At some point in a designer’s career, they are
bound to hit a road block where the process of brainstorming new logo design ideas,
thoughts and concepts will become difficult or non-existent. There is no
universal fix for this problem; however, with time and experience, a designer
will learn where to seek inspiration from which shall reduce the probability of
this halt from occurring again in the future.
Supposing
a new client has handed over a task to you and provided a general brief and you’re
just sitting at your desk waiting for the perfect logo design idea to strike.
But in reality, do you really think that the perfect logo, in its full form,
will just pop up in your head? Believe me, this could be a long long wait!
At this point in time,
your primary task should be to seek inspiration which should generate new ideas
in your brain and gradually, coalesce, into the fully formed logo you were
looking for. The problem here? Knowing where to seek inspiration from. It’s a
part of human nature to enter in a slump where productivity and creativity just
disappears, but to get the creative juices back up and running in full flow,
one has to inspire themselves so they could generate new logo design ideas in
no time.
Seeking
inspiration can be a troublesome activity as you would not know which avenue to
turn to. The first thought among most individuals would be to look up the work
of other designers. This is the most obvious approach. However, you have to be
very careful between ‘being inspired from’ or ‘copying others’. In addition,
Eric Karjaluoto, in his book ‘The Design Method’ explains that ‘the issue with
seeking inspiration is that it’s very random, which may lead you to focus your
hope on outside influences one can’t rely on; these stimuli aren’t always
relevant to your work at hand, available on tap or under your control. Thinking
one can find logo design ideas elsewhere will leave an individual browsing through
the web and flipping through magazines, in hope, that you will suddenly stumble
upon a magic cure’.
Below are a few
suggestions of avenues from where you might seek inspiration for your logo
design ideas, but remember, this is not a permanent fix, as inspiration can be
drawn from anything, anywhere.
- Continue Doodling: Don’t cut off your conscious mind, let your ideas flow, anything that you can put on paper. At the end of the day, you will have a page of pointless scribbling, however, within that disjointed mess; you might just find an idea which ignites the spark of inspiration. After all, a little bit of doodling caused no one any harm.
·
- Research Online Material: If you are a professional logo designer, you would already have all the leading logo design websites bookmarked on your browser. But, in a situation where you are lacking in terms of logo design ideas, you might want to refine your search criteria and look for narrowed results pertaining to the inspiration or ideas you are looking for.
- Study Your Client: Instead of wasting your time and energy, you would be better off studying your client and tracking their growth to pick up on hints and ideas. This might ease the brainstorming process by giving you suggestions based on your client’s previous logo designs.
- Speak to a friend or a colleague: With an exhausted mind, there is nothing better than a fresh brain and a pair of eyes. Go meet a friend or a colleague and take your ideas with you. This should be someone who has no connection to the project you are working on. Often, someone’s untainted opinion can become your lucky charm. Let your friend have your back!
In your
opinion, you may disagree, but seeking inspiration in the context of stumbling
upon a magic cure is a waste of effort and time. The sole purpose of seeking
inspiration should be to fuel the source of brainstorming logo design ideas
rather than looking for a quick fix.
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