Logo Grid: What Is It and Why You Should Use It ?

So here we are again, a new project, a new client, a new avenue to showcase your creative genius, a new logo design. Where do you start? Shapes? Typography? A grid? A lot of designers would say logo grid at this point and rightly so. Logo grids didn’t earn popularity among designers just for the sake of it. Usually, the first line of action for most designers, it helps in organizing a clear and purposeful design that harmonizes aesthetically.

While a lot of designers have embraced the idea of using grid lines and know-how to navigate their way, others, especially beginners, do not know how or when exactly to use it. To better understand this asset and how important is it, we have to be clear on what exactly it is, which brings us to the next question.

What are Logo Grids? 

A logo grid is a popular crutch for startup designers planning to create a logo. The use of a guide for designs that exists in the extreme, small, or big helps promote an organized, structured, and aesthetically pleasing design. All logo grids use mathematical approach in their implementation. A logo grid is a feature tool that is used to create a geometrically, balanced design. The grids or guides are usually made from an enclosed square, while in some cases, depending on the designer’s preference or the scope of the project, circular logo grids are used. Some types of grids even involve invisible lines and whitespace spacing. The mathematical factor that all logo grids use ensures that space placement is accurate during the design process.

Grids

Grids are commonly used by designers for various aspects of designs and have been popular ever since its inception when creating printed or digital art. Grids concepts can be old and time-tested or modern and customized grids. Most grids system may consist of a golden ratio (commonly used in mathematics), rows, and columns grid. They are not limited to any kind of design construction, and it is now being used effectively for creating logos.

Although grids for logos are not restricted to a specific canvas or workspace, hence logo guides usually come with a bit more flexibility in its usage of lines and curves.

Using a Logo Grid

The options present when using logo grids are usually based on the kind of project you are working on, the scope, and even the size. While some designers usually custom create their own grid structures, some stick with the traditional grid system commonly found in the design sphere.

Below are benefits of using a grid for your logo design:

• Grids help in the organization of your project and enabled exceptional focus.
• Grids remove the distraction from your workspace and are usually a great tool for creating tidy, classic, and uncluttered logos.
• Logo grids help in creating a versatile design that can be used in any form and space.
• Grids, contrary to beliefs that they are constricting, actually improves creativity and flexibility. All points in spaces are usually accounted Hence it reduces unnecessary tinkering and increases productive time.

Logo grids are important to logo designs, although this method of design is just one of many design styles available in the design community.

Below are the do’s and don’ts of using a logo grid:

• Don’t: Overthink things, empty spaces are empty spaces, do not clutter your spaces by adding unnecessary geometric form
• Don’t: Use mathematical ratios to logos where it is not needed
• Do: Use grids and different geometric shapes to produce a classic design
• Do: Practice regularly with different geometric shapes and get more familiar with logo grids

Should You Use a Logo Grid?

Logo grid is fun yet touchy subject for many designers. While some designers believe that logo grids uphold their own process of simplicity in planning and functionality, others believe that it deviates too much from what logo design process should look like.

As with any design technique, it is great for some and a pain for others. Whichever team you belong to, everyone agrees that building a logo from scratch is similar to constructing a building. A good foundation, in this case – logo grids, ensures a lasting structure for years. Whether you are doing branding for corporate bodies or working on projects that weigh heavily on identity, it’s advisable to consider logo grids to at least give your boost some sort of structural integrity. If you are not comfortable with the pre-attached grid, you can always come up with logo grids that fit your own specifications.

Logo grid system is a very useful tool, especially if you are a beginner level logo designer. Experiment, and try out the various systems and determine the one you are most comfortable with as a designer.