- Now, starting a design project with a good design brief
is really important, because it should give us
a lot of understanding and clarity on the project context
and the design challenge we need to overcome.
However, it is common that a design brief
will not always answer every single question
and give us the answers to everything we need to know.
Typically, a design brief will
set the direction of a project,
which sometimes requires a little more research
in order to fully understand everything
so we as designers can be best prepared and informed
to do a great job and deliver
an appropriate design solution.
When it comes to logo design,
the more we know about the company or product
we are designing for, the easier it will be
to discover and generate ideas to base our logo design on
later in the process.
In the last video, we looked at a technique
to get ideas from a brief and plan for the next step
in the design process.
In this video, we are going to undertake
some project research to learn more about
the subject matter of the project,
to get more insight to increase our chances
of coming up with some cool ideas for our logo design
in the next brainstorming step.
So let's get into it.
(mellow dance music)
So here I am with my design process checklist.
Once adequate time has been spent
on reviewing the design brief,
and we have checked each task,
we can now move into step two in phase one.
So the second step in the discovery phase
is project research.
The purpose of this step is really important.
Once you have reviewed and summarized the brief
and are confident you understand the full requirements,
it's wise to undertake some project research.
At this stage, you are still holding off
starting the process of generating creative solutions.
Here we want to spend just a little time to know more.
In the next step, we will be undertaking brainstorming
to try and identify some concept ideas
we can explore creatively.
To do a good job on that,
we will want to gather as much intelligence
and information about the subject matter as we can
to inspire thinking in the brainstorming session.
In this step, we want to look into all the points
we listed previously in our research direction,
and learn more about the project subject matter in general,
and the competition, if necessary.
It's during this time you will be looking to learn
and gain inspiration from insights
you'll discover along the way
and take into the brainstorming session.
So to undertake project research for my logo design
involves three tasks.
Task one, definition and synonyms.
Task two, learn more about the nature
of the product or business,
and task three, competitor research.
So looking back at my brief summary document,
on the last two pages, we have our research direction.
If you want to follow along,
you can get my brief summary document
from the course folder.
The course folder comes with my complete
logo design solution I will be demonstrating on this course,
including all my design example files
and documents at each step to aid your learning experience.
The folder also comes with design resources,
such as a logo design process checklist,
process documents and templates,
the project folder structure, color sample charts,
and a logo proposal document example,
all of which you can not only learn from,
but use in your own design process.
To get the full learning experience
and use the resources to help develop your own logo project,
I recommend you get the course folder.
Download link with instructions is in the description.
So with the course folder open,
click into the design process example folder.
Click into folder one, Learn and Discovery,
into folder three, Brief Summary,
and click on the Illustrator document labeled
Example Project Brief Summary.
And you'll have the same document I have open here.
Now, when designing for logos,
there are two really good places to look for ideas.
One, in the name,
and two, in the nature of the product or business.
Now, when researching for logo design,
it's really good to study the name and the nature
of the product or business, because to understand this
will hopefully lead us to come up with some ideas
for a potential logo design.
So let's begin with the first task.
One, definition and synonyms.
So the first thing on my list here is, what is euphoria?
Now, when designing for a company or product,
there will always be a name or word
that the logo will need to represent visually.
In this instance, the festival we are designing for
is called Euphoria.
Now, Euphoria as a name is quite broad.
Does not suggest an immediate idea
and can be interpreted in a variety of ways.
In cases like this,
when undertaking project research for logos,
I like to begin by looking up the definition of the name
or word and any synonyms.
I use this technique to better understand a name or word
and unpack meaning, as this helps consider
alternative ways of interpretation.
To do this, I like to use Wikipedia and a thesaurus.
So here I'm looking on a Wikipedia page
to learn more about euphoria,
where I can get a clear definition.
And next I'm looking on a thesaurus website
at the word euphoria,
where I can see a range of alternative words and meanings.
So with the definition and some synonyms,
I'll pop them into my project research document.
So here I am back in Illustrator
in a document I like to use.
So with the course folder open,
click into the Design Process Example folder,
click into folder one, Learn and Discovery,
and to folder four, Project Research,
into folder one, Definition and Synonyms,
and click on the Illustrator doc labeled
Example Definition and Synonyms.
And you'll have the same document I have open here.
Here you can see I have a definition,
and on the right I have some synonyms
to help give me a good understanding and some more ideas.
This technique really helps me understand
what I'm designing for and unpack some meaning
to get a better insight.
If you want to use this template yourself in your process,
you can find it in your project folder.
So with your new project folder open,
click into folder one, Learn and Discovery,
into folder four, Project Research,
into folder one, Definition and Synonyms,
and click on the Illustrator doc labeled
Definition and Synonyms.
And you will have a template document
you can use in your process to simply fill in the blanks.
So that covers some research into the name
of the product or business we are designing for.
Once I have done enough research into the name,
I can move onto the next task.
Two, learn more about the nature
of the product, company, or business.
So next on my list of research is details of dance music,
listen to dance music, to get the feel for it.
Dance music festivals, dance music festival venues,
and festival websites.
Next, I'm going to do some broader research
to gain some further insight into the nature
of the product, company, or business.
Now, the product we are designing for
is all about dance music.
So here, I'm going to look a little bit
into the history of dance music,
the nature of dance music,
and I'll even listen to some dance music
to get a good feel for it.
And I'm going to learn more about
festivals, venues, and look at some websites
to learn more and potentially uncover anything of interest.
Now, when learning more about a product or company,
you can either undertake field research,
where you can get outdoors, visit places of interest
to experience the product or business,
or visit libraries to discover more.
Or you can undertake desk research,
where you can browse the internet or look at any documents
that were provided to you at the start of the project.
Just keep in mind to do whatever you have time for
and whatever works best for you.
So here are some sheets of information
I have gathered from the internet
to learn more about dance music.
To do this, I simply copied and pasted the text
from source material online and pasted it
into a text document for clarity.
If you were to take a closer look at this,
you can find them in the Downloadable Course folder.
So with the course folder open,
click into the Design Process Example folder,
click into folder one, Learn and Discovery,
into folder four, Project Research,
into the second folder, Research Docs,
and click on the Dance Music Research PDF.
And you will have the same document I have open here.
So here I have printed off the sheets.
And like I did with the design brief,
I have highlighted some of the things I found interesting.
In this instance, I have pulled out
a few interesting things about dance music
that are distinct, which would easily help me
with my ideas process.
If you want to take a look at my highlighted document,
you can find it in the Downloadable Course folder.
So with the course folder open,
click into the Design Process Example folder,
click into folder one, Learn and Discovery,
into folder four, Project Research,
into the second folder, Research Docs,
and click on the Music Research Review PDF,
and you will have the same document I have open here.
So once I have done enough research into the name
and learnt more about the nature of the business or product,
I can move onto the next task.
Three, competitor research.
So reflecting back on my brief summary doc
for competitor research,
I also wanted to look at the following.
Other dance music festivals,
logos for other dance music festivals,
logos for music festivals in general,
dance music festival websites
and how they've presented themselves,
what language and tone do they use,
and how do they market and promote on social media?
For logo design specifically,
it will be important to look at competitor logos
for other dance music festivals,
and logos for music festivals in general.
Competitor research is an important learning experience
to see how others have approached the same task.
The last thing we want to do is execute a design
only to find a competitor has done something similar.
So before embarking on a creative solution,
you will want to see the landscape of a given context
to observe current traits.
This will put us in a better position
to create something that is more original,
fresh, and unique for our client.
So for competitor research, I have the following research.
Here I have an Illustrator document open
with some logos I have researched.
So with the course folder open,
click into the Design Process Example folder,
click into folder one, Learn and Discovery,
into folder four, Project Research,
into the competitor research folder,
and click on the Example Competitor Logos document,
and you will have the same document I have open here.
So on the left, I have some dance music festival logos
and on the right, I have some general music festival logos.
Looking at the dance festival logos on the left,
we can see we have a variety of logos
with a variety of styles, some simple to more complex.
Now, one of the obvious standouts here
is the predominant type that features
in almost all of the logos.
They are all quite bold typographically,
with lots including a visual logo market element.
Also, there is no particular prominent style.
We have a bit of an eclectic mix of styles
with a variety of colors here.
Looking over on the right
at the more general music festival logos,
we can see more of the same.
Bold, unique type with some including logo marks.
So some key observations here,
combination marks seem to be quite a popular occurrence,
lots of bold bespoke type treatments,
lots of dynamic personality,
and no obvious style or trend to avoid.
So my conclusion here is there is
a lot of freedom and flexibility
to create something unique that could really stand out.
Awesome.
So during the design process,
we will be able to reflect back on these competitor logos.
Though remember, we are not looking to plagiarize.
We are only looking to learn
so we can build, improve, or even innovate.
So with my found research,
I can either keep it on my computer to come back to later,
or I can print it out to place onto my project wall.
With my Illustrator docs complete,
I'll come up to File, Save As.
I'll change the format to PDF.
Then I'll navigate into my project folder,
and into the top folder project wall,
I'll click into the first folder, Learn and Discovery,
and save them inside as PDF docs.
Now, I love printing out some of my key research
and placing it onto my project wall.
I find it makes it much easier to glance at
during my design process to keep me focused.
Now, some of my research, however,
may be just printed sheets and documents.
So whatever I don't put up on my project wall,
I will print out and place into my physical project folder,
which I can refer back to easily in the future.
(mellow dance music)
Now, in this video, I demonstrated my process
to undertake project research,
to learn more about the product or company.
Now, you are welcome to follow along with me and my example,
but if you're following along with this course
and looking to undertake your own process as an exercise,
I would recommend doing this now.
So if you're following along and want to practice,
take a pause, and carry out your process.
Before moving on, have a go at undertaking your own research
to learn more about the product you are designing for
and do some research to discover competitor logos.
You may find some different information and examples
to what I have found.
Remember, you can use my templates,
which you can find in the project folder.
Once you have undertaken your own project research,
let's continue.
Now, it's important to mention that project research
does not necessarily end there.
Project research will be an ongoing part
of the design process as we develop our work
and come up with more questions that will need answering.
However, at this point, what I have here
is some really good information and I have gained
some valuable intelligence I did not know before.
This is why a little project research
before jumping straight into the ideas generating process
is so good.
We can't know everything about everything.
Sometimes we do need to take some time
to learn about the subject we are designing for
so we can develop better informed, meaningful solutions.
The ability to seek out information
is a quality that makes a good designer.
Now, this can be a little tedious
and some may think it's a bit boring,
but ultimately it will make your design so much better
because you will be able to discover and identify
much stronger, profound, and unique ideas.
So once we have undertaken project research,
we should have a much deeper understanding
of the project context, with some competitor analysis.
This is going to put us in a stronger position
to start thinking about possible creative solutions.
So with project research in a good spot,
we can now take the next step in the discovery phase
and start brainstorming to think about
possible creative ideas.
In the next video, we will start to get a bit more hands-on,
where I will be showcasing a technique
to discover and generate some interesting ideas
for your logo design.
So see you in the next video.
(mellow dance music)