- Before I determine whether the brand message requires
a wordmark, monogram, icon or combination of these,
I revisit the brand's defining attributes.
These are the five to eight words
that my client and I agreed on
in the research and strategy phase.
Now that I've reminded myself what I'm communicating,
I won't just be thrashing around trying anything.
I may think I know what the solution is,
but before I commit to one,
I need to explore many variations
of a monogram, wordmark, and icon.
I start with a wordmark.
Regardless of the final choice, at some point,
I will need to see the brand's name with or without an icon.
Letter forms work together in surprising ways.
What sounds good when spoken may look awful visually.
There are too many variables with a shape of letters
to the way they combine.
I need to try different fonts and arrangements.
I begin the letter form and typeface exploration
in Adobe Illustrator.
I set up at least 10 landscape format 11 by 17 pages.
This reminds me to keep working
and trying different approaches.
It's funny, but we all tend to fill up
as many pages as we have.
If I only have one, I may stop too early.
Next, I type in the name in any typeface.
I duplicate this roughly five across and eight down.
I should now have the brand name 40 times on the page,
and I repeat this on a second page.
Now this isn't wildly creative and may seem too simple,
but I work my way down my fonts,
trying each name in a different typeface.
Some may look awful and some even worse,
but surprising things can happen.
And right now isn't the time to stop and edit.
Fill up a couple of pages
and try typefaces you know will work well
and some that might be completely crazy.
You're not married to anything.
It's just an exploration,
and you're the only one seeing it at this point.
Next, even simpler, duplicate the pages you've just created,
and now change the case to all caps.
Things can change dramatically,
and the typeface that looked great in upper and lower case
is awful in caps and vice-versa.
You now have 160 typographic explorations of the brand name.
These are by no means close to final.
They're their first rough draft of a longer process.
Go back and look at the defining attributes.
Based on these, choose one or two
that best align with these from each page.
Put all of these on a new page.
You've refined the selection down to six options.
Take these six options and play with the arrangement
if the brand has a name with more than one word.
Try it stacked, horizontally.
Change the scale of the words.
Add any other info if it's part of the name.
Often when I do this,
I find interesting interlocking options.
From these options, select your favorite three.
Drop one on each page so they are big and clear.
Since a wordmark that is simply typeset isn't proprietary,
it's time to go in and start modifying the letter forms.
This is the first pass at this,
so don't get caught up in every serif or curve.
That's a rabbit hole one goes down
and spends hours refining.
You can refine once a direction is chosen.
Work with each version until you reach a point
that is strong and matches the brand attributes.
Congratulations, you've completed an exhaustive study
of typographic forms,
explored combinations and composition,
and modified the letter forms to be proprietary.
This is no longer just a name;
this is an icon of a name.
Some designers choose to keep these explorations private
and show the client only the final three or so choices.
I like to show all of it.
Invariably, someone will ask,
"But did you try it in all capital letters?"
or, "How about using a serif typeface?"
And the answer is, "Yes.
See? It's right here."