How Long Does It Take a Designer to Create a Logo?

The short answer to the question above is anywhere from 10-20 hours, start to finish. I know you’re thinking “It’s just a logo design! How hard can it be?!?”

In reality, a logo design is just an end result of a broader design process. To better understand the timeline of logo design, let’s take a look at the key steps in this process.

Initial conversation:

This is when you and your graphic designer discuss what you’re looking for in a logo design, if you have a preexisting logo and other important information. Initial client conversations are factored into logo creation time because without that vital info we designers won’t have a relevant basis to design your logo upon.

Ideation phase:

Taking the information gathered from our initial conversation, we begin the ideation or brainstorming phase. This is probably the most varied step among designers because everyone doesn’t have the same approach. Some may use a week for researching and sketching, while others may consider 2-3 days to be a sufficient amount of time for researching and sketching. Time-wise, I usually land somewhere in the middle.

Executing the design:

At this step, the top 2-3 logo sketches are transformed into a vector image. As a designer, we’re also finding a font that complements the logo and deciding how to best implement the brand’s colors into the design. Before I consider this step to be complete, I see if these logo designs fit the goals that the client and I discussed, and I observe if the average consumer would understand this brand/company just from looking at the logo design.

Presentation:

Last but certainly not least, this is when the logo concepts are presented to you for final thoughts and feedback. The timeline of this last step can be short or long, depending on if there’s requested revisions to the logo design.

Things to Keep in Mind for Your Next Logo Design:

Be realistic: If the logo design you requested involves a good deal of intricate details and required elements, know that it takes time to combine those various elements into a well thought-out design that doesn’t look overwhelming.

Have effective communication: If there’s a step in the design process that you don’t understand, don’t hesitate to ask your designer about it. It’s a collaborative process, and we won’t know what you don’t tell us.

Be open-minded: Some people come into the design process set on one specific design. Although decisiveness is great to have, be open to the design solutions your designer gives you. We’re here to help you see the overall design picture and create an effective design solution.