Last year, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry of University of California, Santa Barbara (ranked as the 30th best university in the US) approached me for a new identity design for their department. The department is dedicated to performing cutting edge Chemical and Biochemical research and is ranked among one of the top programs in the US. My job was to create a design that can capture the essence of both Chemistry and Biochemistry in one symbol. So, once again, I took out my precious paper and pencil and got to work.
 
I've been designing logos for over 6 years, and I've established specific steps in my design process for the best possible result. Today, I've decided to share my design process with you.
 
I hope you enjoy it!

I love logos which have a specific meaning to it. To me, representing an idea in a meaningful way is more important than just a good-looking design. That's why the first step in my design process is to generate some quick ideas through keywords, and for my process, mind-mapping is the best & fastest way to achieve that.

The next step in my logo design process is Research. I always try to learn as much as possible about the company before starting designing. For this particular project, I searched for Chemistry terms and concepts unknown to me and looked on Google Images and Pinterest for inspiration.

Sketching is, hands down, the most crucial step of logo design. Actually, it's the most critical step for any kind of design. Sketching allows you to create concepts quickly and efficiently, ideas that you wouldn't know you had in your mind otherwise. After an intensive sketching session, I switch to Adobe Illustrator to create vector shapes out of a few selected sketches.

The client loved the concepts and selected one of them as their new identity. Once the logomark was final, I moved on to finalise colors and typography.

UCSB already has a very distinct visual identity, and all its departments follow that identity for almost every kind of design. So choosing colors on my own wasn't really an option. However, I did choose colors from their already established visual identity.

Just like the colors, UCSB has already established rules for typography as well. So, I just went with the defaults, which is "Avenir" as the primary and "Produkt" as the secondary typeface. Apart from the typefaces, the way you write a department's name has also been established in their visual identity. It's an excellent example of building and maintaining a consistent brand.