How to plan a logo design project—from start to finish

You’ll find the board to create your brief on the Logo Design Plan board. Double-click the Brief to open it and start adding the goals, concept and defining the audience.

Write out the tone or personality you want the logo to reflect. Should it be modern or classic? Formal or playful? Loud or minimal? Young or mature? These simple style choices can help steer designers in the right direction to creating a logo that accurately reflects the organization.

What are the specific outputs your client requires? Their logo will likely be displayed in a variety of places, from business cards, to websites, packaging, clothing and more. Clearly describe how the logo will be used. This will help you create a logo that works in all environments—something that's easy to read at a small size but also looks amazing scaled up on the side of a building.

This is where you describe a specific type of audience and detail what’s important to them. What brands do they love? What's their current relationship with the product or service? What design styles best are they drawn to? Answering these questions will enable your team to think about the project from the perspective of your audience and design something that grabs their attention.

Once you’ve made any final tweaks, it’s time to share the completed brief with your team or client, organize a kickoff meeting, and get started. If you want to learn more about writing a logo design brief, check out our in-depth Logo Design Brief guide.

You’ll find this board on your Logo Design Plan board. Double-click the Brand Positioning to open it and start mapping out your competitors.

Start by adding the logos or names of the other companies in your market. Then define which part of the market you'd like to own. You'll start to uncover ways you can differentiate yourself. If you're designing a new logo for your company, this will let you see which styles, colors and fonts your competitors use and ensure that you visually standout from the pack.

You’ll find the board for brainstorming on your Logo Design Plan board. Double-click the Ideas board to open it and start brainstorming.

What's the brand or company you're designing a logo for? Add a short note that describes the project so everyone can reference it as you're generating ideas. It might be a simple description of the brand, its values or personality.

Now it's time to get creative. Start adding any ideas that relate to the brand. Think about how you'd like to use color, the shapes or symbols the could reflect the company, and the overall style you're trying to achieve.

Don't worry about evaluating your ideas yet, that will come later. Just add as many as you can. Setting a timer for 5 minutes is a great way to create a sense of urgency and prevent people from judging their thoughts.

Designers often sketch 20+ possible ideas for the logo before picking a few directions. This is your opportunity to go wild. Explore different letterforms and symbols that could work. Is there a shape that communicates the product or service your client provides?

Once you've selected the strongest ideas, it's time to sort them into groups and connect the dots. This allows you to uncover patterns or similarities in your thinking. Add a title that describes each group of ideas. When you've finished grouping, you're left with the key themes that will guide your project.

Now that your brainstorming session is complete you have some exciting new directions to explore for your logo design. Remember, creativity and inspiration are constantly evolving. Come back and add to the brainstorm when inspiration strikes.

You’ll find the board to make your moodboard on the Logo Design Plan board. Double-click on the Moodboard to open it and start adding your inspiration.

Start by adding any existing material you have—this could include client references, positioning statements or images you've saved as inspiration. Just drag them onto your board. They might not make it into the final moodboard, but they're still a great place to start.

The imagery you choose to include in your moodboard can have big influence on the look and feel of your project, so choose carefully! These images can define things like tone, cropping and color.

If you're the type of person who keeps a collection of images in an inspiration library, now's the time to see if you've already got something that could work. Or you can start by searching for visual elements from around the web. There are lots of fantastic sites where you can find great visual inspiration for free, like Dribbble, Behance and Designspiration.

Once you have all your inspiration and color references in one place, the next step is to arrange your ideas to create the perfect composition. Start by exploring composition and introducing hierarchy. Place a key element such as a logo to anchor your board, and change the size and position of the remaining elements to indicate their importance and relationships to one another.

Now that your moodboard is complete, you have a powerful starting point for your logo design project. Remember, you can create multiple moodboards to explore different visual directions.

Next, we'll jump ahead and prepare a place to present the logo design concepts.

You’ll find the empty Concepts board on the Logo Design Plan board. Double-click to open it and start adding the organizing your presentation.

Start by uploading the concepts you've designed so you can share them with your team or client. Provide a few examples of the logo in different environments. E.g. If it's a logo for a clothing brand, show how the logo will looks on its own, on store signage and on packaging or wrapping paper.

Next, include some written notes about each concept. This will help explain your ideas and keep everything in context. Refer to the client's goals you set earlier in the Logo Brief and the visual direction from the Moodboard to communicate the path to this point. Try to provide reasons why these concepts will provide the perfect visual brand for the client's company. Explain how they embody the brand personality and why they'll appeal to the target audience.

Ensure that everyone involved agrees on the concept direction before you start finalizing the logo artwork. Try to keep the conversation focused on the strategy behind the logo rather than discussing just the visual aspects. Consider how the logo addresses the goals, audience and requirements. Lastly, make sure you stay open to suggestions and improvements and try not to take criticism personally.

Hopefully, this guide has helped you become more organized during your logo design project. If you're just starting a new project, use the Logo Design Plan template below to get set up in minutes.