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When creating a logo design, it’s good practice to use a vector-based application to construct it so that you’ll have a flexible logo design that can be used in numerous print and web-based mediums. Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard when it comes to creating vector-based logo designs.

In this collection, you will find 15 hand-picked tutorials from a variety of talented graphic designers and illustrators that discuss the logo creation process using Illustrator.

1. Logo Design Project Step by Step

 

In this tutorial, UK-based graphic and web designer Chris Spooner walks learners through the process of creating a logo design for a company called myNiteLife. He discusses his process of sketching, typeface selection, all the way to digital illustration and production in Adobe Illustrator.

2. Create a Fly Logo Design Part 1 and Part 2

 

In this two-part series, Sean Hodge takes us through the construction of a logo design for Webfly, a company that develops .NET applications for businesses. Part 1 of his tutorial discusses visual research, sketching, and illustrating the initial mockup in Illustrator. Part 2 goes over the revision process based on the client’s feedback, typical of graphic design gigs.

3. Silhouette Logo for a Steak House Restaurant in Adobe Illustrator

 

 

This tutorial goes through the methods behind producing a logo for a steak house restaurant. It discusses some common mistakes when designing a logo, and then goes through the preliminary sketching process, setting up your Illustrator document with a stock photo reference, all the way through the completion of the logo.

4. 3D logo Tutorial

 

You’ll read step-by-step instructions on how to create a three-dimensional iconic logo for the web in this tutorial. It goes over the initial construction of the shapes in Illustrator, and then finishing and refining the logo in Photoshop.

5. Web 2.0 Logo Reflection in Vector format with Illustrator

 

Talented designer and blogger Jay Hilgert teaches readers how to create a vector-based logo design. Since most "Web 2.0"-styled logos are created for the web and thus usually constructed in a raster-based application like Photoshop, companies that want to translate the logo onto print mediums (such as business cards or billboards) often run into trouble when scaling the dimensions of their logo. This tutorial shows designers how to create a more flexible vector-based logo.

6. Creating a crazy cool logo

 

This logo design tutorial by Brazilian graphic/web designer and blogger, Fabio Sasso, shows us how he designed the logo for a company called Zagora. The technique involves creative use of the Ellipse tool, the Direct Selection tool to merge and delete anchor points, and using effects and the Gradient tool to add the finishing touches.

7. Roundtrip Logo from Illustrator to Photoshop

 

You’ll see the process of utilizing both Illustrator and Photoshop to create a grungy logo design in this video tutorial by Dave Cross (well-known Photoshop expert and author).

8. How to Design a Logotype from Conception to Completion

 

In this tutorial, you’ll read about creating a simple logotype from scratch. You’ll also read about some general rules when designing a logo, including the number one rule for logos: creating them in vector applications for flexibility.

9. 3D Logo

Nick La, a Toronto-based freelance illustrator and web designer, shows us a technique for creating a three-dimensional logo that involves a couple of Illustrator effects, the Pathfinder tool for merging shapes, and the Gradient tool.

10. Design a Grungy Circular Logo

 

In this logo design tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a circular logo with the company name wrapped around the outer perimeter (a popular logo design style).

11. Glossy Vector Web 2.0 Logo Text in 5 Easy Steps

 

In this tutorial, you’ll discover a very simple technique for creating a vector-based, glossy logo style popularized by Web 2.0 startups.

12. How to Create a Trendy Retro Type Treatment

 

Illustrator and designer Ryan Putnam shows us the techniques involved in creating a retro-styled logotype design in this thorough step-by-step Illustrator tutorial. The tutorial uses the very popular (and free) fontface called Museo.

13. Environmentally Friendly Green Type Treatment

 

This text treatment Illustrator tutorial shares a technique for achieving a nature-inspired logotype design. You’ll observe a variety of techniques employed in the tutorial, including using the Pen tool to illustrate the leaves to be used in the text treatment.

14. Simple Logo Vector Tutorial

This tutorial goes over how to create an iconic logo design that uses folders. You’ll learn an assortment of illustration techniques such as using the Shape tool and direct selection to create simple objects.

15. Make a Logo Flow in Illustrator

 

This tutorial goes over how Innosanto Nagara (of Design Action ) met the onslaught of requirements in creating a flexible logo design for a conference in Thailand using Adobe Illustrator. The piece was constructed in two components.

Logo design in today’s world is totally under rated.

People do not understand how important a good logo is and how valuable it is to their business.

In this article I am going to outline the ways in which you should NOT go about getting your logo designed… that is, if you are truly serious about business.

What is A Logo?

To understand what a logo is meant to do, we first must know what a logo is. A logo’s design is for immediate recognition, inspiring trust, admiration, loyalty and an implied superiority. The logo is one aspect of a company’s commercial brand, or economic entity, and its shapes, colours, fonts, and images usually are different from others in a similar market. Logos are also used to identify organizations and other non-commercial entities.

It makes me wonder why people have no logo or why they would even bother with a cheap logo design if a logo is meant to do all of these things?

Logo Design Contests

The worst deal you could probably go for is a logo design contest. Logo design contests are where you give a brief and then you have multiple designers come back to you with their designs. Although this sounds like a mighty good deal, the quality is usually far from anything you would want to represent your business.

You will be wasting your money and in the long term, in terms of damage done to your business, that amount could be quite considerable.

On another note, design contests & designers who design on a speculative basis are damaging the design industry as designers should not have to invest time and resources with no guarantee of payment.

If you want further proof, read these articles: Logo Design Contests Are Bad For Business or The Reality of Logo Design Contests.

Too Good To Be True Deals

If you do a search on ‘logo design’ on google you will find many businesses offering logo designs for very cheap and unbelievable prices. Such deals as “5 design concepts from 5 designers!” or “6 logos from 5 designers only $200? – Stay away!

These deals are extremely deceiving and the quality is far from satisfactory. Have you ever wondered how much thought they actually put into your logo design? Professional logo designers have a strict logo design process that can take weeks or in some cases months to complete a logo. They may offer you a result within 24 hours or maybe even less meaning literally no thought was put into your logo design.

Stock Imagery

 

Some so called “designers” (usually the same people who enter design contests) steal images from stock sites to design your logo… or in some cases business owners download and use the stock images themselves. This is a huge no-no. Did you know that stock imagery gets downloaded by thousands of people? This should be reason enough not to use stock imagery as your logo.

If you do this, other people will have access to your logo design and can and will use it in places that will potentially devalue your business. Ensure your logo design is original.

Do It Yourself Logo Design

 

Closely linked to the stock imagery scenario above, business owners or those wanting a logo will try to do it themselves. I highly recommend against this and suggest you leave the design to a professional, much as you would leave your dental work to a dentist.

Free Logo Makers

 

You will find many free online logo makers on the web. Not only do these logos look unprofessional, hundreds of other people could have the same logo as you and what is the point of that? These logos have no thought, concept or memorability about them, they are merely symbols.

They say nothing about your business and do nothing that a logo is supposed to do… I repeat, stay away from free logo makers.

Getting A Design Without Feedback

Before approving and implementing a design, ensure you get feedback from your clients, peers, and stakeholders. Getting feedback on a design is a crucial part of the logo design process as it ensures that your logo is going to be successful.

Take these poor phallic logo designs above. I wonder if they realized their logos had such hidden meaning? Ensure you don’t turn out like this by getting a professionally designed logo.

What is the cost of a professional logo design?

The cost of a professional logo design is a question that cannot be easily answered as every company has different needs, however, the best way to approach this problem is to draw up a customized quote for each individual.

A number of factors have to be taken into consideration when designing a logo, such as how many logo concepts need to be presented, how many revisions are required, how much research is needed, the size of the business and so on.

To wrap up, I’d like to quote a comparison by David Airey: Comparing the design industry to any other is by no means exact, but the, “How much for a logo?” question is kind of like asking an estate agent, “How much for a house?”.

Disclaimer: This article was written exclusively for WDD by Jacob Cass and reflects his personal opinion on logo design. It does not necessarily reflect WDD’s opinion on the subject. Jacob is a professional logo designer who runs the popular blog Just Creative Design