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Logo Design Process Case Study: Preservation Health

Logo design is about more than artwork; it’s about decision-making and client management. It’s a long process of exploration, requiring a multitude of ideas be developed in order to trash all but one, final mark; one that perfectly represents a business and speaks the language of its customers. Clients turn to designers to convert ideas into flawlessly executed art, but most pay little mind to the creative journey us designers take before even turning on the computer. Using my logo for Preservation Health as example, I’d like to share with you the complete logo design process; one that starts with the sketchbook and ends with a happy client.

Prior to the commencement of the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare), I was approached by an up-and-coming medical practice to design their logo. They called themselves Preservation Health, and their specialty is concierge medicine (also known as direct primary care). This new approach to treatment requires no insurance, and offers patients 24/7 access to their doctors, so it’s easy to see why it appeals to so many. An attractive business model deserves an equally attractive logo, so I teamed up with Preservation Health to create an identity program communicating that PH patients can expect a strong, healthy, and enduring life.

Logo Design Love By David Airey

I began this project by utilizing an exercise I learned from David Airey’s book “Logo Design Love”, called a mind map. This word-association exercise helps designers consider as many different design directions as possible, at a stage when they’re most needed. Essentially, just writing the word that’s central to the design brief, then branching out from it with as many words that pop into your head with the goal of forming a large thought cloud that you can refer to when sketching ideas. At the end of the exercise, I highlight the words I feel have recognizable visuals or spark an idea.

Mind Mapping

The mind-mapping stage accelerated my though-process, and the highlighted words gave me good fodder to start sketching. I think it’s incredibly important to quickly sketch as many ideas as possible in order to capture the raw thought before it fades into obscurity. I don’t limit myself to just good ideas either. The main goal at this point is to explore ALL ideas; the good, the bad, the ugly, and the down-right embarrassing.

I read somewhere that it’s only after you sketch 30-50 ideas that you get past the cliché and obvious, forging new creative ground. I hit about 30 before narrowing them down to 5 solid concepts worthy of presenting to my client, the strongest being the Greek column.

During my pitch, the client liked the idea of conveying strength and stability through an ancient Greek column. This visual also identifies with the word preservation, as these ancient columns still stand today almost 2,500 years later.

The Concept

This concept uses a Greek column as a visual metaphor for strength and stability, and reads as the letterform “P”, set in the Trajan typeface.With the concept approved, I scanned the sketch and began working in Illustrator. Careful consideration is spent creating a logo that is simple enough to be legible at the smallest sizes and versatile enough to be used on both light and dark backgrounds. A certain level of self-control is needed to find the perfect balance of simplicity and detail; too much detail creates visual clutter, which affects the readability of the mark.Combining the Greek column and the letter “P”, set in the Trajan typeface is a success so far. But I’m confident I can simplify the form even more, which will benefit the design by increasing legibility, enable better quality reproduction at small sizes and will commit to the memory of the viewer easier.

I cut the stem off the form added a few more thick lines within the column. The final step was enclosing the Preservation “P” within a black box so I could keep the column white, helping reinforce the relationship with an ancient column, which was often constructed from white marble.

"Chris was great at providing imagery, guidance and education behind branding a logo that represented our objectives. After many revisions and lots of discussion, an image that was clean cut, precise and capturing came to fruition. Immediately Keith and I knew that Chris hit the nail on the head. The final logo was born! I can’t say enough nice things about Chris. He is a talented artist, an insightful communicator (both in utilizing language and pictures) and just a generally nice, honest guy."

- Vivi Sadel / Preservation Health, LLC

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Advice For Web Designers When Expanding To Print

Do you have a proven expertise in web, but want to expand your design services to include print? If you do it right, you can fulfill almost any design request, which could expand your customer-base. This was the case when a design colleague who is a fantastic web developer asked if I had any tips that could help expand his business to include print; especially color matching. I eagerly responded by firing off an email that included about nine years worth of first-hand print knowledge gained by working with great printers (and some not-so-great). This seemed to help him tremendously; hopefully it can help you too.

Color Matching

Color matching is difficult and varies from printer to printer. The only way to consistently hit a color is by using Pantone colors on an offset press; however, this is costly and only recommended for large quantity jobs. With low-quantity digital printing, you’re at the mercy of the printer and how often it’s maintenance and calibrated. Having a print shop you trust is also very important. I’ve had print shops drop the ball completely, but I’ve also had trustworthy printers go above and beyond. Trial and error is key; once you deal with enough print vendors, you’ll be able to differentiate the shady one’s from the ones that care about quality and customer service.

You Get What You Pay For

If you’re looking for the cheapest digital printer because that’s all you can afford, you’ll most likely not love the end result—no matter how good your design. There’s not a lot of profit margin on low-quantity digital prints, so little care is put into color calibrated / matching or quality. I’ve felt that my small jobs were neglected because the printer just wanted to get them out of the way in order to make time and room for the bigger jobs. Not fair, but I get it…and if this happens, don’t be afraid to call them out on it. I like to build relationships with printers who do quality work and go above and beyond, and drop a few hints that I’m a designer that expects work of a certain quality. Sometimes just letting them know that you’re not gonna take any shit will go a long way, and they’ll pull out the extra stops to ensure that the finished result is of the highest quality. I use the same printer for everything because they do stellar work cost-efficiently, they respect me, and in return I trust their judgment. Go above and beyond the call of duty, and I’ll keep feeding you files to print.

The paper stock you use will affect the color as well. Glossy, coated stock makes the color more vibrant (since it sits on the surface), while matte, uncoated or textured stock absorbs the ink which decreases color vibrancy.

The Press-Check is Your God-Given Right!

Your printer should always allow you to do what’s known as a press-check; meaning, you can be there when they print the job so you can sign off and approve the first test sheet to ensure that the color and quality is to your satisfaction. Printers love printing botched print jobs, because they make twice as much money when you have to reprint it. But to protect yourself you are entitled as a customer to see a hard-copy proof before he hits print. Even if it’s just one super-large banner, he can run off a small section of it in-advance (and free of charge) for you to see how his printer will produce the color. It is at that time that you compare it to your swatch book, and if it is off he can calibrate the printer to hit that color. He should be having you sign off on proofs before printing anyway. If he’s not offering them, ask for a hard-copy proof. It’s standard practice and just lazy (or deceitful) on his part. 

Also, any good printer has the capability to adjust the 4-color process digital printer to hit a PMS color. I print a lot of low-quantity business cards that I designed with a PMS color in mind, but it’s not economical to run 500 business cards on an offset press; so they print our cards digitally, and created a custom print profile setting where the tweaked and calibrated the color to consistently hit a PMS equivalent every single time. Don’t let your printer tell you this is not possible; It is.

And do yourself a favor, get yourself a Pantone Formula Guide . That could be the cause of many headaches for you as you’re arbitrarily sampling colors with the eyedropper in an RGB color space, and wondering why the color is off. As you’re well aware, the monitor is RGB and print is CMYK. Computer monitors do a mediocre job at representing CMYK colors on screen, but it will never be accurate (if your monitor hasn’t been color calibrated recently, you can throw all hopes of getting even close to a color-matched print). Your best bet is to get a Pantone swatch book that shows you pantone colors, compared to their CMYK equivalents.

His Response was classic: “Did I just get schooled? I think I just got schooled?!?!”

There you have it; 13 years of print experience dumped out in one email with my old friend and design colleague. this seemed to help him tremendously, hopefully you get something out of it tool. Feel free to email me or leave a comment if you have any questions or would like to argue instead. Till next time…