Recently I was commissioned  by a branding company to create the logomark for one of their clients. The company needed a new name and a logomark to reflect the new direction the company was heading. I've done many of these exercises in the past with clients including a major national airline, a regional convenience food retailer and more recently a logo for an ebook reader. These exercises can either go very wrong and or in most of my cases a very exciting and fun experience so I thought I'd share with my 4 loyal readers a little bit of my process.  I'm very fortunate to work with very professional and buttoned up agencies that I rarely run into problems. Maybe because I'm also very choosy with the projects I take on. I don't do this for the money, although that's a BIG plus. I do this for the sheer high I get from designing and seeing my work fly above me or flashed in one of the billboards in Times Square. But I digress. Here's a glimpse of my process.  I ask. No. Demand a detailed creative brief from the client/agency or design firm. I do a tremendous amounts of research especially if I'm not familiar with the industry. I make the usual competitive analysis and learn as much as I can about the company or organization I'm designing for.  For this project, we started with the Brand Architecture. What is the spirit of the exercise? What does the new name aim to express. What's the promise?