01
Before you draw a logo
Your job is not to invent a clever symbol.
Find a visual idea that makes Qwerty Labs feel unmistakably like Qwerty Labs.
Then see whether that idea wants to become a mark, a wordmark, a behaviour, or a whole identity system.
A great logo can be simple. The thinking behind it usually isn’t.
02
The professional shape of the work
Strategy → sources → making → selection → system → testing.
01Know the brief
02Find a strong idea
03Hunt strange sources
04Make lots
05Kill most
06Build the world
07Stress-test it
Good agencies vary the exact process. The discipline is remarkably consistent.
03
QL’s north star
Smart, strange, useful and beautiful digital things get made here.
Warm + technicalHuman without becoming childish. Precise without becoming sterile.
Old + newComfortable with technology’s history and future. Not retro cosplay.
Serious + informalHigh-quality work without startup pomp or institutional stiffness.
Physical + digitalMaking, coding, electronics, design, games, systems, ideas.
Structured + experimentalKnow the rules. Then know when to bend them.
Teaching + practiceQL teaches because it makes; it makes because it understands.
04
The trap
First-order ideas arrive first because everybody can think of them.
Dead ends
- tech → circuit
- creativity → spark
- Qwerty → keyboard
- Labs → science
- AI → nodes
Go sideways instead
- How can parts show they belong together?
- How does hidden structure become visible?
- What traces does making leave behind?
- How can a system adapt under constraint?
- What can an error reveal?
AIGA’s teaching material makes the same point: the first 10–15 sketches are often the expected clichés. Keep going.
05
Source hunt
Look outside logo-land.
Find real phenomena, systems, mistakes, objects and behaviours with interesting rules.
printingbookbindingbroadcast
fabricationnotationarchives
mechanicsinterfacessignals
mapsmanufacturingerrors
Don’t ask: “what does this look like?”
Ask: “what does this do?”
Ask: “what does this do?”
Repeat? split? interrupt? fold? mate? reveal? degrade? encode? align? overshoot? transform?
06
Making phase
Make before you decide.
Quantity first
Aim for dozens of tiny rough experiments. Pencil, cut paper, Illustrator, bitmap, photocopy, whatever is fastest.
Different ideas
Thirty tweaks to one shape are not thirty ideas. Change the governing rule.
Ugly is allowed
You are testing thought, not presenting finished work.
Notice surprises
The best result may turn out to be typography, motion or a border rule rather than “the symbol”. Follow it.
Professional practice is prolific: Koto explicitly recommends making as much as possible; AIGA uses 50 thumbnails to force thinking beyond the obvious.
07
The ruthless review
Do not reward an idea because it was difficult to invent.
Does it feel specifically QL?
Is the underlying rule interesting?
Could it become recognisable?
Does it avoid tech-brand shorthand?
Can it survive one colour?
Can it survive 16–32px?
Is it still interesting on a shopfront?
Could it generate a wider identity?
If it could comfortably be a SaaS company, AI startup, coding school or generic design studio: make it stranger or kill it.
08
Where we already are
You are not starting with a blank page.
DC and I have already done much of the strategy and source-territory work. The current experiments include:
Marriage marksSeparate parts carry evidence of how they belong together.
Needle sortInformation is encoded by removing material from a boundary.
CatchwordA small piece of what comes next appears inside what exists now.
KerfThe missing material is evidence that making happened.
Error diffusionLocal error is redistributed so the whole becomes more accurate.
Soft hyphenA hidden rule becomes visible only when circumstances require it.
These are source territories, not logo instructions. You are allowed to reject all of them.
09
Your first working session
Pick 3 territories. Spend 20 minutes on each.
1. Gather
Find 4–8 visual references showing the actual source phenomenon. Not logos inspired by it.
2. Extract
Write 3 verbs describing what the source does: split, mate, remove, echo, reveal…
3. Abuse it
Make 10 tiny experiments per territory. Change shapes, weight, rhythm, scale and context.
Do not finish anything.
Bring back the evidence.
Bring back the evidence.
The question at the end is not “which logo do we like?” It is “which rule keeps producing interesting Qwerty-ish things?”
10
The only bit of homework I’m making you read
Why this process?
It closely matches how experienced identity studios and design educators describe the work: strategy first, broad references, lots of making, selection by fit, then development into a usable system.
- Koto / Seasoned — Start with Strategy
- Koto / Seasoned — Making Your Ideas a Reality
- Koto / Seasoned — The Power of Good Ideas
- AIGA — Generate Ideas
- AIGA — Design Development
- Wolff Olins — Strategy as fuel for creativity
Shortcut: read Koto’s “Making your ideas a reality” if you read only one.
11
Your project memory
Keep the useful thinking.
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