability to work fast. Economic realities being what they are, the production time for the average logo is down. Some folks cut corners - but a great logo designer manages to fit in all the required steps, in a shorter period of time. In a perfect world a logo might begin as a series of doodles, created as we sat in the park, sketch book in hand. Probably the best method still. Alas, unless the budget on a project is above average, there’s a lot less ‘think time’ and more emphasis on ‘do time’. Clients like to see results. Not hear why this idea that exists in your head is going to be the best logo ever produced. #9 - Lack of pretension. Avoid being a prima donna. Graphic design used to be known as commercial art. At some point, every graphic designer decided to earn a living creating artwork that exists for the sole intention of selling stuff. Your latest logo is to be used to market and sell everything from pet food to tampons, condoms to sports equipment. Your latests logos are never going to appear in the Louvre, so best keep everything in perspective. While the Buddy Holly glasses and black turtle neck may have be tres chic in art school, a pair a jeans and loafers is much more comfortable when chained to a Macintosh for ten hours. #10 - An Almost Superhuman Ability to Consume Coffee. That goes without saying.
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