My 30+ Years of Logo Design Work

Finding inspiration was perhaps more challenging then, but there was also less risk of being influenced by countless existing concepts. Today, we have a vast amount of information at our fingertips, which makes it harder to create something truly original. Now and then I have clients tell me that my design proposal reminds them too much of an existing brand. Every logo needs a unique edge to avoid this issue, which adds this extra layer of complexity to the design process.

Early to Mid Nineties

I launched my freelance business in August 1992 under the name Duoh!. I'm not sure what sparked the nostalgia, but dusting off these old designs made me appreciate the vintage style of some of them and so I wanted to share (a couple of) my logo designs I created over the past 30+ years, starting with the oldest ones from the early and mid nineties:

Some of them are rather timeless and are actually still in use: Elprinta and Omnipack Reyniers still exist today and were designed in the mid nineties. The Neyts fish shop logo was my final graduation project, created during my last year of design school. I even had a little truck model with the logo printed on paper (but color painted myself, since color printing was not really an option back then) and glued to it. The Copa Cabana logo was designed for a dance club, while the Sint-Aubertus logo was for a chain of Belgian bakeries, for which we also created a series of paper bags for different types of bread. The Beluga logo was crafted for a delicacy shop.

The Tunenbel logo was designed for a Belgian export company to Tunis, All Meal delivers flour, and CS2 is a Belgian semiconductor company (the dots were printed in silver on the business card). As for Gowy and De Valck Engineering, I honestly don't remember much 🙈, except that the Gowy logo was a freelance job in 1993 for a local ad agency. The Cornelis logo was designed for my accountant at the time.

Late Nineties to Early Twenties

Then came the Internet! It opened a whole new world for me and I threw myself into learning HTML, and creating websites. However, in the very early days graphics were very limited. It was more a source of information then it was to find inspiration... Somewhere end of 1996 I had my business up and running on the web. Then when the Duoh! website was nominated  “Dynamic Site of The Day” by Macromedia (in 1997 I think 🤔) it got some visibility. Later in 2003 I also started my blog. 

I can honestly say that the internet saved my business. Before its arrival, there was no way for me to reach a wide audience. The ability to connect with people worldwide was exactly what I needed to find new clients and work. It couldn't have come at a better time because I remember struggling to make a living and being on the verge of giving up freelancing. Most of the logos shown in the image above date back from that period of time. I don't know their exact year but it must be in the range of 1998 til 2008 give or take. Many of them were developed during the dot-com bubble era.

With a background in print, designing logos has always been one of my specialties. It remains so today, and despite my years of experience, the challenge is as engaging as ever. The process hasn’t become easier or faster; to me, it has always felt a bit like solving a puzzle. There's also a very small element of what might be called 'luck.' On rare occasions, I achieve a surprising result in a relatively short amount of time. It only happened once or twice. Some are just easier than others. There's no set rule for how long a logo design will take.

Unfortunately, a few of them never saw the light of day. Many were dot-com startups that didn’t survive, such as MeowLife, a social network for cat lovers. Other companies or organisations simply don't exist anymore. However a couple still do such as Social Signal, The Perfect Wedding, Bia Creations & Acturent (both with my very old website design), and DISC BV for who I also created the Research Software logo.

Early Twenties until 2015

When viewing these logo designs, especially those in the two images previously to the one here above, you'll notice the influence of the internet on the design style. I've incorporated more colors and effects like gradients. Many of these logos are still in use today, provided the businesses still exist.

2015 Until Today

What’s also striking is the diversity of design styles. While I have an overall preference for sans serif typefaces or creating my own script typefaces, I also tend to favor logo designs that include a distinctive logo mark.

Not all of these logo designs are still in use today, and some are more recent than others. Incorporating a logo mark not only enhances recognizability but also ensures the design fits well within a square or circle, which is crucial for social media.

In many cases, my logo design work involves redesigning an existing logo. Depending on the job and the client, I might need to start from scratch, but more often, I am tasked with improving the existing logo. This could involve retaining and enhancing certain elements. For instance, with Suikerdraakje (sugar dragon in English), the little dragon had been their mascot for years. My job was to keep the dragon but redraw it. I illustrated it in various poses and angles for use in their website design and other applications.

For the French version of Suikerdraakje, named Dragon Dragées, we also took on the task of designing the logotype. We selected the Kevlar Bold font as the base and transformed some of the letterforms to achieve a more script-like style. Each letter connects seamlessly with the next, with the "s" being custom-crafted to ensure a smooth transition when linked to the "u". The same approach was applied to the letter "s" in the French logotype. However, since it is the final letter in this case, its shape was adjusted differently to suit its position at the end of the word. Furthermore, we also gave the letters “k” and “r” special treatment. 

Like with any design work, it's hard to estimate the time needed to complete the job. There are always so many variables to factor in when providing an estimate to the client. Sometimes a logo design can take up many design rounds to get it right. Fortunately (at least in my experience), this is more the exception than the rule. The best thing you can do is create as many sketches as possible. One of the last logos I created was for one of my best longterm clients. Knowing the client well is always a very good advantage, but even though that is certainly not enough for a guarantee the project will go smooth and easier than average. The 'type' and 'subject' of the logo plays a very important factor, and so is the name itself. For instance, the characters of the name, and the length is also be a factor.  Then there is the briefing: how well do you get briefed? Oh and the decision makers. This can be a very tricky one.  For this logo design, I filled about six pages with doodle, and  worked out about 6 different concepts in 9 design rounds before arriving at the final logo design. This was actually a record in all these years. We stumbled about 3x on a "oh this has already been done before" and one  "oh this looks too similar to..." knowing that I have never seen the logo in question before.