The eLearning Center for Gatlin Education Services

Build your portfolio by tackling professional logo and branding design projects. Lessons cover such important concepts as corporate identity, image, branding, and repositioning, with reference to intriguing real-world case studies. Course projects offer a range of challenges from a record company logo to an airline branding system, allowing you to build your personal style within constraints of realistic project briefs.

LESSON 1 Visual Communication What makes a logo work? In Lesson One, the logo course developer shares his personal vision of visual communication. Successful logos achieve a tradeoff between flexibility (appearing anywhere, at any size) and communication. To build a conceptual foundation, you'll look at the purpose of logo design from ancient times to today's consumer society, exploring the fundamental properties of a successful logo. You'll get an overview of the logo design process in a professional environment. Then the exercise will focus on creating 3 distinct identities for a record label, working from a creative brief.

LESSON 2 Identity, Image, and Branding We're all familiar with the power of a major brand (Nike, anyone?). But designers often confuse the differences between corporate identity, image, and branding. Lesson Two clarifies the issues and focuses squarely on branding — the essence, character, and purpose of a company and its services. The process by which a company builds and extends or repositions a brand is explored, with reference to contrasting case studies. In the exercise, you'll create a branding system for an airline.

LESSON 3 Expansion and Evolution Lesson Three looks at the critical first stage of any professional logo design process. You'll examine the logo expansion/evolution phase, in which you set up a client meeting to determine his or her needs, produce a creative brief, and brainstorm a range of options. Strategies for effective logo brainstorming are discussed, with an emphasis on opening the door to creativity and productivity. The exercise provides practice in both brainstorming and creative logo identity evolution.

LESSON 4 Identity Imperatives A s uccessful logo conveys the essential identity of a company or individual — saying "I'm friendly" or "strong" or "smart." Lesson Four explores the various techniques logo designers use to create identity: spacing, color, shape, and letterform. You'll learn tricks of the trade to add impact and personality to your logo designs. In the exercise, you'll design a visual identity for a movie studio, working from a brief.

LESSON 5 Contraction and Definition Lesson Five covers the second step in the logo design proce the contraction phase. After a second client meeting, the designer's options are generally narrowed to a few leading logo designs. Armed with client feedback, the designer focuses on honing the artwork, addressing such key issues as legibility, simplicity, and typography. In the exercise, you'll select a logo design from lesson 4 and evolve it to a professional foundation, and also create some identity logo designs for yourself or your company.

LESSON 6 Finalization and Presentation To become a successful logo designer, you must know how to pitch your work. This involves both presenting the logo effectively and handling client feedback in a professional manner that moves the project forward. Lesson Six deals with these real-world issues: how to schedule and price logo projects, how to make client presentations, and how to give the client tools for measuring the project's success. The Final Project integrates client communication and presentation into the challenging logo assignment — finalizing a logo for yourself or your company.