Enhancing your creativity is one of the ways to separate yourself from the plethora of designers around the globe. You must have a strong desire to improve continuously your design skills and levels of creatively with every project that leaves your desk. There are several ways through which you could achieve these and reading is one of them. With the advent of the internet, there are several sources where you can get quality design materials to increase your knowledge, skills as well as creativity as a graphics designer. But with all the available sources, design blogs are one of the best you will enjoy using.

Why design Blogs

Blogs are more educative, current and “friendly” than the traditional books. The blogs are updated on a regular basis. Hence, you are guaranteed of finding fresh and updated content each time you visit. This will not just enhance your creativity, but also will make you have the current news and knowledge about graphics design right at your fingertips. Additionally, the blogs offer a means of interactivity, where readers can make comments and contribute to the blog posts they just read. This is extremely beneficial since it gives designers a chance to engage one another in a constructive manner.

Also, with the blogs, you can sign up for their newsletter and monthly publications and through this, you will continue to get useful and inspiring content from the industry leaders from time to time on your inbox. Therefore, any designer serious about enhancing their creativity will find every reason to be a friend to the blogs and utilize them to improve on their design skills.

Here are the top five inspiring design blogs to keep an eye on-:

Onextrapixel

Onextrapixel should be your first port of call if you are looking for design blogs to boost your creativity. It has a good reputation for being one of the oldest design blogs as well as having some of the well-seasoned contributors in the field of graphics design. The blog provides you with lots of resources including tutorials and a wide variety of freebies on different design subjects. No matter what you would like to learn, so long as it is within the field of graphics design, you will surely find it in this blog. Due to the nature of its content, therefore, Onextrapixel is ideal for both beginners and experienced designers.

Creative Nerds

Just as the name suggests, this is the place where you find all the creative nerds in the graphics design world (pun intended). It is an awesome blog with lots of fonts, free icons and Photoshop brushes that will help you enhance your creativity as a graphics designer. It is also among the few design blogs that come along with a complete YouTube Channel where you can further enhance your creative skills by watching videos and following along through live design projects by the experts.

You the Designer

You the Designer is another terrific design blog ideal for designers at all levels. It has a wide range of inspirational design works in almost any niche you can ever think about. In addition to the inspirational design works, you will also find lots of educational materials, freebies, tutorials and ninja tips both for web and graphics design. You the Designer is conclusive and is guaranteed to give you all the inspiration you need to get started to get going as a graphics designer. Additionally, the layout of the site is quite intuitive making it easy to use to the benefit of the users.

Inspiration Feed

At this design blog, you will find the same resources as the other blogs named above, but they have additional stuff for you. Inspiration Feed brings you a lot of articles covering different topics in various niches as well as relevant industry news that you ought to know as a graphics designer. This is also the one of the best places on the internet to go to if you are a graphics designer in need of great resources for startups, social media services, and general business motivation. Just as the name suggest, this should be your favorite place where you get your daily drip of inspiration as far as graphics design is concerned.

Graphic Design Blender

If you are a freelance graphics designer, or you are aspiring to become one, then you will find the Graphics Design Blender to be very resourceful. It is dedicated to offering freelance graphic designers with great tips on how to ply their trade in the turbulent but lucrative freelancing industry. Discussed in this blog are all matters relating to the freelancing industry such as dealing with tough clients, how to overcome your fears and start your business, where and how to land your first graphics design clients and many more.

Be a regular visitor to these inspirational graphics design blogs and get the fuel and the nourishment to be your best every day as a graphics designer.

Check out whether it is worth entering graphic design competitions here!

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As a professional, the last thing you want is to be rendered redundant due to your inability to adapt to the changes in the industry. Presented here are some of the best resources for continuous education in the logo design field-:

Logo Design Books

Graphics designs books are some of the best places where you are guaranteed to get solid logo design education. This is because such books have been written by proficient designers who have the knowledge in graphics design and have practiced for a number of years such that they now have the authority to pass on their knowledge to others.

Such resources are also excellent sources for logo design education for amateurs or those who are just starting out with logo design. Here are some of the best books you can start with if you need to increase your knowledge and proficiency in logo design-:

How To – How To is a book written by Massimo Vignelli and Michael Bierut. These are some of the best designers alive in the current generation and learning logo design from them will put you on the right path in this lucrative profession. Also considered as a designer’s manual and manifesto, How To provides clear explanations of the design concepts as well as other tiny details in design that can only be learnt from the experts.

Lance Wyman: The Monograph – The Monograph by Lance Wyman is another great resource for logo design education ideal for all levels of experience in logo design. The book essentially is a showcase of all the works by Lance Wyman, with some dating back to when he used to work for General Motors.

Logo: The Reference Guide to Symbols and Logotypes – symbols and logotypes are the core of every logo design project. If you want to enhance your logo design education and improve your use of symbols and logotypes in design, then this is the book you need.

Champagne and Was Canyon – This is an entertaining book and also educating at the same time. It was written by a freelance art and illustration director, and it will give you all the logo design education you need if you are interested in working as a freelance in the logo design and the graphics design industries in general.

New Perspective on Typography – this is another great logo design education book for typophiles and designers alike. It gives you a comprehensive approach to design and showcases the design works of over 100 reputable designers featuring names like Philippe Apeloig, Antony Burrill and David Peardon.

Logo Design Events

IN addition to the graphics design books, industry events is another place where people interested in getting logo design education can turn to. The events is known to attract some of the best industry players, and they provide a forum for like-minded people to discuss various issues affecting the design industry.

Other than getting first hand logo design education from such events, they are superb places for meeting new people and enlarging your professional network so that you can continue to penetrate the design industry and stay at the top of your craft. The following are some of top events in the industry that are worth attending if you are looking to increase your logo design education-:

• D& D Professional Awards
• Design Indaba Event
• OFFSET Event
• Generate New York
• F5 Design Conference
• 99U Conference
• What Design Can Do Event
• Typo Berlin
• Semi-Permanent Event
• OFFF Barcelona
• Reasons to be Creative Conference
• Brand Impact Awards
• London Design Festival
• Brand New Conference
• AIGA Design Conference
• Pixel Show

Logo Design Blogs

The other sure place to get quality logo design education is from the logo design blogs. The beauty of blogs lies in their ability to be updated on a regular basis hence the information you get from such sources are guaranteed to be useful and very current. Here are a few blogs worth checking out: Creative Bloq, Logo Pond, Logo Design Love, LogoMoose, LogoGala, LogoLounge, Logo of the Day, Creattica, Brand New, Logospire and Logoed.

Logo Design Forums

Finally, logo design forums can also be used to get quality logo design education. With the interactive nature of the forum, you shorten your learning curve because you will share in real time with other members and you can get answers to any challenges you encounter along your path as a logo designer. Some of the top forums ideals for logo design education include Graphic Design Forum, HowDesign Forum, Estetica Forum, and All Graphic Design Forum.

Check out these tips for protecting your portfolio!

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Many people find it confusing to distinguish between the terms brand, identity, and a logo. These three terms are usually used interchangeably, and whereas a layman can be excused for doing so, the same case should never be for a professional designer. However, if you are in the design world and you have never fully comprehended the difference between the three words, no need to worry – even some of the most polished designers know how to apply them but cannot give the outright distinction of the three words. Below, we try to figure out the differences in these potentially confusing words as well as give an explicit explanation on when each can be applied.

Understanding what a Logo is

At its basic meaning, a logo is a mark that is used to identify a brand. The term logo originates from the Greek word Logotype, a combination of two words, logo and typos meaning word and imprint respectively. The aim of the logo is primarily to promote instant public recognition of the brand. With such a significant role, the logo plays an important in the identity system of an organization, and since people are visual beings, it is also crucial for the branding of the organization. Potential customers will have a look at the logo, which is the visual mark of the company, they then will retain its color, shape and form and remember it whenever they see it another time. A logo thus becomes associated with the brand of the company or the organization.

In most instances, a logo usually consists of an icon or a symbol together with words that can be either the company’s name or the company’s slogan or tag line. There are also several instances when a logo does not have any icon or a symbol but comprise of a logotype, which essentially is nothing but just words without any symbols.

There are some cases when a brand becomes so popular that it can be easily recognized by just the symbol or the icon. It doesn’t happen most of the time, but when it does, the respective companies usually benefit a lot from the branding prowess of such logos. For instance, the Red Cross, Apple, and Nike are examples of logos that are well known in the world over, yet they feature simple symbols with no words at all.

Identity defines how your brand is perceived by your audience

Identity dictates every possible way on how your brand is perceived by your potential audiences. Identity, also known as visual identity or visual identity system in branding refers to the visual devices that a company uses to communicate its brand to the target audience. These might include but not limited to items such as a color system, graphic designs, logos, fonts, etc. The system may or may not incorporate other collateral such as brochures, signage, and stationery as well as written content like a positioning statement.

When you search over the internet for the correct meaning of a visual brand identity system, you will be bombarded with lots of information, but all these will concur that identity, in most cases refers to the visual elements that are used to recognize a company or a business. They are majorly the physical elements that customers, as well as the potential customers of the company, come in contact with. A complete package to define a brand would, therefore, include items such as the logo, email signatures, ads, websites, business cards, employee uniforms, the package designs, the store layouts, word mark, the corporate jingle, emblem, stationery symbols, etc.

A Brand – This is a concept and not a concrete of a physical object

A brand is the biggest picture in the equation and it is the foundation of every marketing framework that a company comes up with. Essentially, a brand relates to the psychological and emotional relationship that exists between a company and their customers. As defined by a well-known branding expert Marty Neumeier, a brand is your gut feeling about a business, product or a service. It is not actually what you say it is but rather what THEY say it is. Being that a brand is a gut feeling, therefore, it simply boils down to what you feel and think the very moment you come into contact with the company in question or any of their products and services.

Over the years, it has been proven that human beings are very emotional when it comes to brands. Hence, it makes it nearly impossible to give a precise definition to the concept of brand. People accumulate such gut feelings based on different experiences depending on their interaction with the company either physically or through the phone, emails, adverts, etc.

But for a strong brand to be built, a strong foundation is needed. Human emotions are very tricky. Hence, you must get it right with the messaging and the design to clearly communicate to your customers and clients. Hopefully, this clears the air about the difference between a logo, branding, and identity.

Should you ever try a DIY Logo design? Find out here!

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If you are interested in creating a professional logo for your brand, avoid these common logo design mistakes.  There are a number of top considerations when it comes to producing something iconic that will have a mass resonance with your potential audience. There are however a number of common logo design mistakes that many companies make. Avoiding these common logo design mistakes can help you to avoid producing a nonprofessional logo, an offensive logo or a new brand identity that won’t take you as far as a professional logo design would.

Here are some of the top logo design mistakes that you can avoid when you are getting a professional logo design or creating your very own logo design for the first time or for rebranding.

Having an amateur design your logo:

The most recognizable logos in the world are designed eye professionals for a reason. Business professionals today are investing more money than ever into their facilities and into building their brand but it can be tough to get a company off the ground if it has a nonprofessional logo. Treating your logo as a small thing in the formation of your business is a big mistake and saving money up front could cost you in the long run. Be sure to get the right designers on the job early on and create a strong logo for your branding that you can carry with you for decades to come.

Following the trend:

Copying another successful logo isn’t always the quickest path to success. Following today’s design trends often leads to a logo that is more of a cliché than a trend itself. A well-designed logo creates its own trend and a timeless unique look that doesn’t rely on various trends or gimmicks to get ahead. Go against the design trend and get something that reflects your corporate culture rather than emulates another successful company.

Designing something you like that doesn’t target your clients:

Getting a cool design that imposes your corporate personality or your own personal preferences can sometimes lead to some conflicts when it comes to reaching out to your target market. Just because you like a modern font it doesn’t mean that you should use it in your logo if you are running an antique store. Stay focused on what would capture the eye of your clients and your target market and not something that you would want to wear on a hat.

Terrible fonts:

A focus on typography is a big issue with logo design. Finding the perfect font that complements your logo design can take a lot of experimentation. A logo can fail based off of the font selection so it’s extremely important to place thought into whether or not your font design matches the logo design that has been created. It is important to note that you can use a few different font designs for your logo but you should never use more than two different weights or fonts in the same logo design because this can make brand recognition very difficult.

Not using Vectors:

Getting a vector image of your logo is one of the smartest things that you can request from your designer. A vector image would easily scale to almost any size. If you only receive a bitmap version of your logo in graphic format it’s very difficult to resize and reproduce your logo for signage, print materials or even merchandise. Always request a vector graphic because it can be consistently replicated in multiple sizes.

Using Highly detailed elements:

Simplicity is the key to a successful logo. Some other world’s most successful brands feature minimalist designs. The problem with highly detailed designs is that they are difficult to print and they don’t scale very well when you have to place them on smaller objects. A complex design like a silhouette picture or a highly detailed animation can be a nightmare for spreading brand awareness. When we think of corporations like Nike and apple we see extremely simple logo designs that can be re-created, drawn and shared with ease. It is this type of simplicity that you should eventually strive for with your logo and your brand.

Stock art:

While using stock images can be a great shortcut to shorten the length of time that it takes to get a logo made it certainly doesn’t make your logo original. Most of these template designs are made by amateur designers and utilized in hundreds of different projects around the world. If your goal is brand recognition and a logo that synonymous with your brand, using stock art will achieve the opposite effect. Remember that with template logos and stock art, somewhere in the world the same logo with a different name probably exists.

Keep these common mistakes in mind as you approach logo design for the future.

Learn about some common questions you should ask during any logo design process by following this link!

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