The Logo Clinic – Open for logo design patients

After spending some time on Dribbble, I found myself contributing comments to a few other Dribbblers logo designs. The idea to set up The Logo Clinic came to me after a new client actually found me on Dribbble, and had seen some of my work as well as comments on other peoples designs. If I could spare time on Dribbble, why not spare some time for other designers who have yet to get themselves invited to Dribbble?

A place where people know the person who is running the clinic, from who’s lips the advice is taken.

Plenty of places to get feedback

There are of course many ways one can seek feedback, sites like Logopond, Flickr, Typophile all provide a crowd of people ready and eager to say their bit. The problem comes when too many mouths are talking, with design being so subjective, conflicting thoughts and suggestions can lead to confusion and headaches. If all these voices are basically saying the same thing, then this is great, it can be really useful.

The other thing is that you really have no idea about who is making comments, what their own background is, are they being constructive, are they just jealous and actually trying to make you think your good design is anything but. I have seen a number of comments that are just based on jealousy, and that’s not at all helpful when you are looking for sincere feedback.

Dribbble refines this feedback process

Dribbble has resolved this problem, you can be sure that anyone who comments is doing so for the right reasons. It’s not like DIGG or YouTube, where you have to worry about sarcastic or cruel comments. This is so important if you are just starting out, constructive criticism is one thing, flagrant abuse can seriously dent your self-confidence, it’s all too easy to believe or be affected by negativity on the internet.

But getting on Dribbble is tricky at best, and I know there are plenty of designers out there keen to get some advice or general feedback on a logo, but are maybe a little unsure about opening it up to all and sundry.

A single voice

On occasion I receive emails from people asking for advice on a design or just need some advice on work related matters, but I find myself unable to reply to all of these personally. Much better I thought to have a place where people can approach me if they need to, rather than getting tied up in emails and IM conversations.

Also, having this advice open to all can prove useful for others.

So, The Logo Clinic was formed. It runs off Tumblr for now, I’m not a web developer, so Tumblr seemed to have the best mix of technologies to get this off the ground quickly and simply. It provides an easy system for question asking and submission of logo images for feedback with minimal effort from me. Allowing me time to focus on the replies rather than developing a web site.

What you will get

For now, The Logo Clinic will be just me offering thoughts, advice and ideas. As the tag line states :

Walk in with a logo design you need some help with – walk out with a fresh perspective.

This is a single voice to avoid confusion and differing or conflicting views. But with this comes a sacrifice, for this reason it can be a little limited. But if you like my general style of design, if you feel you trust my basic thoughts and ideas, then this is a great way for you to overcome certain issues with your logo design.

The clinic can help you with…

At the clinic I can help with typography and font selection, technical details, colours, spacing, general aesthetics, aspects of freelancing, work practices and anything else that comes to mind.

What I can’t help with is idea generation. So please don’t ask me to help you come up with actual ideas for a logo, the purpose at the clinic is to help you with the idea you have already come up with. You might be having some problems with type choice, a little unsure about kerning or other typographic details. Anything that falls under logo design and freelancing, I am happy to help, if I can.

How it works

The format is quite simple. You can either ask a simple text only question by choosing the ‘Ask logo question‘ link.

If you query needs a visual reference, then you can upload your image, much like you can in Dribbble. Here I will be able to see what you are talking about, and better able to help out. By selecting ‘Submit design‘, you will be presented with the following dialogue box.

The image size should be 500px wide by 333px deep only, but full details can be found on ‘Submit design‘.

All comments and submissions are moderated. If you submit a design and it’s not live within 24hrs, then the chances are I have too many other patients to see, or you are just a hypochondriac.

If you are happy for other people to offer feedback, then state this in your submission, and use the ‘freeforall‘ tag. This will more likely mean your submission will be approved when I am personally busy and unavailable. I will moderate any feedback thus given, so anything that comes in that is cruel or vindictive, I will junk. So for the most part, you will only see constructive comments.

One issue with selecting ‘freeforall’ is that you may end up with a number of conflicting replies, which can end up creating the confusion that The Logo Clinic was set-up to avoid, so that needs to be considered.

‘Free for all’ feedback

For designers who are just checking the site out, you may be in a position to offer your own feedback. If the logo design you see has been tagged with ‘freeforall‘ then this means you can offer up your own comments. Please be constructive with the feedback, any rude, negative or vindictive comments will be trashed.

Don’t rush into leaving a comment, especially if it looks like it may conflict with another comment. Take time to consider your thoughts and other comments before leaving yours.

Disclaimer

I am certainly not saying ‘my way is the best way or the only way’, it’s just the right way as far as I am concerned. If you are looking for more varied feedback, sites like the ones mentioned above may be more fruitful.

Please be aware that plenty of other designers may feel the opposite to what I suggest, I am just offering up my own ideas for you to consider and act on if you feel its of use.

If you are just looking for my opinion on a finished logo design, I will try my best to be neutral, but this is not always possible, so if you don’t like my general style of design, it may be counter productive to ask for my thoughts.

The clinic is free, but…

The clinic is free, no private logo insurance plan needed. However, as I do have a full time job myself, this is mostly a side project. I can’t promise I can reply to all submissions, or that my replies will be prompt. But I will try to do my best. If you are in a sticky hole and need some urgent advice, it’s probably better to look elsewhere.

Please just be mindful that I am just one clinical consultant, opening hours vary and the number of patients can go up as well as down.

Please don’t abuse this service by posting multiple queries, it’s just a service to help you out of a sticky bind mostly. The Logo Clinic is just an experiment, to see if anyone fancies making use of clinical advice from a single consultant. If it takes off, then I will hire other logo designers to help out with the advice.

You could tap me up on Twitter before hand and see if I am around.

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