How do I brief a logo design?
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?
Further reading
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.
