Allow me introduce Nik Helgaas, one of Bailey Gardiner’s brand-building, creative-crusading, and to put it lightly – really good – art directors. He sits behind me and for far too long now, he’s been shuffling around an S, a D, an A and an R on his computer screens. I do PR; I would get in trouble if I spent hours playing with letters. Nik, however, is a logo-maker…among other things of course. Forever a student at heart, I ask Nik,

“What ARE you doing?”

Nik was making a logo for the San Diego Association of REALTORS®. He was spending hours turning symbols into a brand. I was intrigued, so I interviewed him. I hope you find his insights as interesting as I do.

Where do you start?
Well in a small shop we all wear a lot of hats. Basically, I get a brief, with direction. I work with the copywriter and the rest of the team to hone in on a selling point. Together, we think up an idea, a battle plan, then we break. My job, as an Art Director, is to say, “Here are some options for the look and feel we’re headed toward” and then, we create. In this case, I got to do some design – not always the case for an Art Director

Where does the inspiration come from?
Research. In the case of new client, Pierce Education Properties, I flew to Michigan to check out what people there are looking at, what they’re doing, the current tone, the current work of the client and to start creating something really different.

I asked Nik about the book on his desk, Dos Logos, by Roland Muller. He informed me that creatives use tools such as this for inspiration. They look at other people’s work – not to rip it off – but to open the mind. To find that words don’t have to be aligned left to right with spaces in the middle. They could intersect, letters can be backwards…the sky is the limit.

Is this fun art to you, or is this work?
I see it as a chance to really dig into the brand. When I was told I only had 22 hours to work on one project, my first impression was that I could spend so much more time. It’s like getting dressed in the morning. If you only have 5 minutes, what are you going to do? I’m going to put on that power suit that I know works…Well we don’t wear suits, but you get it.

22 Hours? With only a couple letters?
Well when we re-branded the Bailey Gardiner logo, I spent two weeks straight just looking at different Bs and Gs.

Do they ever start to look the same?
No. They start to look different.

Is your job something that can be taught? Or is it talent?
It’s like playing the guitar. You can’t just pick it up and expect to be good right away. You have to want to really want to do it, want to research, want to commit to it, and you have to get it. You can’t teach creativity. That part of it, you have to get.

So back to this SDAR logo. You have direction, you have the letters and you have a past logo, where do you go from there?
There are many ways to tackle this beast, but in this case, I chose a font first. I went through all my font categories and chose the type I liked best, then I started messing with it. I tried to incorporate the old logo a bit because you don’t just want to throw away something that has meaning to the brand, you just want to give it “a haircut.” So I made subtle changes and modernized an older logo and hours later I had three new logo options for our client.

The four logos created by Nik and Designer, Francis Floro, which were presented to SDAR.

How do you ensure that what you’re giving the client is what they want, and not what you think looks good?
This is why it’s good to have multiple people contributing to new ideas. We had 2 people designing logos for SDAR, knowing that they were going to come out with a range of styles. We know what we think is best for the client, but sometimes, you have to give them a bunch of options to let them know you see the whole story, and ultimately get to the one you like best. We often have to remind our clients that it’s not about them, their personal preferences, or how this logo represents them, but rather, what their business brings to the marketplace. If we do that well, then we’re giving the client what they want.

Nik shared with me this video interview with design icon Carlos Segura giving his thoughts on a few of the same topics. His insights are worth a listen.