I've talked briefly about developing a company logo. But, I want to talk about it in more detail. Three reasons: 1) it was a lot of fun. 2) I want to record what I did for the next time I try it out. 3) I want to illustrate that this process can be done internally.

Initially, we had to decide the company name. We did this by putting our favourite names in context and asking our target audience which were their favourite. Simple. We presented focus groups with imaginary 'company identity' boards (see below.) We asked questions like; Does the name work in all the contexts? Is it believable? Would you trust a company with this name? "Do you like the name?" and so on....

Once we settled on a name, lovemoney.com, the next step was to brainstorm imagery that supported the brand mission of helping people to 'have a meaningful relationship' with their money. We literally scribbled ideas down (back of fag packet style.)

The next step was to create higher fidelity mocks of the logo ideas. Here's a few below: (thanks Ben & Karen!)

Then, it was back to testing. We explained the brand values of the company and, again, simply asked people what their favourite was. We asked questions like: 'What does it say about the company?' 'Does it feel authentic as a name for a finance company?' 'Do you like it.' We used a system of points to agree the top three logos (one point per favourable comment.) It was actually very easy to get down to three.

It actually turned out that by the time we were down to three, we knew that any one would work for us and so we had an internal vote on the favourite and finally made a judgement on the logo that gave us the most room to evolve. Ultimately, this one:

Simple really? Well no. It was a pretty tall order actually. But, with a bag of ideas and a good designer, very possible in the end.