Last week I introduced the Design Cubicle’s new logo and this week I would like to share my creative process with all of you.
Before I begin, it’s important to have an understanding how the name ‘Design Cubicle’ name to be:
Around my 2nd year of high school I began to take graphic design more serious and consider it as my career path. I continued working at it, improving my skills and continued my education at Temple University. Taking my very first ‘introduction to design’ class, I remember there was no better feeling than sitting behind the computers with my headphones on… designing, creating, thinking — in my own little world.
My career path led me to various design studios directly out of college and found myself sitting behind cubicles with my headphones on, once again designing — freeing myself from everything else. While most dislike the dreaded cubicle, I oddly enough found myself enjoying it. For me, it served as my own world. A place to create, interact with other designers, learn and forget about everything else in my life — my own design community.
Now working mostly from home as an independent graphic designer, I wanted my blog to reflect the same sense of community that the workspace and “cubicle-life” provided me — A place to create, interact and learn — The Design Cubicle.
Now onto the new logo’s process:
Phase 1: Defining the goal
The goal was to create a logo that was memorable, represented the cubicle concept and showed a sense of community and connectedness, as discussed above. I also wanted it to be simple and smart, since I am a firm believer that less is more.
It also had to work well in various sizes, since it was to be used as the site’s favicon and other smaller online propaganda.
Phase 2: Sketching and visual brainstorming
Sketching is an extremely important step of any design process. It helps to get your ideas down quickly and without attention to unnecessary detail in the beginning. Below, you can see where the final logo was starting to take form in the sketches circled in red:
Phase 3: Bringing the above ideas to the computer
Once I had some groundwork to pull from, I opened up Illustrator and did some “computer sketching”, playing around with various combinations and more ideas. Notice below that some of the ideas steered away from the initial goal, but sometimes turning another direction gets you back on the correct path — Guess that’s why it’s called a creative “process” 
Phase 4: Narrowing it down
Most of the time I find myself going back to repeat phases 2 and 3 before narrowing my ideas down to two or three choices. This phase is usually the point where I start playing around with variations and typefaces of the ideas from phase 3.
This stage was particularly hard for me for this specific logo because I like both the right and left side variations. I asked my Twitter friends for their feedback and once again it was a toss up, ugh!…
Phase 5: Making the decision
While the final decision was tough, I decided to go with the “double cubicle”. I felt it had more of a suggestion of cubicles and ‘DC’. It connected back to the goal of portraying a sense of community and connectedness with two cubicles that were intertwined. What do you think?
 
Which variation in Phase 4 do you prefer?
Feedback is always appreciated and serves as a valuable step in the creative process. Feel free to add a comment or share your thoughts.
Related posts:
TDC gets new logo and website update
11 Steps of a Successful Logo Design Process
16 Unveiled Logo Design Processes!
Thanks for the insight to your process, very informative. I dig the logo as well.
Second down on the left for me
Great to understand some of the process involved Thanks!
I like the new logo. I think you chose the right version. This is my favorite variation.
Wow! You went through many different and widely varying ideas. I think it says you’ve arrived at the best solution when people look at the logo and think, “Well, yeah. Of course that makes the most sense and it was probably an easy decision. It fits the company/site/person so perfectly.” That’s what I thought when I saw this anyway.
Did you try Template Gothic as a typeface at all? It seems like it would go really well with the mark you created. Whether you stay with the current face or try Template Gothic, you might try rounding out the mark a little more to match the roundness of the typeface.
I think the double cubies is definitely the strongest because it obviously reflects the initials of the site–DC–but it is also 2 cubies, which is creating that sense of community! Ha, which is exactly what you said now that I go back and read the last paragraph of your post. Well, it’s good to know you’re conveying exactly what you want–to me at least
You know when I first saw your site, Brian, I thought it was a place for in-house designers feeling caged in by cubes (I’m one of those!). Maybe you could include what you’ve written here about your goals for the site on the about page? I mean, not that this new reason would drive away in-housers at all! Just, maybe it’ll give a better feel for what people can find here.
Arron and styletime -
Thanks for the comments. Glad to see you enjoy the post.
LaurenMarie -
Always enjoy seeing your comments and seeing you put much thought into your responses. They are always welcome and appreciated
As far as the typeface… I tried about 5 different typefaces and felt the current one worked the best. I’m not sure if I tried Template Gothic, but will definitely give that a look. Now that you mentioned it, I will try rounding off the cubicles to work with the rounded typeface. Thanks for the suggestions!
As for the the About me page - I love that suggestion and will DEFINITELY be putting that to use! Its amazing the amount of enjoyment I have received in just under 3 months of blogging. It has brought new new direction to my work and my career as a designer.
Thanks again for all your valuable feedback and your continuous involvement here. Look forward to reading more comments from you soon
I really like your design with the 2 cubicles, but I would vertically flip the left cubicle. I think it gives more of a D shape.
Aww, you’re welcome Brian! Sure feels good to be appreciated
And I’m glad to help! I know how valuable a fresh eye can be for improving design work. The critiquing process really helps me as much as it helps you–like we talked about earlier!
LaurenMarie -
Absolutely, being involved anyway possible is great for the growing process.
Well thought out and clean. Less is more and this makes that clear. Nice insight too.
Thanks for this, I always find it very interesting and beneficial to be taking through other designer’s processes. I definitely think that you chose the right version, though I also have to give a thumbs up to the bottom left logo on the Phase 3 image.
Mark -
Glad you like it.
Angie -
That was the biggest toss up for me…the one I went with or the bottom left of Phase 3. Although I think I like the other one better visually, the one I choose represented more what the site was about. Thanks for your comment
Brian, so nice to see your creative process. I laughed when I read your whole headphones/designing/creating/thinking comment - it’s a big part of how I’ve found such a wide genre of music to appreciate.
Your current logo is the one I “voted” for so of course I’m happy to see it be the “chosen one”.
Looks like all your efforts are paying off for you - congrats!
Great insight into the creative process - good bloggin’
I think this logo is boring!
Sanderveldit,
Constructive design criticism cites specific design theories, principles & perceptions that are useful for the designer in understanding what their message is ultimately communicating to their audience. As a designer myself I find your feedback vague and not helpful or useful. Structuring your message towards specific, useful feedback in the future will work towards creating a supportive environment from which we all can learn and grow.
I like it! Clean
nice article too 
I love it! Simple, clean, and memorable.. all my favorite things
Thanks for the post–it’s nice seeing how others create! I actually stumbled upon your site via Twitter and was admiring your logo before I saw this. Very neat, thanks! 
Rhonda,
Thanks for your kind words on my new logo. I put much thought into it so I’m happy to see all the positive comments!
Sanderveldit,
I have no problem with negative criticism… It’s hard to please everyone, but to not support you’re feedback, like Rhonda said, is not doing anyone any good. Please let me know what you like/dislike about it? It will only help us all out. Thanks
AngelA,
Thanks for checking out the site and so glad you like the logo. I will be doing more of the creative analysis’ often so I look forward to hearing more from you.
Awesome! Sometimes I almost love seeing the process more than just final the piece, haha. I would have to agree with Calvin, my favorite is middle left (although all of the final 6 are great)
You chose the right option, Brian (figuratively and literally).
The two cubicles is more distinctive and visually appealing. Great to see what your sketches look like!
Thanks.Perfect!
I also believe the right option, is the ‘right’ one. It’s good to see a logo with logic (and meaning) behind, nowadays all one sees is ‘good’ looking logos, with nice trendy effects!
Well done!
Mokokoma,
You make a really good point - the logo is timeless and does not feel as though it is specific to a particular era, allowing it to be the foundation of a strong brand for many web years to come!
I definitely like the one you went with, but it wasn’t until I read the article that I realized that the logo works as a capital “DC.” Because the name is all lower case, I was trying to see a “dc” instead.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing…some of the best marks have things that aren’t obvious at first glance (e.g. FedEx arrow).
Hi Sean, although I’m not a logo guy myself, I would’ve left the left side at the bottom and the right side on the top, so it would read like a lowercase dc, instead of the current state, which is more like a DC or Dc.
That said, it’s very nice of you to share ur design process, very insightful. Great work.
Daxion,
Thanks for your comment and kind words. I actually played around with the way the how the cubes formed the DC (or dc). It wasn’t really about being capital or lowercase, but based on which visually sat better together.
I personally think that the single cubicle idea works better. That one appears as a D and a C at the same time. The typeface choice is the weakest part of the design. Something more rigid to match the look of the logo. Although that may have been a part of your thought process to make sure the typeface doesn’t imitate the characteristics of the logo too much.
Thanks for the great insight. I am in the process of designing a logo myself, so this helps! The final result looks stunning for me! Clean and easy to remember. Perfect!
At first glance, i personally did not feel the logo. It appeared flat with no substance. I do personally believe that less is more but however the aspect of less should be powerful when it conveys the message. But when i read the beautifully articulated process you went through to design the logo it sort of made sense but remember, you are never always there to explain your logo.. the logo itself should convey the message. I think if u had continued to working on the logo further to about 7 to 8 phases you could have created a much powerful logo. Otherwise….what an exceptional insight into the creative process!!!
Interesting process. I’m attempting to learn logo design and this is a really awesome insight into the entire step-by-step way of it. It’s always amazing to me how much work and depth goes into a logo graphic.
Hey Brian,
I came across your article while going thru logodesignlove.
It’s a well written article. And thank you for sharing your thought process.(a lot of designers do guard their thought process, probably due to insecurity). And I’m also in agreement with loads of others about the final choice of the logo. Like it’s simplicity very much. And also the fact that it communicates what it started out to communicate.
But one question to you, did you try a colour version of the same?
Thank you again for your generosity.
Sham,
Thrilled to see you stumbled across my site and glad you thought it was well written. I do have a color version of the site, that I might be implementing into my new header that could be coming soon
Hey Brian,
Really like how you took a negative…trapped in a box and turned it into a positive. Nice concept and well executed.
its really awesome insight into the entire process of it. the process is very easy to remember..
Thank you again
Ajay
IT’s really great logo process, at a glance you can easily distiguise the “D” and “C” figure of the logo but in other meaning is the cubicle thing.. great stuff.. like it
Nice insight and you made the right choice in phase 4, good job Brian
what happened? do share
Wow, man! Amazing! I am definetly going to use this list for a new redesign of my website. Thanks a lot!
I choose a third row of second colunm, and in the future supress the word “desing cubicle”.
It’s a very interesting “guide” of Know-how a logo.
ME GUSTAAAAAA…YO TAMBIEN ESTOY EN UN PROCESO CREATIVO PARA MI BLOG QUE SE LLAMA “ZONAGARF”, YA ESTARE EMPEZANDO CON LOS SIGUIENTES PASOS ME GUSTA LA SENCILLES DE LOS LOGOTIPOS….!!
Very simple but strong logo. Puts an impression in my brain. Well done!