# Designing a Logo

Original: https://swyx.io/logo-design
Published: 2025-01-08

> I recently kicked off a 99designs contest for a new logo: https://99designs.com/logo-design/contests/logo-brand-ai-engineering-podcast-help-define-industry-1307842/

I recently kicked off a 99designs contest for a new logo: https://99designs.com/logo-design/contests/logo-brand-ai-engineering-podcast-help-define-industry-1307842/

<details>

<summary> existing branding </summary>


![image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0bc82f6b-38e9-401c-a947-912a79a1ba98)

![image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8727e12c-db0b-4491-96d8-6475b20a7e94)

![image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1bbf97c9-e7de-46b6-be66-7ae513d5696a)


</details>


I found that responding quickly to submissions helped the artists turn around new variations quickly and that was mutually beneficial, as of course was narrowing down the brief on a single concept (for us, the VAE instead of generic space logos).

here are design considerations we found we wanted:

- **Colors**:  good contrast on light and black bg. 
	- blues work ok (maybe can add a pink-orange as secondary color, so it pops) 
	- Another option is test in full grayscale for final logo - good logos should be visible without colors too 
- **Wordmark**: 
	- Suggest the words to be separate from logo (than integrated within)!  Important for logo hygiene eg as favicons, esp when displayed against other company logos! 
	- text-based logos are also a separate category on their own (eg Anthropic, Amazon), and can be super strong without a visual too
- **Sublogos**: a logo within the logo that can but extracted for a minimalist logo
   ![image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/69d829fd-dfe5-4829-95c6-ad7c540c7d5b)
- **Simplicity**: drawable on whiteboard (pictionary test)
- other smaller likes: gradients, feels modern, timeless
- **Composition**
	- better logos should fit well within a square/round shape - or at least 4:3 or 3:2 ratio - compact and looks better as merch / for general typesetting (eg banners) 
	- Visual weight for top 6 needs to work on balancing line weights — eg fattening the skinny tapers, and recoloring the middle layers, or reshaping the length so it’s not too Marvel / comic book like — though if that’s the look you guys like then feel free to !  🤔
	- I’m thinking more along polished & clean / visually light > chonky & unwieldy, but that’s more of industry default which doesn’t need to be a constraint. 
- **Contexts**:
	- on swag
	- large printed physical banner
	- digital banner, 
	- small round youtube/twitter pfp
	- larger video/youtube intro

in my brief i also added some inspirations and  mocked up some stuff

<img width="961" height="1065" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/904755de-bf08-48c6-bcb2-2cacd82359ec" />

## responses

we got these sketches back and there was a lot of responding to submissions and shortlisting

<img width="1238" height="1011" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6875f7b2-e4d0-48fc-ac10-9a83bbf2706d" />

all responses are public, and theres 2-3 rounds of selection, so the desginers can see the feedback and converge on what you are feeling

<img width="1431" height="1035" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ee3ccd07-69f8-4bd2-8ce9-f5df8f01b48d" />

i really liked the "TIE fighter" designs but cohost vetoed

<img width="1181" height="439" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/480aba5f-8b97-41eb-b92a-89661802e41e" />

ultimately final logo chosen and done for $300ish

<img width="901" height="875" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/41171d19-041e-445a-ad14-83e399cc0080" />

<img width="1047" height="976" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/dd5a58f1-db32-4e11-b52a-2cbedafba199" />

## thanks

thanks to Yee Hui for most of these guidelines!