Logo & Corporate Identity Design in SE1

Southside Print offers a full logo design service along with corporate identity design from our print works near London Bridge in SE1. In this blog post we explain a little about the way we approach this type of design work.

Logo design – the brief

Getting your logo design right is incredibly important; after all, your logo is very much the face of your organisation or brand. As such, it needs to convey the right first impression, the right values, look attractive and be memorable as your primary branding device.

As part of any logo design brief, we’ll ask for guidelines about what values the logo will represent and what kind of visual feel you have in mind. Does it need to look eye-catching and punchy, contemporary and clean, hip and funky, earthy and natural, or understated and dependable? Does it need to look upmarket, cheap and cheerful, or somewhere in between? It all depends upon what you wish to convey when people see your new logo. It’s also important to know the answers to these questions from the very beginning so that our designers can embark upon the design journey knowing that they’re aiming in the right direction from the outset. After all, getting a logo 100% right is incredibly important for any business, organisation or brand.

Designing … or redesigning your brand

Our designers are here, on tap, to professionally design your logo – or even to redesign it, should the need arise. That service is useful if your business or organisation is a start-up, of course, but also if an existing logo is looking tired, dated and in need of a refresh. Updating your logo can be incredibly powerful as a marketing tool and in some ways it can be very much like a rebirth when it happens — a chance to re-launch your offering to your target audience.

Designing your logo

The design journey for logos varies enormously depending upon the company, organisation, product or service in question as well as the brief supplied to our designers. Also, of course, the available budget has a big impact on how much work, and how many iterations, we can supply as part of our logo designing service. Therefore, perhaps surprisingly to some, logo design is possible for a range of different budgets.

Getting your logo design right is incredibly important; after all, your logo is very much the face of your organisation or brand

Design budget

At the very lowest end of the budget scale, we could agree to professionally design a logo based closely on something our client has supplied, e.g. a sketched out idea. In that scenario, the customer already has a fixed and clear idea of what they want and so we can arrive at an agreed logo design fairly quickly and easily — and therefore inexpensively. However, it’s worth mentioning that, in this lower budget approach, the customer will never get to know what else may have been possible for their all-important logo. That’s an important consideration.

At the opposite end of the scale, we can go through lots of different design stages, for example, starting with an initial presentation of lots of different logo ideas, from which a short list can be chosen by our customer. Once that short list has been agreed, we can fine-tune those remaining logo options and meet with the customer again to agree an even shorter list of perhaps just two or three logo variants. Eventually, after further fine-tuning, we would arrive at just one agreed logo. During the process, the customer will have been shown different designs and motifs encompassing several different graphical styles, many of which will have demonstrated a completely different look and feel.

Alternatively, of course, we could be working anywhere between the lower and topmost budgets. Most customers go somewhere between the two and at least this way they get to see more of what’s possible rather than limiting themselves (and their new logo) right from the outset.

Colourways & fonts

Part of the design journey would also include looking at colours and any fonts, of course. After all, colours and typefaces, if present, also have an enormous impact on the look and feel of any logo and indeed give a logo a kind of ‘visual flavour’, which is another important aspect.

Corporate identity design

Logos are just the start of it, though. Any decent logo design project is about more than just designing the logo alone. It’s also designing the whole look and feel of the sales and marketing collateral around the logo. Just as a logo can have a particular look and feel, so too can the marketing collateral — and any product or service that features the new branding. Here, if the budget permits, further graphic design work is undertaken to decide and agree upon the presentation of the marketing materials, stationery, brochures, products, any packaging, vehicle livery, etc. and the way the brand is presented to the world generally. We can do all of that for you at Southside Print.

Corporate identity manuals

One of the key deliverables of the identity project above is often a corporate identity manual. This important item usually comes in a ring binder, brochure and/or PDF format and it’s also something that we can design, print and put together for customers. In a corporate identity manual, the ground rules for the presentation of logos, colours, fonts and branding are set and explained in a kind of permanent reference. For example, there is usually a section demonstrating how the logo and corporate fonts should or shouldn’t be used. There will also usually be a section showing the correct layout, style and colours for stationery items, brochures, perhaps newsletters, web banners, any vehicle livery and even advertisements if used. Everything about the look, layout and feel should be covered so that anyone new to the company, organisation or brand — and suppliers of course — will be able to look and immediately discover the correct way to use the new corporate identity and logo on a particular sales or marketing item. Again, Southside Print can do all of that for our customers.

Contact Southside Print in SE1

So, if you would like professional help with the design of a logo, brand, corporate identity and/or corporate manual, Southside Print can help. We’re based in Tabard Street in the heart of SE1, close to Borough High Street and London Bridge. Our talented in-house designers can help with any of the above to make your branding and corporate identity look perfect for your desired audience. We’ll make sure it stands out from the crowd for that all-important first impression — as well as being memorable in order to help with future brand recognition. Call us on 020 7378 6754 for further details, request a quote here or send us an email here and we’ll be more than happy to receive your enquiry. All quotes are free of charge and without pressure or obligation.