Logo Love Episode Three: Design Process

(*ISM Connect is a proud partner of Front Office Sports)

Episode 1 | Episode 2

In the third episode of Logo Love, Jason Klein and Casey White of Brandiose Studios discuss in detail their own creative processes for designing Minor League Baseball logos.

Simplicity is often preached as a key tenant in design. Yet the simplest design isn’t always the most effective. It’s all about telling the most authentic story possible for a Minor League team. Sometimes that means taking several different elements and combining them in a way that makes sense for storytelling, merchandising and representing a town or city.

Edited highlights appear below:

On the nature of creativity (0:10)

White: “Every project that we do…starts with research. I think there’s this myth that creative people people just sort of pull [inspiration] out of the sky. Creativity is how you digest the world, how you process the world. If we’re going to tell these stories in an authentic way, we have to have a healthy diet of information. We have to physically go, we have to talk to experts, we have to be guided by people who really know what they’re talking about. Every project has that foundation.”

SEE MORE: Logo Love Episode One: Logo History

How designing sports logos differs from designing other types of logos (1:34)

White: “Designing a sports logo is not like designing a corporate logo. It’s not about super simple and clean, or how do we ratchet down something to this very simple, pristine thing? It’s telling a story. It’s somewhere between illustration and logo. It has to still work as a Twitter icon and look good on a hat from 50 yards, but it also need to tell a really complex story. There’s a lot of elements that we want to bring in.”

[mc4wp_form id=”8260″]

On getting ideas down in their own creative process (3:03)

White: “We’re always trying to improve our process. We’re trying to stay relevant and keep things fresh. That includes how we conceptualize the designs. We started out sketching… drawing is my favorite thing in the world. That’s why I love my job. We’ve tried to draw on iPads, draw on the computer, we’ve tried a thousand different things… It all goes back to pencil and paper. The pencil and paper is the best way to quickly get your ideas down and to quickly explore what’s going to look best.”

SEE MORE: Logo Love Episode Two: Evolution of Brand

On avoiding making logo designs too complex (4:44)

Klein: “From a technical standpoint, you have to merge a lot of other elements often into a logo. A trash can lid and a calculator and a raccoon tail… how do you get all of these elements in without it looking like a painting?”

White: “That’s the challenge. How do we distill it down? How do you arrange everything? There is a flower arrangement element to the logo design. There are limitations. We run into limitations all the time where you have this crazy idea, and it’s just too much or it just doesn’t work. You have to have that balance.”