Do you have anything in mauve?

Posted by on Jan 4, 2016 in BlogBog, Logo Design, Typography, Work du jour

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So I decided to slow down your device by posting a ton of logo-whoo-hoo!

I had some time off last and worked (what’s wrong with this phrase?) a bit on an event logo I’ve been asked to create. I chose this project because it poses some issues, which I will discuss. It also can be interpreted in a spectrum of way.

One of the workflow elements I usually insist clients supply is a creative brief. If you’ve never used one, the brief is a document to which the client and the designer contribute. It includes the scope of the project, any ideas resulting from meetings or communications, and most importantly, a strategy or branding statement. The creative brief serves as road map to the project. It requires the client to make decisions about the direction of the project.

I often rely on the actual words of the client to determine how a project should look. All hail the descriptive adjective! There are so many details I can glean from the client’s language. For instance, certain words might trigger a certain design concept, if the client says classic, traditional or upscale, there are certain ideas that come to mind. I might start with a an historically accurate older typeface, I might try something balanced, as opposed to asymmetrical.

But of course, some words tell the designer nothing. Elegant, is one of those non-descriptive descriptions. I have no idea what elegant looks like as it changes constantly. It’s like asking a designer to create a logo in shades of mauve. Mauve is the MilliVanilli of the printable spectrum.

So this leads me to my slow-loading page. I decided to put myself out there and show want can happen when  a creative brief isn’t supplied: myriad-bedlam-misdirection-mess. That’s not to say these logos can’t work, but I would have done far fewer had I been given a selling proposition or branding statement. Let this be a lesson to you, don’t dive into logo quicksand, make the client supply a brief that you can amend and have all parties sign off.

And NEVER accept mauve as a design strategy.

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