Made by James by James Martin an England-based logo designer is a personal guide to the process of logo design. Check out our book review.
Based in Shedfield (South England), James Martin, or as you may know him as Made by James, is a graphic designer specialising in logo and brand identity design. I would again like to thank James and his publishers Quarto for sending us an advanced copy.
Made by James is a hardback book that shares James’s journey of how he became a full-time logo design specialist. The book is the Winner of the 2021 American Graphic Design Award for Book Design from Graphic Design USA.
James also goes into sharing the tools and techniques he uses when creating logo designs and the process he uses when working with clients on a wide variety of logo design projects.
The Made by James book is aimed at designers starting out in logo design, covering topics such as finding and working with clients, client red flags, pricing logo design projects, coming up with creative logo design ideas, and most importantly his logo design process from sketch to final design.
Think of it as a logo design process book the Made by James way! James’s personality really shines throughout!
We interviewed James some years ago in our designer interview after following each other on Instagram for some time.
What I like about James’s style and process is his sketching ability and how he focuses heavily on sketching in the logo design process.
If you’re not following James on Instagram, I would highly recommend you to do so as James does not hold back in sharing his logo design sketches and process.
Which brings me to the reason I like this book as it focuses highly on the sketching side of the process displaying beautiful pictures of his sketches and how those raw ideas become fully fledged brand identities.
This beautiful logo design book does not disappoint. It’s one of those books you just can’t put down!
What is most important about this book is the fact that you’re getting advice and expertise from a designer who is currently working in the field of logo and brand identity design, and the advice he gives is straight from the heart from real experiences.
It’s both engaging and insightful, with so much advice, process, ideas, passion and genuine honesty in this book – it’s full of golden nuggets from a designer who is very good at his craft.
This book not only looks good but it feels good in your hands when you’re reading it.
As a fellow logo design who has a passion for sketching It really did make me want to pick up a pencil and start drawing!
I’d highly recommend it to any level of creative individual looking to take their logo design skills to the next level.
Table of Contents
Q&A With the Author James Martin
The Logo Creative – How did writing the book come about?
James Martin – I was contacted by the publishers who mentioned they had been following me for a while and they asked if I wanted to write a book… my answer was easy.
The Logo Creative – How long did it take to write the book?
James Martin – In all it was about a 6-month process – the publishers were very good at building in a process that allowed the book to come together pretty simply
The Logo Creative – Did you find writing the book challenging, and what advice would you give someone who wants to write a book?
James Martin – It was defiantly a challenge but one I really enjoyed – once I have the structure down and the layout of the chapters it all came pretty easy. The difficult part was keeping the book to 40,000 words, it seems a lot but for someone that waffles a lot like me it was tough. My advice to anyone would be spend a lot of time planning! The ideas, the chapters, the structure, the key message you want to get across… the more effort you spend upfront the easier the book is to create.
The Logo Creative – Did you design the layout of the book yourself?
James Martin – Yes, I worked with the publisher and their design team to create the flow of each page and my hand has touched every inch of this book.
The Logo Creative – I often get asked if I show my logo design sketches to clients, which I do sometimes within the presentation with the final design mockups. Do you show yours before designing the final logo?
James Martin – No, I don’t want my clients to use their imagination too much… I show one design at a time and its finished and mocked up. I find it easier to sell a design that is finalised and mocked up.
The Logo Creative – Do you have any final words of wisdom for the readers?
James Martin – Effort is free
Made by James is published by Rockport, and is available from:
