ProBlogger Logo Design August 27th, 2007 by Mike
At the end of May, Darren Rowse contacted me, to redesign the ProBlogger logo.
Darren has one of the net’s most popular blogs, and is one of the founders of b5media. I was honored to have a chance at designing the new identity, so I agreed to come on board the design team with Darren’s site designer, Ben Bleikamp.
Darren’s story is interesting, not only because he turned blogging from a hobby into a full-time career and business, but because he freely shares what he’s learned from blogging. I quite like Darren’s attitude of helping others grow and succeed by sharing his knowledge.
In this post, I’ll share details and sketches on the new ProBlogger identity.
Initial Specs and Feedback
Darren answered my standard list of questions, and from his initial feedback I gathered several themes to embrace and portray with the new ProBlogger identity. He wanted ProBlogger to be:
• A welcoming community where bloggers can learn and grow
• A source of information on making income from a blog
• A site promoting professionalism in blogging
• An extensive blogging reference
• Keywords: income, professionalism, community, inspiration, credibility, encouraging
Darren wanted a clean, crisp, contemporary, professional logo, without superfical “Web 2.0″ stylings. He wanted a logo to represent himself and his blog, in a design that wouldn’t go out of style in 6 months.
Sketches v1
With all of this information in mind, I began sketching multiple concepts to get the project rolling (click the image to see the v1 sketches).
With all of my logo projects, I like to loosen up with pencil in my Miquelrius notebook, freeing my mind to explore ideas. Note the keywords on the upper right of the page, which help guide me in idea generation during this first sketch phase.
I focused on theProBlogger P, as it portrays the brand well, and would be a consistent element from the original design. I explored one other idea (8) which suggested community as a nucleus with network connections and multiple outer atoms.
In Darren’s feedback, I learned that he liked the emphasis on the P. He preferred the squarer P characters, as these leaned away from the “surf” look and feel he saw in ideas 17, 18 and 19. He also liked the community concept he saw in 8, so it was on to v2 sketches to explore those ideas a bit more.
Sketches v2
I this set, I explored the winning concepts and a few others, bringing in aspects of idea 8 and the community “atomic” ideas merged with the P character.
After review, Darren and his team of trusted advisers focused on two ideas from this v2 set: concepts 19 and 23. Next up was the black & white and color phase.
Black & White and Color Concepts
Because Darren was on a tight timeline, I changed my normal process, including both black & white and color logos on the same mockups. This way Darren could see the B&W ideas and some explorations of initial colors.
Concepts v1:
In the first set you’ll see I came up with ideas based on the v2 sketches (2, 3, 4 and 5), along with a new idea (1) which came out I worked with the logos. Sometimes this happens, and I’ve learned to go with the flow and include these as options:
Darren’s feedback from round 1 aimed us at the P within a nucleus circle with orbiting atoms around this central icon to embed the concept of comminity into the mark. While the more graphical representations of this community were interesting (1, 2 and 3), the clearer P emerged as Darren’s top choice.
Concepts v2:
Based on feedback from v1, I narrowed to the single P with orbiting atoms, exploring different ways the atoms could be positioned, the connection between atoms and the outer ring, a font option and variations on the provided color pallette:
Concepts v3:
Darren really liked the color combo in ideas 7 and 8 in this set, leaning toward 7 a bit more. He wanted to keep the “P” and “BLOGGER” in orange and do one final exploration on atom position and separation between the atom and the outer ring. So I did a final v3 to help Darren see the 3 final options:
In the final version, I felt the leading atom suggested forward movement, and the separation of the atoms from the circle provided focus to the 3 atoms. 7.1 was chosen as the final winner:
Conclusion
Darren was pleased with the final logo, which was subsequently included in Ben’s redesign of the site. It was great fun to see the logo announced on Darren’s blog, followed by the release of the new site design.
As one might expect, with a major change on a popular site, there were a few who liked the old design better. However, after reading comments on the site related to the new logo and design, a majority of Darren’s readers really loved the new site design and logo. Most importantly, Darren was pleased with the results.
Thanks Darren for choosing to work with me and MakaluMedia on the logo design. It was an honor and a pleasure working with Darren and Ben on this project.
August 28th, 2007 at 1:02 am
[...] Mike Rohde from MakaluMedia is the designer of ProBlogger’s newly designed logo and today has posted about the process that he went through in coming up with it – from initial sketches to final design (and everything in between). [...]
August 28th, 2007 at 1:19 am
Mike, Great effort, Great to see an artist that still wrestles through the initial development phases with pencil on paper… so many designers today go straight to screen and miss out on the this freewheeling and tactile phase and it often shows up in their work as rigidity.
Great effort
I like the type style in 3b what is it?
August 28th, 2007 at 1:52 am
Thanks for this write-up. It’s funny, I was trying to see if I could recreate it. The attempt was very unsuccessful. Congrats!
August 28th, 2007 at 2:59 am
That was a good insight on the process of design. I wonder if I can follow the process to come up with a logo of my own?
August 28th, 2007 at 3:10 am
Thanks for the fascinating insights. In education we call this a “think-aloud,” and we use it for, among other things, teaching teens how to read more sophisticated books. You taught me a lot about logo development. Thanks again.
August 28th, 2007 at 3:20 am
Yes agree, good to see how people design and use different concepts for client work..
August 28th, 2007 at 3:59 am
great post.. i like seeing the process..
great logo too!
August 28th, 2007 at 5:21 am
[...] Matt Henderson has written an article on redesigning the Problogger logo. It is always very interesting to see another artist’s workflow. del.icio.us this! [...]
August 28th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Looks great Mike! I love seeing the design process in action. Although I find it odd, I’m a reader of problogger and came across this website through Digg.
August 28th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
I appreciate your posting this “how to” or process post on logo development.
Its neat and sort of daunting to watch you go through the various iterations. I could see how you might have branched off in so many places! For me, its daunting because with so many different versions, they seem to become arbitrary after a while and it can be hard to make a favorite choice!
Logo design is deceptively easy and this post can make it seem easy, but know its hard. I have been blocked on the design of a logo for my food photography blog ( http://www.nikas-culinaria.com ) for so long now but not blocked on my other blog logo ( http://www.humblegarden.com/2007/07/05/the-future-harvest/ ).
Go figure!
August 28th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Great step by step through the process. Never realized it actually took so much effort.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:17 am
[...] Su Summit, il blog di Makalumedia, è possibile dare un’occhiata al processo che ha portato Mike Rohde a ridisegnare il logo del popolare Problogger. [...]
August 29th, 2007 at 5:13 am
I liked the old design; I like the new design.
I’m tempted to write “compare and contrast the JohnChow and ProBlogger redesigns.” Mike, you did a great job! (If I had a budget, I’d hire you in a minute!)
August 30th, 2007 at 2:40 am
[...] Notes On The ProBlogger Logo Design – Mike from Makalu Media shares his design notes and sketches of the new logo for ProBlogger. Interesting write-up of the process of logo design and the client requirements. [...]
August 30th, 2007 at 11:54 am
[...] Thanks also to Mike Rohde who did the logo and for Ben Bleikamp who has been helping again with design and integration of the latest jobs into the Home Page of ProBlogger. [...]
August 30th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Fantasic write-up about the design process, Mike!
I especially like the intricate, subtle adjustments of the atoms to indicate movement. Brilliant! It is such a small change, but instantly obvious once done.
Great logo. It was a pleasure to have met you in Chicago.
August 30th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
[...] Mike Rohde from MakaluMedia is the designer of ProBlogger’s newly designed logo and today has posted about the process that he went through in coming up with it – from initial sketches to final design (and everything in between). [...]
August 30th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
[...] Thanks also to Mike Rohde who did the logo and for Ben Bleikamp who has been helping again with design and integration of the latest jobs into the Home Page of ProBlogger. [...]
September 1st, 2007 at 4:33 am
[...] ProBlogger Logo Design [...]
September 2nd, 2007 at 4:31 pm
[...] Recently Problogger got a new logo. Summit, the MakaluMedia group dedicated to design, interfaces and web applications share the step by step creation of the new logo. Even we got a new logo. [...]
September 4th, 2007 at 2:37 am
[...] Summit has a blog post up on the process they went through deciding on the new logo. So here on Illustrator Help, we’re going to walk you through you might take an idea like that and actually create it in Adobe Illustrator. [...]
September 7th, 2007 at 1:31 am
[...] Thanks also to Mike Rohde who did the logo and for Ben Bleikamp who has been helping again with design and integration of the latest jobs into the Home Page of ProBlogger. [...]
September 14th, 2007 at 9:41 am
[...] ProBlogger, a blog for aspiring professional bloggers, recently changed the look and feel of their website which included a new logo. Mike Rohde from MakaluMedia did the redesign. He talks about the design process of the logo here. Company spin: “The ‘atom’ like design is about community/network.” The keywords ProBlogger wanted the logo to capture were: “income, professionalism, community, inspiration, credibility, encouraging.” [...]
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:59 pm
That’s very nice. I just had a logo designed and it didn’t turn out anywhere as good as this. Should have chosen you instead…!