Bricolage 2

Salut!

You say that you are a beginner at logo design, and to be frank, it really shows. The 3 logos you've posted remind me of my own first logos, way back when at the end of the last millennium. It's basically everything one should not do when designing something that is made to be seen, noticed, appreciated and remembered (for the good reason).

But don't worry, this is perfectly normal. With a few exceptions, everyone who is great at something always started to suck balls. I know I did ;) It just take practice, dedication and the right method to hone your skills and come up with something good.

I'm going to give you a few pointers, a proper creative process. It's just 3 simple steps, that if you spend enough time following, should get you somewhere, creatively speaking. Mind you, there are other steps that could be added, and probably other methods by way more distinguished designers than me, but these three served me pretty well over the years.

1- RESEARCH.

Know your ground. When starting a project for a particular business, know everything there is to know about it. Its history, its evolution, who are the major players, what do their logos look like, how do each of them stand out, what is their strategy?

2- INSPIRATION.

That is what is massively lacking with your logos. It looks like you went straight forward, from the top of your head, without having a look at other logos and trends. From a general point of view, you have to be aware of what's going on in the design world, what colors and fonts are hip, which are not, good practices, etc. For inspiration, check out sites like www.logopond.com, www.fromupnorth.com and get a Pinterest account (a must for your daily fix of inspiration) Follow some cool graphic design oriented YouTube channels like The Futur (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSkoolRocks) and Will Paterson (https://www.youtube.com/user/breakdesignsco) There are of course a multitude of sites and channels to look at, you'll just need to dig deeper.

3- SKETCHING

This is the most important part of this whole thing. I cannot stress this enough. Not only will it help you honing your skills as a designer, but it will also greatly help in the idéation of your project. You got a direct link between your brain, the tip of your pen and the paper. Get a lot of the latter. Be ready to sketch for hours on end, away from your computer. A design software like Illustrator is a powerful tool, but you got to make it work for you and not the other way around. That's why you got to use it only when you have a few potent ideas stemming from hours, if not days, of thorough sketching. Only then can you move on to the computer to execute them. Designing a logo takes time. Most of it spent sketching. Maybe with a few years under your belt you'll be able to come up with a good logo in a small amount of time but you're not there yet.

Here are few general tips:

- Keep things simple. Remove all superfluous elements. If your logo still works without them, you don't need them. Simplicity is king here. But it's not to be confused with "simplistic". A logo made in 5 minutes with a square a word mark underneath is rarely (never) a good one.

- If simplicity is king, complexity is queen. By that I mean there are a lot of very intricate yet memorable logos out there. But it takes a lot of experience and practice to achieve one. Not to be confused with" complicated". All your logos you've posted are needlessly complicated.

- Don't mess with fonts. Never alter a font by squeezing it, extending it or adding characters from another font. A font is whole system of metrics and proportions that a designer painstakingly put together. The way you got it is the way it's meant to be used. Also, know your fonts: www.fontsinuse.com www.typophile.com. And grab some cool free fonts: www.losttype.com www.fontsquirrel.com

- Colors: 2 of them tops is the best bet. One light, one darker. Have contrast in your logo for maximum visual impact. Make sure that your logo works well in black and white and in shades of grey. Tend to work on a white background, as more often than not this is where you logo will wind up.

- Fonts: 2 max, no more. A main one for the word mark (the name of the company) and a complimenting ones for the subtext. Remember the logo should work without the subtext, don't make it integral to the design (ie the logo should work without it).

- Use Adobe Illustrator for logo design. I don't know what you've used to come up with your logos, but it doesn't look like it. Illustrator is vector based, meaning it doesn't use pixels and anything you do on it can be extended or reduced without any loss of information unlike a pixel based software like Photoshop.

- No photograph, no third party elements in your logo (as in no bits and pieces you picked up on vector library). Your logo must be 100% vector, 100% original, 100% you.

- Learn the difference between inspiration (good) and a total rip off (bad).

I hope I haven't been too long and that this whole babble will help you. Don't hesitate to ask questions, we'll be happy to answer. Come back often to submit your updated logos. Also do not hesitate to comment on other people's logo, as long as it is in a pleasant and constructive manner.

Keep at it!!

PS: attention à ton pseudo, qui semble prêter à confusion vu la réaction de certains dans les commentaires ;)