How to Set a Text-only Logotype

Excerpted from
Before & After: How to Design Cool Stuff
By John McWade

Welcome to Nagano Urban Grill, a popular midtown hangout. Our project is to design its logotype. A logo is a company’s signature; it’s a distinctive way of writing its name. Some logos include graphics and some do not. A good logo is bold, clear, and attractive, and it conveys an appropriate sense of the company. These qualities can be difficult to combine in one word. The place to start on a text-only logo—or wordmark—is with the natural pattern of its letters.

Every word has a natural pattern

Before setting type, take a visual inventory. Even handwritten, we can see a descending g loop and repeating a’s, which form a trio of roundish shapes more or less in the middle. Nagano starts with an angle (N) and ends with a circle (o), both of which have open ends that lead the eye outward. It has six letters. Visually, Nagano is an average word. It’s easy to say (NOG-uh-no), and it has strong Japanese associations. These qualities will form the foundation of our designs.

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