The Tribune

By Deidre Bastian

Are all graphic designers, Logo Designers? If you are a graphic designer, does that mean you are automatically a logo designer as well? I will start off by saying that the answer to that question is an emphatic ‘no’! Now, before you start screaming at your monitor, let’s examine how the outside world defines a graphic designer.

According to Wikipedia, a graphic designer is: “A professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design.”

This is an incredibly broad assessment, and therefore can be misinterpreted to mean that you can do all things through mistakes that strengthen you. The fact is that there are a multitude of fields under the ‘catch all’ umbrella of graphic design, such as: Print designers, package designers, web designers, icon designers, interface designers, logo designers and on and on.

I will start by saying that in simply calling ourselves graphic designers, we are not, by default, experts in any or all of these fields. And though the general public may not understand, we, the “professionals”, must accept there are vast differences between each of these fields.

They are not readily interchangeable like our favourite hat collection: Each has its individual set of guidelines, history and mythology. Truthfully, I love designing logos, but I am not a logo designer even though I create captivating ones.

This may seem like a strict definition, but I believe logo designers are persons who dedicate themselves to mastering that field above all others. Now here are a few tips and guidelines that have helped me along the way.

Study, learn and repeat the process: Do you need a degree to be a logo designer? There is adequate discourse online covering this topic much more eloquently than I can. But, whether you have formal training or not, you must always be a student of your craft (even when you are a self-described master). For example, if you do not know the difference between serif and sans serif, or logo mark and logo type, you probably want to hit the local book store or subscribe to any of the great blogs dedicated to logo design and start reading.

It really isn’t enough to put an icon with some text around an image and proudly call it a ‘logo’. Every single nuance of the final art must have a role to play in the whole. And, before you can understand that role, you have to know the terminology at the least.

This may seem daunting, but here are a few books pertinent to becoming a logo designer that might be of interest: ‘Typeface: Classic Typography for Contemporary Design’ by Tamye Riggs; ‘Classic Fonts for the Digital Age’ by Steven Heller & Gail Anderson; ‘Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities’ by David Airey; ‘Designing Logos: The Process of Creating Symbols That Endure’ by Jack Gernsheimer; and ‘Thinking A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers , Editors, & Students’ by Ellen Lupton

But be careful, as before you know it, you will have your own personal library, which can be addictive So know when to say no if you find yourself spending your entire day with Amazon.com

Logo design tutorials will hold you back: Don’t get me wrong, I love tutorials. In fact, the tutorials you find online, or in books and in magazines, are excellent learning tools for getting the hang of a specific application. But, in my opinion, what you will not glean from a tutorial is the process to create a successful logo for a client, based on needs, audience and/or their company/product.

For me, a better source of logo design education is reading about the process behind a particular logo that was developed by a certain designer. For example, the design brief, and researching the ‘why’ behind a logo and not necessarily the ‘how’. Why was that particular symbol used? Why that particular typography or colour palette?

This shared knowledge will have a more positive impact on your growth as a logo designer than any particular tutorial.

Photoshop and logo design: This one happens to be my personal pet peeve. A common mistake made by untrained logo designers is the use of Adobe Photoshop to create a logo design. Logos should never be designed in Photoshop. Sorry designers, but under no circumstances should you ever design a logo using a raster-based application like Photoshop. There is no wiggle room.

Logos are vector-based artwork and are meant to be resolution independent. Using Photoshop, you are predetermining the resolution of your document and locking that resolution in for eternity. If you deliver a logo in Photoshop that is 300px x 200px at 72dpi, to a customer, then that logo will always remain in that dimension and resolution, and clients will not be able to upscale the design.

So back to the question. Just because you can lay out a beautiful web page, does this mean you can design an effective logo? It is my opinion that, if you are to be successful at any craft, you probably want to become the master of that domain. I find that being a jack of all trades usually means you might just be a master of none. Until we meet again, fill your life with memories rather than regrets. Enjoy life and stay on top of your game.

• NB: Columnist welcomes feedback at deedee21bastian@gmail.com

ABOUT COLUMNIST: Ms Bastian is a trained graphic designer who has qualifications of M.Sc., B.Sc., A.Sc. She has trained at institutions such as Miami Lakes Technical Centre, Success Training College, College of the Bahamas, Nova Southeastern University, Learning Tree International, Langevine International and Synergy Bahamas.