Shadowing Practice: ✏️ How To Design A Modern Logo | Start To Finish - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Some of you asked me about my process behind creating logos

and I'm going to show you that today by using a fake company

and show you a basically an hour -long logo design process.

This video is brought to you by Squarespace.

So let's say we're working for a company called Electromass

and they are an electricity meter reading company or someone who provides electricity to you at your home.

They're from the UK but they have been doing this for like a few years now

but they want to have a heritage feel to their logo

so they've been in business for quite a

while they don't have children for vintage feel

but they want it to be like sort of standing out

so the first thing i do is

that i'm going to write down a bunch of stuff in a little notepad here you can use any notepad

that you want but fields notes are a great little thing to have

but you can use whatever you want

so i'm just going to go ahead open up a new page here

i think this is a new one it is a new one

so i'm going to go here and just start writing some stuff down

so it's an electricity media company i'll say a lot of blue should be used

because blue is a nice sort of corporate color

or green or blue green if we're going to use green as well bold put

that as a question mark

so what you'll see is in a lot of companies they have like a mark like an icon

and then they have like some nice type below it

and then everything else falls within that branding

so that's what we're going to do today

we're going to create sort of like a squared off mark kind of thing like this

so now just going to go ahead and sketch some ideas down

so get your little dot grid sketchbook out now

and start drawing out some ideas

so i don't want it to be sort of blocky

and this is called electro mass

so i'm going to say say electro mass at the top

and this is just going to be an idea

so i'm going to draw a standard e formation like this

and we're just going to go you can see how rough

i'm treating this it is very rough we've got an e

there what we can do is you can make another e right here

but this time i have it cut off at these ends

and we're just playing around with the words really just around here seeing what we get out of it

because there's so many different plays on the letter and

because this is going to be an icon this is a pretty easy form of design

that we've got going here but the idea is just to get the ideas out

when you're drawing and stuff you don't want to be precision

or anything you just want to get out as fast as possible to get these different flows out

and you'll surprise yourself we'll just go here

and we can create like a lowercase e

if we wanted to um like so we'll create like a brush sort of type

that might not work but it's good to explore different options uh in this

and because it's electricity you sort of have like you know

this sort of zigzag for lightning we could even have a little play on that

so just write everything down get all these things down on here the main thing to keep in mind is

when doing this

that you're actually just getting the best ideas out you don't have to worry about it don't feel pressured

so anytime we have like an angled e if we wanted to we kind of like

angled slopes here you can see how rough i'm being with this

and that is the idea so we have these little things

and then you can fill them in if you want to see the weight

and the balance of them and stuff like that

filling them in can give you a different perception of the type in itself

so just fill them in lightly like so so when i've done

that i've cleared all my ideas out of my head i'll look at some inspiration at some icons

and there's a great book

and i'll link it in the description for you to get it's called logo modernisms there are tons

and tons of things inside of here for like inspiration

so we're just going to like literally surf this book

and we can find some great inspiration like right here

we've got a bunch of ease what a place to start on eh

so we've got a bunch of ease on here

and you can see how creative these are now some of these were designed in 1920s

but you can tell that these all work today

and that's the idea of logo designer everything

that worked before should work now most of the time

so we've got c's and this is going alphabetical order so

when you're looking at stuff like this you don't want to steal anything on here

you want to actually be going ahead

and taking inspiration from it seeing where the form leads now i didn't know before

that we had this sort of like lowercase answer of e

and we can do plays on that so now that i've got

that out of the way i can just go ahead and start making little plays on this

of this little sans serif e

and this is why the the dot grid sketchbook is

so important so here's a sans serif e it's a lower case sans serif e

and it's not going to be very good

but the idea is just to get them out i'm going to go ahead

and come up with a few more ideas and then we'll go ahead and go into illustrator again.

So the next stage of logo design is bring it into your computer.

You can use any computer, but I'm using Illustrator here, Adobe Illustrator.

And we're going to scan those ideas in.

And once you've created a few of those ideas, let's say like 10 to 15, depending on how long you're spending on this logo,

I would suggest bringing out as many ideas as possible

because just letting your pen roam freely is going to read the real mastery behind this.

It's just gaining those shapes that you never thought you could gain.

So basically, I'm just going to go through this and work out

which one I like best

and i like to do this on the computer just to see what it looks like in its flat version

and i've got a couple of ideas

that i like i like this one here

which is an e that's in the shape of a pyramid kind of like electro mass

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i also like this one here because

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when you flip this around it kind of looks like an m

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but it also looks like a spark plug

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but the problem is it looks like a wrench

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and i also like this one this is a very minimalistic idea here

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i also like this spark plug one here

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or like this american style plug

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which i might go for we might create a few variations for the client

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but we're going to be creating more variations of the same logo within this process the way

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that i work is by basically creating different shapes

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and seeing how we go

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so the first thing i'm going to start off with probably this simple logo here

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and we're going to come up with like three different variations of this logo here quite simply

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so the first thing i'm going to do is just create some

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mastery down here like so just quickly get these ideas into effect

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really i just want to make sure that these look okay

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and see how this looks when it's further down we'll scooge these in

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and like so so that's kind of like the what i wanted to go for there electro mass

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so what we can do here is create another duplicate of

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that and just go straight in with another variation of this we could go for

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that kind of likes like an f though

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but we're gonna we'll deal with that later

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and you can see here all

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i'm doing is playing around with these different shapes seeing how

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they run with each other seeing what you can do with them just keep creating different ones

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that you like i mean that one looks much better than this one

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so what i'm going to do is just uh fling this back here

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and create a new different one and i'm just pressing alt command

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or alt drag uh just because then you create like a new copy

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but the idea is

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that you can just create all these different shapes getting them out of your mind

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and seeing where you want to go with them i'm also going to go ahead

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and like create a duplicate of this one see i'm going

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to do this that's going to create a normal e right there

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but what happens if i do this

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that kind of like a weird e going on right

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there i'm not too sure about all them whatever do this

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and if i expand this up like so

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and create like a little diagonal flow going on here

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i'm just being quite rough here i'm not actually getting the finalized logo down i just want to create something

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that uh looks half decent something

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that i can show to the client see whether they like it

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or not see what happens with

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that you see you've got little shapes going on there

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so you've got a few variations of that single shape right there

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so the next version of this i'm going to do is the one down here on this part here

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you can see it it's like a circle with like these e formations inside it

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and you can see that they're sort of being circled off

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so the basically the idea of logo design to keep things very simple

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so this might even get simpler as we go along

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so i'm going to create like an o here

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or like a circle just holding shift and creating

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that then the next thing i'm going to do is sort of like divide these off

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so this could be done probably better in a grid system

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so you can get grids up here and make sure

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that this is like on a grid we can make sure of

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that by going to outline mode

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and this is the way you do it you know logo design is simple keep

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it simple all the time then the next

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i'm going to do is just making sure it snaps to get uh grids just

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so it's a lot easier

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when i'm creating these different shapes there you go it's going to snap those grid points right there like

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so i'm going to copy this as well just in case i get rid of it

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because i'm going to just put it in white and see what we got going on here

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i mean it doesn't look too bad i've got like another idea as well that i could like implement

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i'm sure we've got this which is kind of like an e

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but looks a bit strange we're not looking for perfect ideas here

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we're just looking for an idea of where we can go with the shapes in themselves

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but i'm not going to get rid of these ideas i'm just going to like keep them uh

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if the client asks if i've been doing any work on their logo

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because it's taken a

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while then i've got something to show them in the end

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i'm all going to do is create a couple more of these create

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this one that's black again until i'm happy with it it's just a very sleek looking design

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that we're wanting here so that's another design we've got going on there i mean

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that one's okay it's not my favorite and it's not the best

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but you can see where we're going we can do it into the different colors

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that we may use for electricity and stuff like that which could be you know

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um blue if we wanted blue in there let's get red oh let's change this color to

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this green as well like right here

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so the next we're going to do is a pretty simple one

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which is one that i think we'll use

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which is um an e formation

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so we're going to just do it like this we've got snap to grid on again

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so we can just go ahead

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and snap this into place where we need it to be

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and i'm just eyeballing i'm not really too fussed at the moment exactly where they should be

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so there's an e it's a very basic sans serif e

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that but the difference with this is

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that these are going to sort of like come into the center a tiny bit

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so we're going to move these into the center a tiny bit whether it's just one square

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or whatever and it's going to sort these corners out as well

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so they fix itself in here

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and this is me manipulating type quite literally just manipulating the type

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and with this we're going to create this little square arc on the right

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which is basically just filling it again so we can like go ahead and

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so we can go ahead and like bring this out

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ever so slightly like so and get them to meet actually you see sketching takes time

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but the actual real side of it is you know getting it in on this computer here

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and making other ideas happen from this now

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if you know me i'm more of a vintage style designer

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but i'm i love grids and i love big fat logo designs

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and i i love the uh vintage aspect of it i've got this book called logo modernism

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which is all about the vintage style of modern logos

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which is logos that are created in the 1920s to the 1970s

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or 80s and there's a bunch of different shapes in there

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and this is what really challenged me

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so guys i want to see what your logo designs are like it's going to be hilarious to see uh

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you guys just absolutely going for it in a good way

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and just to note this isn't a real logo design

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that i'm working on right here for a client you know

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this is just me playing around with a fake company

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and you know

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when i'm actually doing

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it i'm spending a bit more time uh creating the logo getting the idea isn't the hardest part

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i normally know the idea roughly within the first day um

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and it's all about telling the client why they should have this idea

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and because us as designers know it's the best

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so we treat it like so guys thank you

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so much for watching this i just wanted to give a huge shout out to our sponsor over at squarespace

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if don't know i use squarespace on my website

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because they are awesome

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you don't have to be a web design wizard to actually understand how to use squarespace basically

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you can choose from a bunch of templates

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and you have your website there it is customizable you can have a shop on there

225

and sell things people like clients can contact you

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and it works really well it's so beautiful and elegant to use

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and for the customer too

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if you want 10 off squarespace click the link down in the description below

229

and let me know what you think of the Squarespace platform.

230

Tweet at me, get me on Instagram and let me know about your website and your Squarespace platform.

231

Guys thank you so much for watching this video and I'll catch you in the next one see you soon.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “✏️ How To Design A Modern Logo”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: logo, create, design. This video has 231 sentences and 2740 words to shadow. The speech runs for 13:28. The speaker talks fast, about 203 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
grid noun	/ɡɹɪd/	A rectangular array of squares or rectangles of equal size, such as in a crossword puzzle.
variation noun	/ˌvɛəɹiˈeɪʃn̩/	The act of varying; a partial change in the form, position, state, or qualities of a thing.
serif noun	/ˈsɛɹɪf/	A short line added to the end of a stroke in traditional typefaces, such as Times New Roman.
electro noun	/ɪˈlɛk.tɹəʊ/	An electronic style of hip hop; electrofunk.
vintage noun	/ˈvɪn.tɪd͡ʒ/	The yield of grapes or wine from a vineyard or district during one season.
illustrator noun	/ˈɪləˌstɹeɪtəɹ/	a person who draws pictures (especially illustrations in books or magazines)
plug noun	/plʌɡ/	A pronged connecting device which fits into a mating socket, especially an electrical one.
icon noun	/ˈaɪ.kɑn/	An image, symbol, picture, portrait, or other representation, usually as an object of religious devotion.
modernism noun		Modern or contemporary ideas, thought, practices, etc.
notepad noun		A pad of paper, often bound, in which one jots down notes; a notebook.
sketchbook noun	/ˈskɛt͡ʃˌbʊk/	A book or pad with blank pages for sketching; a sketch pad.
mastery noun	/ˈmæs.tɚ.i/	The position or authority of a master; dominion; command; supremacy; superiority.
duplicate verb	/ˈd(j)uː.plɪˌkeɪt/	To make a copy of.
manipulate verb	/məˈnɪp.jʊ.leɪt/	To move, arrange or operate something using the hands
spark noun	/ˈspɑɹk/	A small particle of glowing matter, either molten or on fire, resulting from an electrical surge or excessive heat created by friction.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go ahead verb	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	To proceed with; to begin.
come up with verb		To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
bring out verb		To elicit, evoke, or emphasize (a particular quality).
draw out verb		To make (something) last for more time than is necessary; to prolong; to extend.
get out verb		To leave or escape.
get out of verb		To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of.
go along verb		To participate, cooperate, or conform.
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	have been doing · i've been doing
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is brought · is called · were designed
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	they've been · i've done · i've cleared
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	someone who provides · this which is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 110 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, we're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: variation /ˌvɛəɹiˈeɪʃn̩/, precision /pɹɪˈsɪʒ.ən/, shout /ʃaʊt/, perception /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/
Long words — get the stress right: illustrator /ˈɪləˌstɹeɪtəɹ/, manipulate /məˈnɪp.jʊ.leɪt/, alphabetical /ˌæl.fəˈbɛt.ɪ.kəl/, diagonal /daɪ̯ˈæɡ(ə)nəl/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like grid, variation, serif.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: ✏️ How To Design A Modern Logo | Start To Finish - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?