I can’t draw. There, I’ve said it. And I’m proud to say it, because there’s a stigma that seems to follow designers around like a bad smell; that in order to be a great logo designer, you need to be good at sketching.

I am proof that you do not.

Over roughly 15 years I have worked with companies from all over the globe, designing logos for motorcycle clubs, restaurants, sports bars, electricians, tech firms, musicians and even tv personalities. And I made every one of these logos without the need for artistic skills with a pen and paper, by creating a workflow that allows me to work at lightning fast speeds in Adobe Illustrator.

During my career I have worked in the publishing industry, for in-house design teams, at agencies and as a freelancer for my own clients. And at every single one of these jobs I made a name for myself as a designer that works quickly.

In this course I’ll show you my secrets to working in Illustrator at super speed, to help you test and ultimately refine your designs in a vector format. You’ll discover how to:

Set up your hardware
Customise your workspaces and keyboard shortcuts
Use additional software and hardware tricks

With these tips you'll be flying around Adobe Illustrator and working iteratively inside the program.

Some of the techniques in this course are for beginners, but ideally you should have a basic understanding of Adobe Illustrator. I will cover some of the fundamental tools you’ll need to work up logos, but I’d class this course as beginner-to-intermediate. The workflow and techniques in this course are designed to help you question your current workflow and to help you optimise your output and increase your efficiency.

With these tips, you’ll be able to take simple line drawings (terrible sketches) and work them up in vector in no time, to either rule out that concept, or refine it to perfection. And with these skills you’ll hopefully be able to get more clients through the door.

At the end of the course you can follow along as I design a logo from start to finish.

My Hardware and Specs

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports, 2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5)
2 x Samsung 28" U28E590 UHD displays
Logitech MX Master 3S for Mac Mouse
Logitech MX Keys for Mac Keyboard
Creator Micro Macro Pad by Work Louder

My Software

macOS Ventura 13.4.1
Adobe Illustrator CC 2024 v28.0
Adobe Photoshop CC 2024 v25.1.0
Logitech Options+ v1.58
VIA v2.0.5

James Barnard

Logo Designer

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