Chantal Dawtrey – Tech Warrior

How do I brief a logo design?

Chantal Dawtrey — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 13:11:39 +0000

After months of brainstorming, dreaming, planning and developing you are ready to launch your business to the world. You have the company name registered, the bank account opened, the funding available and the services and products ready to be sold. But wait, you need a logo.

You know that your logo is going to be the face of your business and the launch pad of your brand identity. Maybe one day people will instantly recognise your company by its font, colours and symbol/s. This is big, this is important. You need to brief a designer. But where the hell do you start?

Know what you want from the word 'go'

Advertising legend David Ogilvy said “Give me the freedom of a tight brief.” A brief that is too vague or general leaves too much to the imagination of the designer. Ambiguous statements are hard to follow. Creative minds work best under constraint. Coffee is best served constrained in a mug or cup.

You need to know what you want. If you don’t know what you want how on earth will the designer be able to deliver? And you can’t say, “I’ll know it when I see it.” What will happen is you will know what you don’t want when you see it. If you take this approach the road to getting what you want will be a bit like Alice’s walk in Wonderland:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where—” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“—so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

Too much freedom and not enough boundaries leads to confusion and lost time. I am not so sure you have the time to “walk long enough” to find that magic logo.

Purchasing domain names carefully is a very important aspect of owning a website. Having a website is an important part of running a business. Make sure you are the rightful registered owner of your domain name.

Mobile-friendly means Google is your friend

What you do need is to be focused. Know and explain your Why. That is, what do you believe in? What is your purpose? Why does your business do what it does? Watch Simon Sinek explain about why in this brief video.

Be clear about your strategy, an unfocused brief says that a well-defined strategy is lacking.

Know what you want and what you don’t want. Look around at those logos that you are pulled to, and those that you are not. Be clear about why you want to use the colours you do and those you absolutely do not. You probably don’t want to use mustard and khaki for a baby clothing range, but if you do, be sure you can say why. What kind of fonts do you think reflect the image you want to impart? Round and fat, or tall and skinny? Soft and flowing or rigid and still?

Use visuals wherever possible. This really assists the designer and is so much easier than trying to explain in words. Find logos that have elements that you like and include them in your brief. Again, explain what you like and why.

The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.
—Socrates

If you choose to have your logo designed by Tech Warrior we provide a Logo briefing document shared online for our clients to complete. It guides you through the process and makes it that much easier to think through the elements required. As with anything, however, you get out what you put in. Make sure what you put in is clear and focused.

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The thought of putting the content together really scares me

Chantal Dawtrey — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 14:46:04 +0000

Now you have published a book, you really should get a website for yourself," I urged a friend. “People need to find you. They need to know what you have done and what you can do."

"Oh, I don’t know," she responded pulling a face, "I then have to get all the content together. I don’t think I have the time and inclination."

This coming from someone who had recently completed her PhD, written a book and was a coach, lecturer and facilitator of several leadership development programmes. She wrote all the time. She had the content. She probably had too much content.

And another occasion, another colleague, "Made a decision about your website yet?"
"Oh, I don’t know. I’m so not tech savvy," she responded, hunching her shoulders, and squinting her eyes, "The thought of having to get the content together…."

She too writes content all the time. Content for training programmes and the various services she offers. Content to get accreditation and tender for business. She has the content. She probably has too much.

Easy to follow guidance

What both of these potential clients need is some easy to follow guidance on what is required for their websites. They have all the content they need. It’s just stuck in their heads or in many other documents prepared for many other reasons. They just need a way of simplifying it and presenting what their clients will be looking for so that they can find them quickly and easily. Isn’t that the purpose of a website, after all?

In our experience less is more. People don’t read much these days. They want short, bites sized content that gives them answers to their questions they have. Questions about the service or products they are searching for. Their questions will be about what is on offer, what problems it solves, how to get it, how it works, how long it will take, what other people think of the product or service and how much it costs. First and foremost clients will want to know how much it costs.

Provide prices and educate

Rule number 1. If you don’t put your prices on your website, your potential clients will probably go elsewhere.

Rule number 2. Your job is to educate. You may know your business, services and products inside out, but do not assume the same of your clients. Do not assume they know where you are, if you are a handyman, for example, your clients will want to know what areas you work in. If I search for “handyman services near me” and you are near me, you may want your website to pop up. Yes?

Painting by numbers

At Tech Warrior, we provide our clients with an online scope and content document that they work through. This document helps them think through all the elements of a website and its content they may not have considered. Like including your address so Google can ensure you pop up when searched for “near me”.

It asks the questions that our clients’ clients may be wanting answers to. It gets our client to look at his or her website from the point of view of his or her client. It’s a bit like painting by numbers for website content.

A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could.
—Zig Ziglar

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The post The thought of putting the content together really scares me appeared first on Tech Warrior.

Why do I need a logo before I can have my website developed?

Chantal Dawtrey — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 15:41:18 +0000

When you think of Nike, Apple, Mercedes Benz, or McDonalds, what images immediately come to mind? I am guessing a swoosh, an apple with a bite out of it, a three pointed star in a circle and bright yellow arches. These are some of the most recognisable and iconic logos of all time. Every business needs a logo. It is the face of your company and the foundation for your brand identity.

Make a good impression with your brand

When you choose a logo a great deal of thought goes into it. Or should. You want your logo to be recognisable, grab people’s attention and make a strong first impression. Your clients expect you to have one, give them something to recognise you with.

Your logo represents your business’s personality and character. It can say something about your values and your mission. If you have been through the design process of a logo, you probably took your time and carefully considered the colours you chose and the font to be used. Your logo is going to be seen on your products, your business cards and letterhead and of course your website and needs to fit all these applications.

Your logo communicates ownership and it can show, and tell, potential customers who you are, what you sell and why. Your website is an expansion of this so it must be in alignment with your brand identity. Imagine you go onto McDonald’s website and it shows up in greens and blues? Would you take a second look? Think maybe you had landed on the wrong page? Yes you would.

Have clear guidelines

Most large corporates have very clear guidelines that govern the fonts they use and how they are used, the colours, the look and feel of all their marketing and branding. For a small business run by an entrepreneur, this is probably not going to happen, but at the very least having a well thought out logo can inform and standardise the fonts, and colours used in the companies branding. The colours of your logo will inform the colours on your website, as will the font and style.

At Tech Warrior we do not start on the development of a website without a logo. If the newly formed business does not have one we can design one for them, but they can go to anyone for this. The important thing is that we have one and that it does not get changed halfway through the web design process. That has happened and it causes all kinds of delays and extra costs.

Time well spent

What insisting on a logo has done has made some clients re-evaluate their logos, colour schemes and font selections and go away to have a rethink and a redesign before getting the website developed. It is time well spent.

Do you need a logo?

Tech Warrior has created many logos over the years. You can view a few of the current ones in our gallery of logo designs.

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The post Why do I need a logo before I can have my website developed? appeared first on Tech Warrior.

Chantal Dawtrey – Tech Warrior

How do I brief a logo design?

Further reading

Know what you want from the word 'go'

Mobile-friendly means Google is your friend

The thought of putting the content together really scares me

Easy to follow guidance

Provide prices and educate

Further reading

Painting by numbers

Why do I need a logo before I can have my website developed?

Make a good impression with your brand

Have clear guidelines

Time well spent

Do you need a logo?