‚I need a logo for my new company. It should be modern and nice. How much does it cost?’.

I often receive such inquiries. Some people will laugh at this, others get angry. There are also those who will not see anything strange in it. I wrote this article mainly for the third group. It will be useful especially if you want to order a logo design.

Brief

A good logo is easy to understand for the target group and the brand owner is satisfied with it. To do this, the designer must get to know your company – customers, products and you. At the beginning of cooperation, he should ask you a few questions. It is important to know that the designer’s curiosity is in your interest. Professional designers do not guess – they ask, analyze and interpret. Most often this is done by completing the Brief. You can find an example of a simple Brief at the link.

The basic question that should be asked before cooperation concerns the business profile of the company. What does the company do? What is the purpose of its activity? Who is the target audience?

The next part are questions about preferences. If you can describe what you expect – write it. If not, answer the questions: how should be the design message, e.g. serious, or maybe cheerful? Do you suggest any colors? Is there anything that is unacceptable to you, e.g. you don’t like purple and you don’t want this color to identify your company. A graphic designer may also ask you to send examples of graphics that you like (these can be URLs with any graphics, not necessarily logo. They also don’t have to be related to a given industry. Graphic designer use them to feel the style in which you see your brand).

Competition analysis

Do you know your competition? Do you know how they present themselves? Does something make your company stand out from the competition? Would you like to follow the best companies, or maybe stand out with something special? These are questions that should also be asked. It is not so rare that we don’t analyze the competition before we introduce a new product. It is the basis not only to design an accurate brand message, but above all to efficiently start a new business without unpleasant surprises, e.g. a taken domain. If you have already done such an analysis – you can share your conclusions with the designer who will create visual identification for you. If not – the designer should check ‚how others do it’ on their own. However, this is not part of the work that is shared with the client. It is worth to consider if it would be better to order an analysis in advance, which will also be helpful in later marketing or sales activities.

Arrangements with graphic designer

Once the designer has read the submitted materials, he may ask follow-up questions and suggest a different approach to the topic. Sometimes it is worth to trust his intuition and be open to his suggestions, even if we have a strictly defined vision and we just can’t draw it by ourselves’ 🙂 It is good to see at least 2 proposals of logo. Before the start of work, agree on a specific number of logo proposals (I usually suggest 3 versions), the number of corrections included in the price and the schedule of work. Remember that the contract may also contain the waiting time for your comments. Also discuss whether the logo should be multicolored and in the shades of gray, or maybe only in monochrome version? Will you need a horizontal or a vertical logo?

Logo design = vector file, e.g. .eps, .ai. When ordering a logo, remember to include the vector format files in the agreement. Vectors are necessary to scale a file without any loss of quality. Thanks to them, you can later apply your logo to graphic materials in any format.

Files should be delivered in RGB (for display on screens) and CMYK (for printing).

Also consider whether you need a brand book. Thanks to it, people who will use the file will know how to do it so as not to disturb the aesthetics. In the initial stage of your company development, you may not see value in it, but it is good to take care of the presented content at the beginning, and the brand book certainly helps with this. Its scope also needs to be determined. The brand book should contain the basic and alternative versions of the logo, a presentation of the sign’s structure with a protective field, color and typography characteristics. It may contain information on scaling and minimum dimensions of the sign, the use of the logo on various backgrounds and on unacceptable variants of use. Some also describe the genesis of the sign. Even if you didn’t order a brand book for the logo design, you can ask the graphic designer for information about the colors used in CMYK and RGB and the font used.

It is also worth to agree on the form of communication, e.g. that you expect official e-mail communication and additional phone information, during which you will discuss everything.

(If you have elements of visual identification, but you want to change something – you need rebranding. I will answer questions about this process in the next article).

Summary

  • Although an essential trait of a designer is intuition, empathy and creativity, he doesn’t read minds 🙂 That is why it is so important to describe your expectations and send materials that will allow you to better understand each other.
  • Successful logo projects? They are liked by brand owner, but most of all by target group.
  • In the contract, specify the number of proposals and corrections to the price. Determine the work schedule, communication method and files to be sent as a result of the work.
  • Remember that nowadays you have many designers to choose from, so choose a graphic designer based on portfolio, opinions, recommendations. By ordering a project from a specific designer, you decide on his services and agree with his style of work.