§ S.02 Service All services
Logo design
A logo has to be read from five metres away in a market, fit on a two-centimetre label and survive one-colour printing on cardboard. I draw it for that, not for the presentation screen.
What it solves
The logo is the smallest piece of an identity and the most seen. It goes on the box, the van, the invoice and the social media profile, and if it fails there no catalogue will fix it. A good logo is recognised at a glance, remembered, reproduces well at any size and in any technique, and says something true about the company.
What I see most in the companies that call me isn’t an ugly logo but one that doesn’t hold up: conceived on screen, it falls apart when reduced, loses its colour in one-colour printing or competes with the product instead of signing it. Recreology’s is deliberately quiet for that reason: the colour and fantasy come from the play structures, and the brand just signs them.
How I approach it
I start by understanding what the company does and where the brand will physically live. Designing for a fruit tub under fluorescent light is not the same as designing for the plate bolted to a playground structure, and that difference decides the stroke, the contrast and the colour before anything is drawn.
Then I build the symbol with the least line possible: the cherry of the Guild of Master Confectioners is a single continuous stroke that is at once the candied fruit and the gesture of the piping bag. Every proposal goes through the same tests: reduction, one colour, negative, sitting alongside other brands. What doesn’t pass isn’t presented.
§ S.02.1 What it includes
- Analysis of the sector and the brands it will sit alongside
- Concept and rationale of the symbol
- Symbol, logotype and how they relate: full and reduced versions
- Positive, negative, colour and one-colour versions
- Construction, proportions and minimum sizes
- Colours with print and screen references
- Vector and production files for print, signage, embroidery and web
- Basic rules of use, expandable into full brand guidelines
New logo or redesign
When a company already has a logo with years of use, it’s rarely wise to throw it away: it carries recognition that costs a great deal to build. The usual course is to redraw it — correct the stroke, adjust the proportions, resolve the reduced version — and give it the system it lacks, so the long-standing customer still recognises it and the new one sees it as current. At Peris, for instance, the oval and the «es calidad» the firm has been saying for three generations were kept.
What a logo can’t do alone
A logo is not an identity. It’s the central piece, but without colour, typography, tone and rules of application, every supplier will read it their own way and the brand will scatter just the same. That’s why this service can be commissioned on its own, but I always deliver it ready to grow: everything decided here serves as is if later the full brand identity has to be built.
§ S.02.2 All projects
§ S.02.3 Frequently asked questions
How many proposals do you present?
Few, and argued. Presenting ten logos so the client picks the one they like best is passing the work on to them; I’d rather arrive with one or two proposals that meet the brief and explain why. If neither convinces, we go back to the concept — we don’t add variants.
What’s the difference between a logotype, a symbol and a combined mark?
The logotype is the name written in its own form; the symbol is the figure that accompanies or replaces it; the two together are the combined mark. A well-built brand decides when to use each: the symbol alone on the jar sticker, the pair on the façade, the logotype alone in the email signature.
Can I register the logo as a trademark?
Yes. At the end I hand over the files and the assignment of exploitation rights, and before closing the design we check it doesn’t resemble registered marks in the same sector. The registration itself — at the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office or the EUIPO — is handled by you or your advisor; I prepare the images in the format they ask for.
How much does a logo cost?
It depends on whether it starts from scratch or from an existing one, and on how many versions and applications have to be resolved. After a first conversation I prepare a fixed proposal of scope and fee, with no obligation.