phuthuycoding/marketing-logo

Logo Design Skill

Produce a logo + brand identity specification that a designer can execute (or you can use as a direct prompt to a generative tool). Output is a brand guidelines doc, not finished art.

When to use this skill

• ✅ Brand new identity (no existing logo)
• ✅ Rebrand / refresh of an existing logo + guidelines
• ✅ Need a deliverable spec for a designer to execute
• ❌ Just need a quick icon variation → use a design tool directly
• ❌ Full marketing plan (logo + content + video) → use /marketing
• ❌ Video-specific visuals → use /marketing-video

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Workflow

DISCOVER → CONCEPT → DESIGN → REFINE → DELIVER

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Phase 1: DISCOVER (30 min)

Goal: capture brand intent before sketching.

Discovery brief

Ask the user (skip what's known):

| Field | Example | |-------|---------| | Name + tagline | "Acme — DevOps for indie teams" | | 3-5 personality adjectives | "modern, technical, irreverent, sharp, friendly" | | Primary audience | "Solo / small-team backend engineers" | | Industry | "Developer tools / SaaS" | | Competitors (3-5) | + 1 line each on what their logo says about them | | Style direction (pick 1-2) | minimal / wordmark / monogram / abstract mark / illustrative / mascot | | What to AVOID | "no cliché cloud icons, no gradients on the mark" | | Where it lives | favicon + GitHub avatar + landing hero + dark / light themes + print | | Color hints | "must work in single-color print + on dark UI" | | Budget for the brand | "MVP — logo + 1 palette + 2 fonts" vs "full system" |

Gate

• [ ] Personality adjectives captured (forces concept differentiation)
• [ ] Competitor scan done (don't accidentally copy)
• [ ] Style direction narrowed to 1-2
• [ ] Avoid-list captured

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Phase 2: CONCEPT — propose 3 directions

Goal: present 3 distinct concepts. Same concept in 3 colors ≠ 3 concepts.

Each concept must have:

## Concept {N}: {short name}

**Direction:** {wordmark / monogram / abstract mark / etc.}
**Rationale:** Why this matches the brand personality + audience. Cite 2-3 adjectives.
**Differentiation:** What competitor it does NOT look like, and why that matters.
**ASCII sketch** (rough — describes shape, not pixel-perfect):

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| A C M E | |___________|

**Inspiration:** 2-3 reference links (existing logos, styles)
**Risks:** What could go wrong (e.g., "monogram unreadable below 24px")

Concept variety rules

• Different form (wordmark vs mark vs combination)
• Different feel (geometric vs hand-drawn vs typographic)
• Different complexity (minimal vs detailed)

Gate

• [ ] 3 concepts presented
• [ ] Each has rationale + differentiation + risk
• [ ] User selected ONE (or asked for hybrid — repeat phase)

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Phase 3: DESIGN — flesh out the chosen concept

Goal: produce specifications a designer can build.

3.1 Logo construction

### Logo: {name}

**Lockup**
- Primary: {wordmark / mark / mark + wordmark side-by-side / stacked}
- Secondary (when primary doesn't fit): {variant}
- Icon-only (favicon, avatar): {variant}

**Geometry**
- Grid: {e.g., "8-unit grid, mark fits in 8x8 square"}
- Proportions: {e.g., "wordmark cap-height = 5 units; mark = 8 units; gap = 2 units"}

**Clear space**
- Minimum: {e.g., "1 cap-height on all sides"}

**Minimum size**
- Digital: {e.g., "24px height"}
- Print: {e.g., "8mm height"}

3.2 Color palette

Pick a primary + secondary + neutrals. Provide every color in:

• HEX, RGB, HSL
• CMYK (for print)
• WCAG AA contrast against white and against black (note pass / fail)
• Tailwind variable name (if relevant)

| Token | HEX | RGB | HSL | Use |
|-------|-----|-----|-----|-----|
| `--brand-primary`   | #0F172A | 15,23,42  | 222 47% 11% | logo, headlines |
| `--brand-accent`    | #14B8A6 | 20,184,166 | 173 80% 40% | CTA, links |
| `--neutral-fg`      | #1F2937 | 31,41,55  | 220 26% 14% | body text |
| `--neutral-bg`      | #F8FAFC | 248,250,252 | 210 40% 98% | page bg |

3.3 Typography

Pick 1 display + 1 body font (or 1 font in 2 weights). Note:

• Family + fallback stack
• Weights used (display, body, light)
• Pairing rationale (1 line)
• License (open / Google Fonts / commercial)

3.4 Voice

• 3 voice attributes (e.g., "direct, witty, never corporate-speak")
• 3 do / 3 don't examples (1 line each)

Gate

• [ ] All lockup variants specified
• [ ] Palette has WCAG contrast notes
• [ ] Typography choice has rationale + license
• [ ] Voice has do/don't examples

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Phase 4: REFINE

Goal: test the design against real use, iterate.

Test scenarios (write down result for each)

• [ ] Favicon at 16×16 — still recognizable?
• [ ] On dark background — does it still work?
• [ ] Single-color print (black-only fax test) — still readable?
• [ ] Next to 2-3 competitor logos — does it stand out?
• [ ] At 100% scale on hero — does it carry the page?

Feedback loop

• Present to user with each scenario
• Capture changes requested
• If >2 rounds of changes → consider re-concepting (Phase 2)

Gate

• [ ] All 5 scenarios tested
• [ ] User approved final version

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Phase 5: DELIVER — brand guidelines doc

Goal: ship a single doc + asset list a designer / dev can use.

brand-guidelines.md skeleton

# {Brand} Brand Guidelines

## Logo
- {Primary, secondary, icon lockups as files: SVG + PNG}
- Clear space + min size rules
- Wrong uses (with examples: don't recolor, don't squish, don't add effects)

## Color
- Token table from Phase 3.2
- Usage rules (when primary vs accent)
- Accessibility (contrast notes)

## Typography
- Stack from Phase 3.3
- Hierarchy: H1/H2/H3/body sizes
- Web vs print

## Voice
- From Phase 3.4
- Sample headline + body + CTA copy

## Examples
- 1 hero, 1 card, 1 button shown with the brand applied

Asset checklist (what to hand to designer / dev)

• [ ] logo-primary.svg + logo-primary.png (1x, 2x, 4x)
• [ ] logo-secondary.svg + .png
• [ ] logo-mark.svg + .png
• [ ] favicon.ico (16, 32, 48), apple-touch-icon.png (180×180), og-image.png (1200×630)
• [ ] Social avatars: square 400×400 + cover per platform (Twitter 1500×500, LinkedIn 1128×191, etc.)
• [ ] Color tokens: colors.css (CSS variables) + tailwind.config.js snippet (if Tailwind)
• [ ] Brand guidelines PDF or .md

Gate

• [ ] Guidelines doc written
• [ ] Asset checklist exists (even if generation is by a designer)
• [ ] Developer-ready tokens included (CSS / Tailwind)

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Hard Rules

• 3 distinct concepts in Phase 2 — same concept in 3 colors = lazy
• WCAG AA contrast minimum on text colors
• Mark must read at 16px — if it doesn't, redesign, don't compromise
• No gradient on the primary mark — gradients don't print, don't fax, don't embroider well
• License-clean fonts only — no "found on the internet" type

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Related Skills

| When | Use | |------|-----| | Full marketing plan (logo + content + video) | /marketing | | Write content with the brand | /marketing-content | | Create video with the brand | /marketing-video | | Document brand guidelines as a doc | /docs-write |

Recommended Agents

| Phase | Agent | Purpose | |-------|-------|---------| | DISCOVER | @docs-writer | Capture brand brief | | CONCEPT | @clean-architect | Structure the system | | DESIGN | @docs-writer | Spec documents | | DELIVER | @docs-writer | Brand guidelines doc |