Top 30 Resources to Self-Prepare as a Logo Designer

The Internet is evolving very fast. Trends appear and disappear, the entire planet seems to rotate faster and faster and in this context the work of a logo designer is turning into a very difficult one. The idea is simple: a logo is somebody that should communicate a message, usually a positive one, but using no words. As long as people are in a hurry and no one has time for nothing, it became mostly an art intended to make someone pay attention to a graphical realization. Anyway, this shouldn’t be a reason to quit making logos. A better approach is to try all your best to keep the rhythm. A mandatory condition for every logo designer is the self-preparation in order to stay updated to the latest news. In this post I present you a list of very good resources that will help any logo designer sharpen his skills. Definitely, self-preparation is a very important activity and every designer should pay close attention to this aspect. I will highly appreciate any resource proposed by readers, if any of you consider that it would be very useful and I didn’t insert it here; get in touch with us and we will surely update the post with your proposal.

#Logo design tips

The next blogs are famous amongst logo designers and you should check them constantly in order to be up to date with the latest news, techniques, and ideas. Highly talented logo designers maintain some blogs and their tips will surely be useful. Another part of the blogs bellow presents logo design best practices in a nice mix with other practical advice from branding and graphic design. This batch is very important…a logo isn’t created just to be part of a website header, it’s a marketing product and the creator of it should be aware about this fact.

Finally, some blog posts consist in collections of logos for your inspiration, so you have another reason to visit these websites. By sure, visiting these blogs won’t waste your time; the information provided here is vital in being always up to date.

• http://justcreative.com/
• http://logodesignerblog.com/
• http://logolounge.com/index.asp
• http://www.logodesignlove.com/
• http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/
• http://www.davidairey.com/
• http://www.logodesignworks.com/blog
• http://www.thedesigncubicle.com/
• http://www.fuelyourbranding.com/
• http://www.graphicdesignblog.co.uk/

#Practice

Unfortunately, having a solid theoretical knowledge isn’t enough and practice should be always the highest priority. Internet provides us tons of software solutions but the most used solutions are Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and each logo designer should be at least a medium user of the two. The below resources are very helpful because there have posted many tutorials, for both amateur and most experienced users. Much more, there are articles present best practices and secret tips in order to become a very good user of the two software products. My humble opinion: check them and you may visit even the archives of the previous months/years unless you never visited the Envato blogs.

• http://vector.tutsplus.com/
• http://psd.tutsplus.com/

#Podcasts

The podcasts seems to have a bigger and bigger success to the public. These require a significant less endeavor from users, than reading, and the quantity of the information is way bigger. I recently discovered these (shame on me) but I learned many good advices, so why not give a try?

• https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/design-guy/id261789246?mt=2
• https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/logo-design/id212950283?mt=2
• https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/lynda.com-video-training/id121879948?mt=2

#Forums

In my personal opinion, forums are the most useful when you are in impasse with your project. Unlike blogs or podcasts, logo designers use forums when they need a particular piece of information. More specific, the most useful aspect of forums is the fact that you may get feedback from other experts on a certain matter. Of course, there are many other advantages of using forums but you should never ignore the fact that you are morally indebted to help other users. The next forums are very used by logo designers and I recommend having these stored in your bookmarks.

• http://www.logomoose.com/forum/
• http://www.howdesign.com/forum/
• http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/index.php

#Worth reading web design blogs

I am a great fan of the idea that a logo designer has a different job than a web designer (usually, the clients hardly make a distinction between these terms but it’s our duty to explain them the real situation). Briefly, a logo designer has a job, to create a graphic concept but also a commercial product, while a web designer creates a website; in spite of that, a logo designer can’t ignore how web design evolves. My advice is to keep an eye on some interesting web design blogs to be up to date with the latest techniques.

• http://designmodo.com/
• http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/
• http://designrfix.com/
• http://webdesignledger.com/
• http://www.onextrapixel.com/

#Galleries

Many designers consider that admiring the works of other people doesn’t deserve the time invested. It’s a harsh mistake, by studying the works of other designers you may fuel your inspiration level and of course, see some new ideas that may be applied into practice. The real matter is just to get an idea from other works and not to steal, which is shameful. The next galleries are the most important and these may represent a very good treatment when lacking any inspiration.

• http://logooftheday.com/
• http://logopond.com/
• http://logofaves.com/
• http://faveup.com/
• http://creattica.com/

#Logo design competitions

Many people have a bad opinion about websites as the ones bellow and somehow I agree with them. The idea behind these websites is simple: the client posts a brief guide containing the details of a logo and the users submit their ideas. This competition has a deadline and at the end, the client selects a winning project. It’s called spec work and the biggest downside is the fact that a month may pass and a designer may not even get a project, therefore the situation isn’t too pink.

I propose instead another approach for these websites: I encourage logo designers to participate in order to compete against other designers. In this way, anyone can master his skills. The competition is a very good opportunity to test the potential. Much more, you never know, clients may select your works and the prices are pretty good, so it may represent a good source of extra income.

• https://99designs.com/logo-design
• http://www.crowdspring.com/browse/

In the end, I hope that all the resources presented in this post will help you turn into a logo design star but I must warn you, as you probably already know: nothing can replace your hard work. Believe this, there is no experienced and respected logo designer that hasn’t sacrificed tons of hours in front of his computer!

– Written by Daniel –