"It Looks Like Logibod To Me"

by Karl Sinfield
SINFIELD DOT ORG

The Making of the Logibod logo

If you value your sleep, don’t enter the shady world of corporate identity design. Contrary to popular belief, designing a logo isn’t the result of 5 minutes meditation, a jazz cigarette, and picking a font from a hat. Nor is it, as some design corporations would have you believe, the kind of mysterious sorcery that should only be attempted by the highest caste of Grand Design Wizards. It is however, the single most important piece of design for any organisation - being as it is normally the first impression your clients have of you - and so demands a great deal of hard work, requiring deep thought, responsibility and research. Not to mention lying awake at night moving shapes around in your head like an endless game of mental Tetris.

Stage one - Search and research

Normally for a corporate logo, the research comes first and is the most important part of the design process, as knowledge is the clay of a good identity. I’d visit the workplace, meet the staff, get an understanding of the processes and values, take photographs, and use this to create a “mood board” - a collage of everything about the company.

In this case, it wasn’t necessary. I had lived La Vida Logica for six years, for my sins. And, frankly, I’m not sure a photo of Colin and his computer would be especially helpful creatively (no offence Colin).

Stage two - A brainstorm in a coffee cup

Once you’re committed to designing a logo, that’s when the obsession begins. Part of creating a successful logo is the feeling that, when you reach the final version, that both the designer and the client feel that every avenue has been explored. Otherwise both parties will be left with a nagging feeling of “logo doubt” which inevitable necessitates an expensive redesign after a year.

No, good logos should have longevity, and that means knowing that you’ve got “the one”. But finding that one is a journey that requires the designer to be able to read the mind (and personal taste) of his client. How do you establish a direction from the infinite possibilities that arise from the blank sheet of paper?

The best way to achieve this is to try to cast a wide net with the first set of designs, and see which fish we catch. After throwing the tiddlers, the boots, and the sea cucumbers away, we should be left with a decent assortment of fruits-de-mer from which to assemble a tasty platter. That’s enough of that analogy, I think.

As I saw it, these were the main themes:

• IT/technical innovation (emphasising the technical nature of Logica’s business)
• people (emphasising the ex-staff and/or their changing lives)
• transition (from being a Logica employee, to something else)
• connections/networking (the purpose of the site)

Fairly early on, I thought the use of a byline would be important; it’s often useful to consider in a logo design just from a visual perspective, in case one is needed later. “Life after Logica” sprung to mind, so I used it on the initial designs. Another common theme of all designs was to make the "logi" and the "bod" somehow distinct from one another.

It's hard to quantify the number of different "attempts" (you can't call them designs at this rough stage) I made at this stage - probably in the hundreds. About 12 were selected to show to the Logibod team. Here's a selection of the product of these initial labours.

1-1		Here the idea was to show the multiple directions that the ex-staff have taken, and to suggest the idea of everyone still being connected. Although visually dynamic, this was thought to be a little bland.
1-2		Here a friendly face was made from the L and the B. This was popular, but I had misgivings about the use of the grey, and the similarity to the LG Electronics logo. Also, some users mistook the "B" in the face as a 3.
1-3		This was one of the designs that dispensed with the "mark" (the purely graphic element of the logo), and incorporated the concept into the font itself. Here the dot of the eye merges into the "b" of "bod", suggesting transition and connection at the same time. The simplicity of this approach proved popular with reviewers.
1-4		A face again, this time incorporated into the text of the logo. This was also popular, even at such a sketchy stage, but ultimately it was a little too contrived an idea.
1-5		A letter "l" and "b" stylised to portray two people, sat at a desk. Although a harmonius image in itself, this was too much of a struggle to reconcile recognisable letterforms with a coherent meaning.

OK, so we didn't get it right first time. No need to sack the designer yet, though; this was an exercise in testing the water with some simple, sketchy designs. And the feedback from the Logibod review team allowed me to roll up my sleeves and do some real designing.

Stage three - Refine, refine, refine: the obsession takes hold

Often logotypes are only as good as the clients allow them to be. In this case, the Logibod team turned out to be an articulate bunch, and achieved the perfect balance of constructive criticism and artistic license. Colin, however, made my job extra difficult by insisting that I have my say in the final design; a nice thought, but for a designer, extra pressure and lots of potential for self-torment!

This stage is in practice much like the first stage, and although some elements of the initial designs may be used, they are more usefully drawn on as the source for new ideas. A great deal of pen-paper sketching goes on; especially while travelling and during sleepless nights. I normally use a thick waterbased marker on cartridge paper as I can achieve large solid areas, crisp outlines, and variation of stroke size.

Once again, dozens more attempts were made, around ten were given a thorough design treatment, and from these, six were chosen to show to the Logibod team. Here are the most interesting results of this stage:

2-1		The face ideas of 1-2 and 1-4 were taken forward here, to a more structural approach, with a touch of humour in the mischevous smile. The addition of the "B" to look like a technician's glasses was another element. However, the general feeling was that this approach was too rigid.
2-2		Sometimes completely new ideas come out of the refinement of others, and although partially outside the process, these should never be discounted. This is one of those. It was positively received, but possibly a little sterile for everyone.
2-3		Similar to 2-1, this uses the typography of 1-3, but using the face element as a seperate mark. The advantage of having a mark is that when a brand is being established, the mark can be used on its own to create mystery around its meaning, and involve viewers by creating a visual puzzle that especially left-brain-dominant people are drawn into attempting to decipher, followed by the satisfaction when the association is revealed. Also, when the brand is established, the mark can be used as a shorthand way of referring to the product, and also create a strong social in-group of people who become allied in their secret understanding.
2-4		This is another "face" implementation, once again using the "l" and the "b", this time in a more free and playful way. Also, a new typographical solution, partly inspired by the connecting theme of 1-3, and partly a way of suggesting the circles from which the Logica logo is constructed, without directly referencing the Logica logo itself. The construction of the letters (built from scratch, using primitive circles and lines) and the positioning of the byline was crude at this stage... but maybe there was something in it...

Stage four - Client epiphany = almost there

The achievement arising from Stage 3 seemed to be 2-4. It was generally agreed (by me too!) that the typographical treatment had something going for it. Aaahhh, consensus, my favourite word. Colin then moved everything forward with a great idea:

Genius. A lesson to all designers: be open to your clients' ideas. They should be on the ride with you, not watching as you have all the fun!

I took this away and tried to apply some finesse to 2-1. While I was toiling away at this, Logica merged with CMG, a company whose logo included a dark blue colour. This shade duly appeared on the Logibod site, keen as the team were to included our new friends in any future networking requirements. And I duly applied this to the logo - thank goodness the CMG corporate colour wasn't bright pink!

So here were my thoughts:

3-1		My first thought was to add the arrow and make the whole thing more curvaceous and organic. Remember: the site is about people. So we had the concept of a transition from "logi" to "bod" (the colour reinforcing that) and moving onwards to a non-specific (though undoubtedly brilliant!) future.
3-2		I wanted to push myself, and try and add more layers to the logo, and try to get a suggestion of networking/community. Thus addition of "nodes". On reflection, they do look more like toes...
3-3		The idea here was to suggest a caterpillar/millipede, with many feet (ie. the many staff of Logica) becoming stripped away and purified as a result of leaving. This was probably an analogy too far.
3-4		Here the community idea gave rise to more of a cloud of spores, inspired by and incorporating the dot of the "i".

Strong positive vibes were forthcoming for 3-1 and 3-4, and equally negative ones for 3-2 and 3-3. I had to agree. At this stage I decided to perform a small user test with some of my respected peers in the online design community, to get a design-based appraisal. The resounding opinion was that the simplicity and readability of 3-1 was best, and that the "spore" approach of 3-4 had too many negative connotations of fungus and disease, as well as suffering from legibility.

Stage five - This is Getting Silly: Time to dot the i

I was keen to involve the disembodied "i"-dot somehow, as the the Logibod review panel had showed such satisfaction in it's incorporation in 3-4. But it needed a simpler solution. Or maybe just a more balanced one. Or maybe something completely different?

No!

Don't give way to those demons. It's very tempting to give up on an apparently winning idea, purely for the thrill of returning to Stage 1 for a while. But that way madness lies. When the end is in sight, you must drive for it all the harder.

I felt I there were two choices, beyond accepting 3-1 as the final design:

• work with 3-4 some more, to try and take it to some kind of full-blooded implementation
• try and find a simpler way of expressing the idea of 3-4, without losing totally the essential simplicity of 3-1

I suspected the latter would be the best course, but I couldn't resist trying the former first. Here's what resulted:

4-1

The idea was to conjur up the idea of a cloud, transforming in colour. White (or rather yellow) space was increased between the dots and the lettering to improve legibility.

And finally:

4-2

Here the idea of "moving on" is reinforced with a "bouncing ball" motif. The balls can also be interpreted as eyebrows, with the circles as eyes. It seems so simple. What was all the fuss about?

I'm joking, of course.

Stage six - Issues of Implementation

Currently the Logibod legal eagles are confirming that the mention of Logica in the tagline does not contravene any copyright laws. In the meantime, we are going to go with the less snappy, but more generic:

5-1

We considered leaving the tagline blank, but as is the case in 99% of designs, simply removing an element renders the whole thing meaningless. Also, it lost some dynamism without the supporting text.

Some of my other suggestions for a tagline were "We're Futureproof", "Free at Last" and "Embracing Change".

And that's all she wrote. As soon as I've finished writing this, I'll be delivering the ultimate version for use on the website. I'll also work on a polished EPS file for printing use (if that is ever necessay) and a version which can be used on a white background. And then any I'll be available to advise on future issues of identity, if the Logibod team have any sense...

All in all the process has taken about three months (part time for all parties), involving around six review stages. As logo designs go, this is fairly standard. It would have been possible to at least halve that for a full time job, however, but in a process where one person's inspiration and expertise is trying to satisfy several people's personal taste, the process is theoretically open-ended. A good designer (ie. a good communicator) should, however be able to home in on a successful solution for what is the most important, longest lasting, and most valuable piece of design a company ever commissions.

Karl Sinfield
SINFIELD DOT ORG

About the author: Karl Sinfield is an experienced graphic designer who started a full-time freelance business, SINFIELD DOT ORG, when he left Logica in 2001. He is now a consultant in identity, web interface design, and graphic design for the IT and entertainment sector, as well as designing all types of things including corporate identities, film campaigns and books.