an exclusive stock trading community moderated by expert advisors

Defining the Brand

Before we got started with the logo, we defined the brands characteristics, key traits, voice, goals, audience, and competition—complete with a mood board—and put all of that together into a PDF package called the Brand Profile.

Strategically Naming the Brand

Now, usually clients will come to me with a name for their business—and this was no exception—but I felt the given name was not well suited to represent a brand and it required some knowledge in order to avoid a rather gruesome meaning. One of the things this project taught me is to see my role as not only to develop a brand identity, but to partner with new business entrepreneurs in creating an effective business name which compliments their brand. So both the client and I extensively explored alternate names to better represent the brand. The challenge of what to name the brand inspired me so much to write an article about the different types of brand names and what to consider when naming your business.

After much brainstorming, we landed on the perfect name for his brand: Guided Gains. The instructional/educational side of the business is clear with the use of the word Guided while the monetary gain is implemented with Gains. + Both words start with G which helps with memory recall. This with the chosen tagline, “Stock Trading Community” made it abundantly clear what this business is all about.

Video Presentations

Throughout the design process, I send progress updates to the client in the form of video presentations. The first kicks off with several chosen rough sketches—and every following presentation is built off of feedback given from the client of which I call revisions. With an agreed upon number of 5 revisions, I outlined the stages the logo will go through in its design process and defined the goals we should reach with each revision.

We stuck to the plan and came out with a solid logo; Check out the videos below to see for yourself just how we developed this kick-ass brand!

Initial sketches

In this first video, I discuss the thinking behind my initial top three chosen directions for the logo. In order to keep things quick and natural, I start with rough sketches.

You will notice that none of these initial directions look anything like the final logo; They served as the starting point to what eventually turned into our final design…

Revision 1

To brain or not to brain? 🧠

In this second video, I further explore my idea of incorporating a brain into the logo to represent knowledge and experience. I had previously decided against the inclusion of a brain as there was already a lot of symbolism to identify within the chosen direction (a chat bubble and rising stock bars). Though, my client and I really liked the idea and wanted to see if it could work.

Revision 2

This is the third video I made in working with my client on his new business brand & logo. The business is an exclusive stock trading community moderated by expert advisors called Guided Gains.

Moving away from the brain to find a better way to represent knowledge/experience, we decided upon the use of a study lamp because it represents knowledge through deep study. So in this third video, I present my top three concepts in combining a chat bubble, line chart (with the jagged arrow), and study lamp.

Revision 3

In this video, I talk about the construction of the logo and the decisions made in its digitization as well as the typographic choices made in its title.

Here you can observe the perfection of working in the digital space which illustrates the importance of sticking with sketches for as long as you can.

Revision 4

Now for the fun of adding color! What is trending and how can we send two very different messages through color? In this video, I go over some of the outdated cliches and current trends when it comes to incorporating color in a logo.

What is the right blue? …and is the FedEx logo outdated?

Revision 5

One last change gave it the final look it needed! The radial gradient was confined to the lamp and it’s contrast in value was made more subtle—the warmer hue gives the lamp a “heat” effect while the subtlety maintains one unified shape across the mark.

Final Logo

All in all, I am very satisfied with how this logo turned out—and more importantly—so is the client! We were able to work together effectively in shaping something which delivers the brand message in a simple and clear way.

This has been a deep dive case study of my logo design process. Starting a new business or deciding to rebrand an existing one is something which requires passion—and you need a Graphic Designer who will leverage that passion to create a brand around it. I, as the designer, enjoy involving my clients throughout the creative process knowing that they too care about the attention to details, the thinking, and the strategy put into the logo. This is the sort of collaboration and care you can expect from me.