Mindberry logo design process
I have recently completed a project working on a new logo for a company based in Vienna, Austria. I found this an interesting process to recount as the client had a name which suggested an obvious solution however this was not what the client wanted. I thought that it would be helpful for other designers who find themselves stuck on a certain solution and serve as interesting reading for the design community to show my creative process from start to finish.
The Creative Brief
mindberry GmbH is a company based in Vienna, Austria who offers consulting and project management services to their clients. They have created the business in Austria with the view to expand to service UK, German and eventually US clients. They did not provide any limitations on the initial brief but did request that I produce a solution that would appeal to both the young/trendy audience and to the more conservative companies. I was approached by them to provide a logo comprising of a symbol which was simple with not too many colours or elements being used.
Drafting and Development
Initially I looked at the name of the company, mindberry, and automatically was focused to create a logo using a berry shape or a berry made up of differing elements. Below you will find my initial sketches. You will see that I tried different alternatives to incorporate the initials ‘m’ and ‘b’ into the shape of a berry but this did not create a strong enough logo and looked incomplete.
I continued my brainstorming and research and found inspiration within a number of different berries and below you will see the initial concepts which were chosen and presented to the client.
The above sketches were presented together to show the range of berry shapes that could be applicable to the brand but the client felt that they were a bit limiting and did not appeal to their corporate audience. I therefore created the below design which was meant to again form a berry but with a different style which was more angular and calculated and had a little more corporate appeal. The use of darker colours in this version was to give appeal to both audiences.
The client was a little more impressed with this second concept but were interested to see if I could create a logo for them which did not involve a berry element as they felt it was still not conservative enough for the corporate side of their audience. This was difficult at first as the instant mental image you have is a berry when presented with a client with the name mindberry therefore I started again from scratch and started by thinking ‘What is a mindberry?‘
I decided that it was an abstract term for a thought or idea and so experimented with designing a symbol which captured the head and a thought bubble. Below you will see my initial hand sketches.
After deciding on the rough idea, I started to finalise the concept by first calculating the mathematical elements of the symbol, then re-drafting, tidying up and transferring my sketches to the Dot Grid Book. This is the perfect medium for geometric based design as its light geometric dot matrix serves as a subtle guide for sketches. Below you will see the initial dot grid image.
I now had the logo planned and was able to bring it into a digital medium. This dot grid image was scanned into the computer, as below, in order for me to alter and achieve the final touches using the software.
Using Adobe Illustrator, I was able to rapidly recreate the layout in mathematical harmony. This is of course a lot faster process when the initial designs have been plotted on paper therefore I would again stress that hand sketching is an essential part to any design, as you are able to gain an idea of the final aim prior to utilising software to reach it.
Delivery and feedback
After presentation to the client, they were extremely happy with the direction and were satisfied that this was the symbol which captured the correct message for both audiences and just requested a few colour alternatives to finalise their selection. These were provided and below you will find the final logo which was chosen. I am happy with the colours which were chosen as they have the correct balance of bright and conservative bringing together nicely the spirit of the mindberry team. The colour also gives a hint towards the berry element without being obvious. Dark blue to represent blue and black berries, the purple was to represent red soft fruits and the green is to represent the leaf. This is meant to be a very subtle reference.
The logo will also stand the test of time compared with the berry idea as I think that after a while, the berry shape or image could look a little dated. This selected design is simple enough to carry mindberry through to the next decade without problem, in my opinion.
This logo is already in use on correspondence and will shortly be on their website which is being completed at present. My thanks to the mindberry team and I wish them every success in the future.
I also wish to thank all who read this article and any comments and constructive criticism from readers is valued so please feel free to offer any thoughts you may have on this design and the article.
32 comments on this entry so far
Nice work, David, it is an attractive mark.
Euan, on April 30th, 2009
Very nice! It’s clean and even when sketched it looks good, but it really pops in full color! Simplicity at it’s best!
JWG, on April 30th, 2009
David,
Great logo, I love it. Geometrical shapes do indeed pass the test of time and avoid looking trendish or dated. I can imagine how hard it would be to get away from the word berry and try to represent it visually. It seems as if something popped in your head that looked like your final logo right away as you can gather from your sketches. Was this the case? sometimes, when I create a mark, I usually have something that comes into focus as the one clear solution early on, and then from that point, I just try to come up with quick, secondary thoughts that I feel aren’t as strong as the one idea. But, for the sake of offering a client more choices, I keep searching the shallows of my thoughts to fill up the ranks. Cannon fodder.
My question is actually regarding the typography. It seems pretty much unchanged from the first drafts. Was this a corporate choice by mindberry? How did you arrive at this typeface? (which I cannot recognize) I think this is just as important as the mark, therefore some rationalization had to come into play when you attached it. Any thoughts on that?
Hernan Valencia, on April 30th, 2009
well done buddy… you do hell of a job man, I really liked your way.
I’m not good at manual designing so I only scribble out my idea on whitePages but then rest of the tweening or improvement I prefer on computer…
Nice work…
RebelDesigner, on April 30th, 2009
I see a nice berry shape in the middle which is “db” of mindberry…
RebelDesigner, on April 30th, 2009
amazing logo, David. love everything, especially the colors you picked for the berry.
Rodrigo Müller, on April 30th, 2009
Thanks for sharing your process David; it’s informative and always fascinating to see the way other designers go about their work.
cseven, on April 30th, 2009
This is a very interesting and useful look at the creative process of designing a logo, and the input from the client along the way.
The final logo is elegant and much more powerful than your initial concepts. To my eye the final logo looks like a seed pod opening, to reveal a small flame, all of which are positive symbols.
Tracey Grady, on April 30th, 2009
Nice end result. Thanks for the post, appreciated.
tobyct, on May 1st, 2009
Great job!!!David
Nice to see steps of your work…
Congrats!
Vladimir Gorz, on May 2nd, 2009
Dear All
Thank you for the positive feedback. I am glad you enjoyed. I think it is helpful to share ideas about processes within the design community. I will continue to do this type of post.
Hernan - thank you for your question regarding the typography. The typeface is Mank Sans medium and this was decided upon early on in the project, hence why it didn’t change throughout. This is not always how it turns out however. I usually choose a typeface which I feel suits the initial brief and present it with the initial concepts. In this case the client was pleased from the start with the font therefore yes, it was a corporate decision after it was presented but there was no pre-requisite font specified. I did experiment with variants to the “d” and “b” to mirror each other to see if this would add a different element but it was not striking enough to keep the changes. I hope this answers your question fully. Thanks.
David Pache, on May 3rd, 2009
An other great logo David. The mark does remind me of a berry popping with the seed flying out of it. The choice of colour and typeface are very complimentary to the overall design. I am a big fan of geometric logo design, and through my own work incorporate some of the techniques mentioned in your post. keep up the good work
Andy Griffiths, on May 7th, 2009
Wow, thank you for sharing this process - I am impressed and / just love your work. Would love to hire you for one of my current projects :)
Maui, on May 8th, 2009
I really enjoyed the article, many people are unaware of the thought processes and the time required to produce a thing of beauty. The logo (to me) looks like the seed of a cherry escaping from it’s skin ready to stand on its own and establish itself away from the tree.
The logo also incorporates a fresh, Light hearted feel with the marque looking like Pac-Man after a power pill. Love the logo David
David Buck, on May 12th, 2009
And that’s well done, David
Great job.
eMGie, on May 13th, 2009
Nicely done as always. I’m impressed as usual with your work.
Joshua Acai, on May 22nd, 2009
i’m stunned with your work and your process thinking, since i discover you few month ago. I think you really have what makes great designer, i’m so jealous :))
Lefty, on May 23rd, 2009
great stuff David.
nice type usage too.
Paul Ducco, on May 27th, 2009
Thank you for this article. I am a young/inexperienced designer who is presented with a similar challenge at this moment. This has shown me that even experienced designers get the “obvious choice” stuck in their head, and how to overcome that. Thanks!
Liz, on June 8th, 2009
Hi David,
what a great run-through, thanks so much. For a semi-professional designer like me a tutorial like this is priceless. I really like the way you describe all the steps involved in this project. The purple, blue and green colors you chose in the end are a nice finishing touch. Just make sure you don’t give away to much vital information to your competitors here.
Greetz,
Timo
Webdesigner, on June 12th, 2009
Hello David,
I just found your website and im thrilled that I did. I love you logos.
Its always interesting to see the logo process to understand the designer’s concepts while creating a logo.
I was particularly curious about calculating the mathematical elements of the symbol, I’ve never heard of that before and I don’t quite understand what you meant by that, would you be kind enough tell me about it?
Also, I was wondering what type did you use in that logo, its beautiful.
Take care :)
Fernanda Carvalho, on June 15th, 2009
I think that the thinking behind this logo is simple amazing…and the result shows how amazing this logo is. Kudos to you! great work!
Jesus, on June 15th, 2009
Excellent read, I always love to see how designers work and their process of thought
Liam, on June 22nd, 2009
Great work David, was very enjoyable to read :)
dimARTirosov, on June 26th, 2009
Cool!
flash-player, on July 7th, 2009
Pretty cool post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say
that I have really liked reading your blog posts. Anyway
I’ll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you post again soon!
LnddMiles, on July 23rd, 2009
Thank you to all of you for your positive feedback and I am glad that you enjoy the process. It was a fantastic project to take on.
Fernanda - the typography is Mank Sans medium. It works very well with the symbol and compliments the approachability of the overall brand. In terms of calculating, it is more about making every element of the logo proportionate to each other to give the geometrical correctness which is the easiest on the eye.
David Pache, on July 27th, 2009
Nice logos. I am trying to design logos. But i am facing some problems as i have just started design work.
Web Design Firm, on August 25th, 2009
There is a great logo design book I’m thinking of picking up but you offer some great free tips that are very helpful here.
Acai, on September 14th, 2009
Great to see how a logo or design gets developed - from a simple drawing and a few scratches on a sheet of paper to a 3-D design-object in the computer - great!
Vakuum, on September 26th, 2009
David, quick question for you-
So many of the clients you take have these wonderfully fantastic names full of imagery and suggestion. Have you ever had a client where the name was a huge block to inspiration? I know that you tend to approach your initial attempts at logos from a more conceptual understanding of what the company/organization and that a lot of that is based on your briefing with the client. Do you think then that the client’s own perception of the company/organization is just as vital to it’s “personality” as the name, logo or anythign else is?
Thanks. :)
Abi, on October 9th, 2009
This is probably the most interesting blog post I’ve read in a long time - thanks for sharing the process of designing a logo with us! I love your mathematical approach to designing logos - I don’t think I’ve used any of those tools since high school!
crumblepie, on December 10th, 2009