Me LIKE Me New Logo

Julia Holly Creative is in motion. FINALLY. I've wanted to for years... I mean... YEARS to finalize a logo for my freelance design endeavors. And, now the kids are in school, and I can actually sit in front of a comp and focus. Focus? Really? Yes!!! Here is the visual proof of my process. Note: rough stages are purposely tiny so you copycats out there don't get shady with my work. Nu-uh girlfriends.

For the non-designers, here are the steps I took.


1) Sketch/Draw/Scribble
As tempting as it is for some of us digital peeps. No matter what I tend to go back to the drawing board because I just stare blankly at the screen. There's something to using a pencil/pen and paper and drawing whatever... whatever comes to mind.

What I call Chicken Scratch

2) Digital Thumbnails
Thumbnails means, they should be small. I used to have to churn out at least 10-20 concepts for my advertising/design classes. An instructor once told my class that in the real world you need around 100 to begin with. The key is to get out as many ideas in the beginning to weed out the really bad ones in your mind. Get it out of your system.

I love lining up the different digital icons. Logos look simple but the really great ones took a lot of work to get it that way.

3) Finalize and Narrow Down
After getting about 16 concepts (all different looking ideas) I started to do 2-4 variations of my favorites. As I started to feel great about one, I worked w/ some color.

4) The one. 
You know that you've found the right image or design when there's an immediate spark, "That's it!" I think I may have found the one. What do you all think?

That's it!

I'm not going to try to explain the reasoning behind my choices, but hopefully the design speaks for itself.