What Is A Conceptual Design? And How To Wrap Your Mind Around Ideation?

Every element of visual representation which conveys a clear message has a meaning behind it. Proper ideas and inspirations are essential for making a solid design foundation. 

Hence, you should have a general idea or inspiration before designing or you should have a concrete and compelling idea before starting out with a conceptual logo. This approach in designing is called a conceptual design. 

What Is Conceptual Design?

Conceptual design is basically a framework which is essential for establishing the base idea behind any design. If can also be termed as the extremely essential blueprint of a conceptual logo which is the backbone of the main design. 

The term conceptual design is related with concept art, which is basically the artwork used to represent video games/ films before their release in order to give the audience an idea of how the final product will look.

 In the same way, conceptual art is the basic design blueprint which represents the basic meaning behind that design in the preproduction phase. 

For ultimate results, the proper combination of concepts and execution is required. Concepts are basically the brains of a conceptual logo where execution is related with bringing those ideas to life. 

Let us dig deeper into conceptual design in this blog. 

The Purpose Of Conceptual Design

The basic idea behind conceptual design is to give a visual shape to an idea. There are three main facets to the goals of conceptual design. 

•  To establish a basis of logic

Designs are essential not only for their aesthetical aspects but to convey information as well (about the brand). And for achieving the same, proper thought and design knowledge is required. 

Every design should look good and explain the meaning hidden in it, flawlessly at the same time. 

 Hence, having a working blueprint (conceptual design) helps in making things exponentially easier for the designers. A good conceptual design answers all the why and how questions about the design.

• To create design language

The basic idea behind creating a conceptual design is to bridge the gap between visual elements and thoughts. 

And design language is nothing but a type of design element which is used to bridge that gap. Hence, just like we discussed above, the conceptual design will lay the groundwork for making useful and meaningful conceptual logo design elements down the line.

• Originality

In a world filled with hundreds and thousands of knockoffs, ideas which are original, tend to flourish. The base idea behind having a conceptual logo design is to make your designs different from the competition.

If you know what the finished product will look like in the initial stages, implementing essential changes will become easier. This will allow for more originality in designs, generally speaking. 

The Conceptual Design Approach

Now, as we are clear on what conceptual logo design is, we can discuss how the process is carried out. Although this process involves four steps, the order in which you implement them can be as random as you like. 

Generally speaking, every designer works differently. Some take ideas from the outside world and then bring them to life, others simply start doodling without thinking and get ideas on the way. 

Hence, you can go about these steps in whatever order suits you. Let us now discuss the entire conceptual design process.

• Definition

Every conceptual logo design project should essentially begin with you asking why is it necessary and how is it relevant? The goals and meaning behind the entire project should be made clear beforehand. 

This method is excellent if you are troubleshooting a problem in the main design. A really simple yet effective way of doing the same is by asking why? 

The concept involves asking 5 why’s to yourself while designing your conceptual logo. This will give you a better insight on the project and will also help to derive a meaning out of it.

 Moreover, identifying errors and making changes to them at this stage will save your conceptual logo design from getting flawed. 

• Research

Generally speaking, a better understanding of any conceptual logo design can be achieved by ample result. If research does not pin-point the problem or does not provide you with the meaning you were looking for.

It will definitely give you ideas and inspirations about the project. Hence, every conceptual logo design project should kick start with proper research.

The research can be as basic as some information on the clients or groundwork on the brand’s products. Learn who are the people that will interact with the design and do some basic research.

 The conceptual logo design will eventually be targeted towards these people, hence, making sure that it matches with their needs and requirements is necessary. 

This research can also be directed towards the projects and designers you look up to; having an insight on their projects will give you some ideas and possibly a viable solution to your problem. 

• Verbal ideation

Concepts are nothing but jumbled and scattered words in our minds. In order to make something working out of those scattered thoughts, you have to unjumble those words. This brainstorming session will eventually give a verbal concept identity to your project.

Some basic techniques like mind-mapping or free association can assist you with better verbal ideation. The basic idea here is to mince words in a unique way where they make the same sense as your conceptual logo design project. 

• Visual ideation

The next phase is related with penning down your thoughts and making working visual designs out of them. This step will essentially give you a preview of how the finished product will look. 

Hence, the step is extremely essential and can also be useful in spotting any practical flaws/ errors which were hidden in theoretical planning. 

Visual ideation usually takes place when a designer sketches the conceptual logo design on the drawing board. The main goal is to get more ideas while freestyling and identifying flaws while doing the same. 

Always remember to keep your hands busy in this step as getting stuck on one design will put your progress to a halt or could also make you overthink the design.

 Once you have finished a few sketches which look good, combine the ideas and try to narrate a story with the design. This will make the conceptual logo design a huge success. 

Get Your Logos Designed Professionally

The ideal way of designing a properly functioning logo which looks good and represents your brand flawlessly, is by taking professional help.

 Talking about professional help, crowdsourcing is the most hyped phenomenon in the design world right now. Logo design contests should be your go to if you want to save time and money while designing the ultimate brand logo for yourself. 

Designfier can assist you with organizing these logo design contests at an astonishing price for the services they provide. For a revolutionary price of just $99, you can ideally design a bright future for your brand. 

The company caters with designing needs for all brand identity elements. That way, you won’t have to worry about conceptual designing at all. 

Hence, you can never go wrong with choosing Designfier for your latest design projects. Let the professionals do the heavy lifting for you.