Birth of a Logo, Part 1 of 3

I'm sure a lot of new business owners and armchair capitalists have had moments of sticker shock when they contact a professional about creating a custom logo.
After all, logos are simple and clean and small, and don't require a lot of colors or words. So, why is it so expensive to have one made?

Well, if you really think about it, the simplest things are the hardest to make.
Sure, I can come up with a range of colors that work for your company. I can search the internet for different photographs and decorations that complement your business. I can even suggest shapes and fonts really quickly. A good writer can easily brainstorm a list of words and phrases that would fit well with a company's philosophy or mission statement.

But a logo is just one image, with (probably) just one font, and just a few colors.
So, how do I begin to boil down an entire company – including its image, its philosophy, its attitude, its mission – into one thing?

Sounds daunting. It is.
Because every logo designer is really being asked to create a visual representation of a company's brand within a single, simple image.

First, I have to understand the company. What it is, where it will be, how it operates, who its customer is, what words it speaks, who its competitors are, and how it can be the best company possible. As heavy as this sounds, the good designer must comprehend it all, and then start translating that comprehension into visual components.

Everyone starts differently. Even my method can vary from project to project.
Maybe I will sketch or doodle or do internet searches or pinterest dives or revisitations of favorite design publications, just to get my brain going at full speed, and to see every possible thing there is. Some ideas stick to the wall, but most will be flung away.

Then I pick a few ideas and fully explore them. I've made hundreds of hideous and embarrassing sketches during this process, both on paper, and using a program like Illustrator or Photoshop. While ideas start with the grandest of intentions, most quickly turn to crap.

"That negative space between these two letters can't be made to look like a bird!"
"Why did I think a bridge viewed from below could look like the letter R?"
"I'm trying to make an icon for heat, and it keeps looking like freaking bacon!"

Here are some ugly failures that began my quest to create a logo for the New Hampshire Seacoast Area Libraries.

I'll show you in part two how these sketches ended up helping me, because I had my brain fully open to a lot of different possibilities.