Reach Out to a Logo Designer to Discuss Your Project
Your logo is one of your most valuable business assets. Chat with a graphic designer about your logo design project in the planning stage. It will help lay the groundwork for defining your needs and goals. Discuss pricing for budgeting. A designer can recommend a level of investment based on the anticipated scope of your project.
Sample topics include:
• What is your logo design process?
• What kind of timeline do you recommend?
• How many design options and revisions are typically included in your pricing?
• Can you send a link to your portfolio?
• When we are ready to move forward, can you send a proposal outlining your packages, payment schedule, etc.?
Outline Your Project Goals
Investing some thought in what you want from your logo design can build a solid foundation for your project. Working through the planning process can ensure a smooth collaboration with your designer while keeping the project on track and on budget. Over the years, I put together a Logo Discovery Questionnaire to customize according to a client’s specific needs. It helps take the guesswork out of developing a custom logo that aligns with the client’s goals and preferences.
Logo designers bring a unique skill set and years of experience to the table. Working through the discovery process helps the designer learn everything they can about a client to tailor a graphic that speaks to the target audience. Designers take your input to build a logo design solution that is readable, appropriate, distinctive, functional and memorable. They distill and develop the design to arrive at the simplest solution that works best.
Logo Discovery Questionnaire
What is your business name?
Is there any special meaning in the name that you want to convey?
If this is a new business, have you confirmed that the name is available?
You can go to your Secretary of State’s website to perform a business name search. Search “Name Availability” to check whether the business name you are considering has already been registered in your state. Before investing in a logo design, take time to research that your chosen name is unique and there is no potential for copyright infringement.
Who will be the primary contact and decision maker on the logo design?
If there are other business stakeholders, involve them early in your internal planning process. Choose one point of contact to communicate with the designer and provide feedback. A logo design project can quickly go off the rails and over budget when the designer is fielding change requests that have not been reviewed and approved by the project manager. The bottom line is creating a logo that works best for your target audience.
Who is your target client or ideal customer?
Describe who would benefit from your products or services.
What problem do you solve for them?
What goal are they striving for?
Who are your competitors?
Providing websites and logos of your competitors can help define how to differentiate your business within your market.
Do you have a branding guide, website or social media to reference?
Advise the designer if the logo design needs to align with existing brand standards.
If you are starting from scratch or rebranding, the designer can offer the option to develop a branding guide to reference in developing other marketing materials. It will outline logo use, color palette, typography and any other design elements that have been developed.
Do you have any color preferences or a brand color palette to implement?
Are there any colors to specifically avoid?
Do you have a font style preference?
Serif, sans serif, bold, modern, handwritten script or hand drawn.
Please furnish samples of brands with visual identities that you like.
Keep in mind what appeals to your target audience.
Are you envisioning a particular graphic style for the design?
Do you have something specific in mind for the logo graphic?
Do you have a preference for the logo orientation?
Horizontal, vertical, round, square, no preference.
The 7 Step Logo Test by Paul Rand
“A logo doesn’t sell (directly), it identifies.” – Paul Rand
Legendary graphic designer Paul Rand formulated a classic 7 step test for logo development and evaluation.
1. Is it distinctive?
2. Is it visible?
3. Is it adaptable?
4. Is it memorable?
5. Is it universal?
6. Is it timeless?
7. Is it simple?