It may not be obvious from contemplating some brands and their logos, but coming to a simple, elegant design solution that communicates a brand's position with clarity, is often the result of a long thought-process.
The process begins by honing on a clear brand message: its key points, its differentiation from the competition, its value proposition to the user. Hopefully, these are in place before the brand is further defined via a logo and other marketing collateral; if they are not, then the company should back track and make, as a minimum, a simplified marketing plan to identify these.
In a logo design process, these marketing propositions lead the visual explorations that eventually get distilled into what is hopefully the clearest message.
These thirteen sketch pages are a great illustration of the logo design process as applied to Offsetters, a carbon-offsetting group.
Credits:
Creative director: Ian Grais/Chris Staples
Agency: Rethink
Designer: Nancy Wu