Client brief today: “a more memorable logo that feels like Apple, but not Apple,” and can I “lock that vibe into the brand guidelines” — preferably before lunch. I’m in Illustrator nudging a 2px grid and defending Pantone 2995 C while writing a 16‑page guide to stop the inevitable 11 p.m. “make it bigger” email; anyone else playing logo designer and hall monitor at the same time?
I add a “size ladder” page in the guide — min/ideal/max with a quick mockup showing hierarchy collapse when the logo grows — and it cut my “make it bigger” pings in half. For the “feels like Apple” ask, I use generous whitespace and a consistent corner radius on the icon grid, but keep one intentional quirk so it doesn’t read like a clone.
@james_h77 I bake a ‘logo-to-H1 ratio’ into the guide — logo max 0.85× H1 cap height with a quick mock of hierarchy collapse — and it ended my 11 p.m… bigger pings; only caveat, I loosen it about 10% for outdoor.