# Logo Design: Create Geometric, Iconic, Wordmark, Monogram Styles - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/logo-design-create-geometric-iconic-wordmark-monogram-styles/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Graphic Design · Solid intro · Rated 6 /10 # Logo Design: Create Geometric, Iconic, Wordmark, Monogram Styles Updated August 2026 Jeremy Mura · Brand and Web Designer Beginner · 107 min Nine short lessons walk a beginner through four real logo styles in Illustrator, but the pace assumes you already know the software. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Flogo-design-create-geometric-iconic-wordmark-monogram-styles%2F1134072078) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. Jeremy Mura's class promises four logo styles in under two hours, and it mostly delivers on that count, if not always on depth. The nine lessons move briskly from inspiration-gathering through mind-mapping into four back-to-back build sessions covering monogram, geometric, wordmark, and iconic mark construction, closing with an export lesson. The structure is sound: research, ideate, build, ship. What varies is how much survives the compression. ## What the build lessons actually teach The monogram lesson is the clearest of the four. Mura builds a three-letter mark from scratch using nothing but the rectangle tool, Alt-Shift duplication, the reflect tool, and the shear technique applied through the direct selection tool on individual anchor points. It is a legitimate from-scratch construction method, not a template trace, and the logic of building one stroke and mirroring it generalizes to any monogram a viewer wants to attempt. The geometric lesson is more ambitious and more rewarding if followed closely. Mura sets a custom grid in Preferences, locks it to an 80-pixel subdivision, then uses that grid to place overlapping circles and diagonal guide lines. The real technique worth learning here is the Shape Builder tool used first to merge shapes into a leaf form, then later to carve a play-button icon out of a crisscrossed lattice of lines. It is a genuinely useful pattern for anyone building icon marks, since the same crisscross-then-carve approach can generate dozens of geometric variations from one set of guides. The wordmark lesson leans more on decision-making than construction. Mura builds a "font wall" by duplicating one line of type dozens of times and swapping fonts to compare options side by side, then converts the chosen type to outlines with Create Outlines so individual letters, like a custom O rebuilt from a four-point star, can be reshaped by hand. It is a practical workflow but a thin one technically, since most of the lesson is font selection rather than construction. ## Where it falls short The course never slows down to explain fundamentals. Tools like Shape Builder, the direct selection tool, and compound path release are used constantly but assumed rather than introduced, and someone who has not already spent time in Illustrator will lose the thread within the first few minutes of the monogram lesson. The Skillshare listing calls this beginner-friendly, but the actual pace fits an intermediate user brushing up on techniques far better than a true novice. The export lesson also leans hard on a paid third-party plugin, the logo package express extension, to automate file packaging. Mura does walk through a manual alternative using Export for Screens, so the lesson is not useless without the plugin, but a chunk of the runtime is effectively a product demo rather than a transferable skill. Taken as a whole, this is a workmanlike process course rather than a design-theory course. It shows the how of pushing anchor points and merging shapes far more than the why of why a mark works, which suits someone who already has design instincts and wants faster Illustrator hands, and suits far less someone still learning what makes a logo good in the first place. The standout The geometric logo lesson, where a locked pixel grid plus the Shape Builder tool turns overlapping circles and diagonal guide lines into a clean, scalable icon mark. ## What you will learn - · How to construct a monogram from basic rectangles using duplicate, reflect, and shear tools - · How to build a geometric mark on a custom pixel grid using the Shape Builder tool to merge and subtract circles - · How to develop a wordmark by stacking dozens of fonts, converting type to outlines, and customizing individual letterforms - · How to source inspiration systematically from Pinterest, Behance, Brand New, and Instagram accounts using targeted keyword searches - · How to build a thought map or mind map in Whimsical and Notion before sketching - · How to export a finished logo into full client-ready file packages, including print and web formats Best for: Designers who already know their way around Illustrator's basic toolset and want a faster, more structured process for generating four distinct logo styles. Skip it if: True beginners to Illustrator who don't yet know shortcuts like the Pen tool, Shape Builder, or Direct Selection will struggle to keep up with the pace. Clarity of Instruction Engaging Teacher Organization of Lessons Helpful Examples [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Flogo-design-create-geometric-iconic-wordmark-monogram-styles%2F1134072078)