The Logo Design Process
AKA, We Had to Go Through This and Now You Do Too.
by Ashley
Logos aren’t easy. There’s a love-hate process - love the idea in your head but hate the execution, love the inspiration but hate your interpretation, love your thumbnails but hate the pen tool in Illustrator. Love the final product but hate that you have to figure out all the iterations of your design.
Throughout my graphic design undergrad and the freelance projects that followed, I got to create dozens of logos. They ranged from stuff I was proud of…
A fictitious premium tour of Scotland and its whiskey.
…to logos that I’d hoped would never be on a website again.
Nothing to see here, just an attempt to cover up a lazy design with a cutesy symbol.
So when the time came to figure out the look, feel, and overall “brand” of Northern Pyre, a part of me was disappointed that we couldn’t afford to outsource the job. I’ve been in marketing for 10+ years, but I’ve never had to turn a critical eye to a company that I’m (emotionally, financially) invested in.
I feel like people who don’t design logos think of it as an Isaac Newton event. Some creative person is thinking under a tree when - eureka! - they’re struck by the Perfect Symbol. They sketch it out, show it off, and it’s immediately adopted without contention or resistance. There was no lightbulb moment for Northern Pyre; it needed to be stripped down, researched, critiqued, and refined. Over and over.
Like so many creative projects, I got started by knowing what I didn’t want:
No flames. That was the number one directive. Yes, Northern Pyre wants open-air cremation; however, there’s something about showing fire that just feels too literal. Fire is the means to the end, it’s part of the process, but the process itself is so much more.
No calligraphy. This was decided after a quick search of mortuary logos, which produced a lot of stylized birds and hands and family names in flowing script. Fitting for a funeral home, not so much for this.
No religious imagery. Northern Pyre is for anyone, regardless of religion.
I drew some initial sketches in Procreate. They were all awful.
This was pre-flamefree design.
The palette was easier: Yellow, red, purple.
Yellow for warmth and light
Orange for emotion and energy
Purple for reflection and mourning
I also liked the idea of incorporating a pyre, but not hitting people over the head with it.
First vector attempts, with different font ideas.
After a few check-ins with the other board members (who offered their honest feedback), the final iteration was a combination of the first and third logos.
The Final Design.
An abstract pyre, a night sky, and a small cluster of stars. Flexible enough to borrow different elements for stuff like favicons, the website, social media, and letterheads. Unsubtle without being tone deaf.
