Logo Design For Filmmakers

Designing a logo is no easy task and it is always better to hire a professional graphic designer to do it. However, if you’d like to know how to design a logo for your filmmaking business, this short tutorial will show you some basic steps to follow.

As an example, we are going to create a production company called “Byway Films”.

FONT

First of all, we need to do some research on font style we want to use with our logo. We have two words: “Byway” and “Films” which we can write in two different ways. Using a maximum of two fonts of different weights in a logo is standard practice. Sometimes it’s possible to separate words from each other by keeping the same font, but changing their size or color. However, we should consider that seeing too many typefaces at once causes confusion!

Let’s try to write down the name of the company using different fonts:

When you’re designing your own logo, the tip you can use is to go on some websites with font libraries. If you’re not a graphic designer and you don’t know how to create your own customized font, you can go on www.dafont.com where you’ll find thousands of free fonts which you can easily download.

This website also allows you to type the name of your company and preview it across many different fonts available in the library. It’ll also help you to check quickly what looks good or not with your logo.

ICON

Once we have some possible fonts selected, we can also try to add an icon to the logo. First of all, we need to search for some images, pictures or shapes that symbolize cinema or filmmaking. Here are some examples:

Now, let’s try to find a shape or a symbol that represents the company’s name…

Finally, we need to match the shape of the road to one of the film symbols. In my opinion, the best solution is to merge the square shape of the film with a curved line of the road. I also suggest keeping the icon as clean and modern as possible — the more simple it is, the more memorable it will be to the audience!

LOGO

Now the next step is matching a font to the style of the icon. We need to make sure that the icon and the font do not compete with each other for attention. Otherwise, the viewers won’t know where to focus! For this reason we’ll choose a very simple font.

Once we’ve selected the font and matched to the icon, the ultimate goal is choosing a color. The best decision is to choose one or two colors that will facilitate recognition of the brand. But we should remember that a good logo has to be readable also in black and white!

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Ela Gancarz is an art director and designer who specializes in branding, entertainment advertising, commercials and web strategies across a variety of media including film, photography and installation art. Find out more about Ela’s services by visiting www.DeLightFilm.com