Exploring Precision — A Designer’s Journey into Grid-Based Logo Design
As designers, we’re constantly seeking new ways to evolve—pushing the boundaries of creativity while refining our technical skills. At first glance, grids might seem restrictive or overly technical. The method presented below is a good way to train your visual perception and to develop other possibilities of expression.
The Grid Design Method is a way to create logos—one that combines creative vision with geometric structure. In the rest of this post, I’ll walk you through how it works, why it matters, and how it can elevate your skills to a whole new level.
How the Grid Design Method Works: A Shape-First Approach
The Grid Design Method is not just a technical tool—it’s a creative process. At its core, it starts with simple geometry and invites you to transform it into something entirely new. This method lets you explore structure and creativity hand in hand, using the grid as your guide.
1. Begin with a Basic Geometric Form
Start the process with a pure, simple shape: a circle, square, triangle, regtancle or other form.
2. Segment the Shape with Intention
Once you’ve chosen your starting shape, the next step is to cut it—and this is where your creativity begins to shape the outcome.
You can cut the form any way you want. There are no strict rules—only possibilities. However, if you're new to the process, it’s often easier to begin with straight lines. Straight cuts—vertical, horizontal, or diagonal—make it easier to control alignment and balance during recomposition.
Curved cuts are equally valid and can lead to beautiful results, but they tend to introduce more complexity.
They’re subtle, organic, and often harder to manage precisely within a grid. If you're comfortable with visual flow and geometry, curved cuts can elevate your design to another level.
3. Reconfigure and Reattach Seamlessly
After segmenting your shape, it’s time to explore how those pieces can come back together in a new form. This is where the design process becomes playful and inventive.
You have every option open to you—you can rotate, flip, slide, or shift the pieces however you like. This is your chance to experiment freely, but with one important rule:
The pieces must not overlap, and they should fit back together seamlessly.
4. Create a Grid with the New Form
Now that you’ve reassembled your shape, the next step is to create a grid with the new form. This grid becomes the structural framework for your final logo, born entirely from your design choices.
- Follow its lines and geometry: Use the edges, curves, and intersections in your form to define the grid. Whether your shape has 90° angles, diagonal lines, or organic arcs, these features now become the basis for alignment, proportion, and spacing in the rest of your design.
- Use every angle: The grid doesn’t have to be vertical or horizontal. It can flow diagonally, radially, or in custom directions that follow the logic of your form. This opens up a wide creative range and makes the structure feel natural to the logo.
- Mirror it if needed: Mirroring is a powerful addition. You can reflect your form—horizontally, vertically, or diagonally—to create symmetry or repetition
Sometimes, the very first segmented form is already strong enough to stand on its own as a logo. It carries clarity, character, and visual impact — and nothing more is needed.
But that’s exactly what makes the Grid Design Method so fascinating:
It’s not just a path to a logo — it’s a way of seeing, thinking, and creating.
Once you begin working with this approach, you quickly discover just how many possibilities can emerge from a single form. Every cut, every reflection, every combination opens up a new direction.
What might start as a simple design exercise soon becomes an endless creative playground.
Create a Grid Using Two of Your Segmented Forms
After exploring and transforming individual forms, you can take the process one step further by combining two of your segmented shapes into a shared system. This method unlocks a whole new level of complexity, variation, and creative discovery.
How It Works
1. Choose two of your transformed forms: These can be two completely different recompositions or variations of the same base shape. The key is that both carry their own structural logic.
2. Align them side by side, overlap them, or interlock them: Play with how they relate to each other — not only in terms of shape, but in rhythm, spacing, and contrast.
3. Build a grid from their interaction: Instead of pulling a grid from just one form, you now extract a grid from the combination. Look for where edges intersect, curves meet, or lines echo one another.
This kind of grid isn’t based on one logic — it’s born from the dialogue between two different forms.
The Final Step: Discover Your Logo
After you’ve explored, combined, mirrored, and built new grids — the final step is simple: look for your logo. Your new Desinged Logo can also refleced, doubled etc.
It might emerge as:
-
Two new shapes interacting in an interesting way
-
A small section of a larger pattern
-
Or even the entire structure you've developed, simplified into a clean symbol
But here’s the key: a logo is not a complex structure.
Simplicity is not a lack of effort — it's the result of thoughtful reduction.
A great logo stands out because of its simplicity — not in spite of it. It captures attention quickly, communicates clearly, and stays in the mind.
No matter how rich or complex your design process has been, the final form should be distilled — clear, focused, and unique.
Your audience doesn’t want to feel overwhelmed by decoration. They want something they can recognize, remember, and trust. That’s why your last challenge is to refine what you’ve created down to its essence.
Case Study: How I Found My Logo
To demonstrate how this method works in practice, let me share a logo I developed using the Grid Design Method.
I started by segmenting a simple geometric shape and recomposing it. After creating a grid from the new form, I wasn’t searching for anything specific — I simply explored the space between the forms.
And suddenly, there it was.
And suddenly, there it was.
Not a perfect shape.
Not something obviously striking.
But something with potential.
At first, it didn’t seem particularly special — just a leftover gap between segments. But that’s the beauty of this process. With a few small design decisions — like adding color, using just the outline, or rounding the corners — that unnoticed shape transformed into a distinctive mark.
A Special Tip
Here’s something I’ve discovered along the way, and I want to share it with you:
After you've found your logo, try looking at it from a different angle.
Rotate it. Flip it. Turn it upside down.
The same exact shape can communicate something entirely different depending on how it's positioned. A curve might suddenly feel dynamic. A sharp corner might now seem soft. A neutral form might gain meaning.
So don’t stop once you’ve “found” the logo. Explore what else it can be. You might surprise yourself again.
Add comment
Comments