I used to sketch logos straight into the computer, now I start with 20 pencil thumbnails first
For my first two years doing logos I opened Illustrator right away and just dragged shapes around until something looked okay, and it showed. My stuff had weird spacing and thin spots I never noticed on screen. About 6 months ago a guy at a design meetup in Columbus told me he does 20 quick pencil thumbnails before touching the mouse, so I tried it on my next batch of 8 client logos. My hit rate jumped a lot because I could see a bad idea in 20 seconds instead of 40 minutes. Does anyone else do thumbnails first, or am I just slow for waiting so long?