Designing an icon isn’t just about quickly coming up with a concept and hoping the client likes it. A skilled creative director will first seek to understand the company, its values, aspirations, and goals. Importantly, the best designers approach the job proactively, rather than passively. Instead of simply asking for a brief, they delve deep to uncover the essence of the company or brand.
To assist you in this process, we’ve compiled a practical series of questions to ask your client. By going through each of these, you’ll gain a much better understanding of what they’re all about, and often, they’ll appreciate the effort. This will provide you with the crucial insights and understanding needed to bring their vision to life in a dynamic and meaningful way. Your solutions will be tailored, adaptable, and future-proof.
When embarking on a design project, it’s essential to ask questions like “What do you want the logo to convey?” This foundational step helps guide your approach to the project. You can also pose more creative questions such as “How would you describe your business to a stranger?” or “How might your company be described by someone from a different era?” These inquiries help unearth valuable insights that inform your design process.
Contents
- 1 Questions to Ask When Designing a Logo
- 1.1 1. The best representation of the company?
- 1.2 2. What logo resonates?
- 1.3 3. who are Your Competitors?
- 1.4 4. Which Colors Best Suit Your Brand?
- 1.5 5. Which Font Best Fits Your Brand?
- 1.6 6. Who is Your Target Audience?
- 1.7 7. Is It Visible Regardless of Size and Color?
- 1.8 8. Does It Feature a Memorable Design or Gimmick?
- 1.9 9. Is the Design Appropriate?
- 1.10 10. Does the Design Fit the Budget?
- 1.11 Conclusion
Questions to Ask When Designing a Logo
1. The best representation of the company?
Is your business focused on selling clothes to children? Are you a local online business SEO company? Does your company provide logistics and delivery services to local companies?
Regardless of your company’s focus, consider a single image that expresses it better. As Amazon sells almost everything in the sun, it incorporates a Z symbol into the logo. FedEx is a delivery messaging, so there is an arrow that represents this concept. Happy Faces can embody the children’s clothing business, and growing graphics and arrows work well for SEO companies. Most coffee shops use cups and steam images to specify what they provide. From now on, we will take clues and hunt for the ideal images, sources or colors.
2. What logo resonates?
Do you think your logo is a good idea? Don’t you think it’s a great idea? The next step is to verify the other logo. They don’t have to have company logos in the same field.
Take the time to look around and list the most memorable logos I can think of. Find a common element and click with you to determine why these logos are.
All of them can use a specific color that you like or any source that works for you.
Then you can take these elements and add them to your logo.
3. who are Your Competitors?
The purpose of the logo is to help people identify their brand. And at a glance to understand what your business provides. Looking at competitors, you can start investigating elements that are useful for this function of the company. For example, see coffee or tea. They often use a cup image of a cup with a steam line to show hot drinks. Others add more coffee beans or tea leaves, providing organic drinks. The next step is to decide whether to follow the trends of competitors or do something different. Do you want to follow your leads, or do you want to stop?
4. Which Colors Best Suit Your Brand?
Do not choose the color of the whim. Do not choose the color just for your favorite. Keep in mind that colors have a psychological impact on customers’ target for brand and business. For example, if you select red as the logo’s primary color, youth, aggression and bold decisions are amplified. Green often aims to symbolize peace and growth. That is why natural marks and the ecological logo use it more. Orange is an excellent and friendly color. Therefore, you can see that purchasing sites such as Amazon are often used. Select your company’s theme, select the emotions you want to transmit, and then select the color that provides that feeling to the audience at a glance.
5. Which Font Best Fits Your Brand?
Have you ever wondered why all men use the same source? This is because people often associate emotions and specific ideas with sources. , For example, Comic Sands is a type of unofficial source that looks amateur and economical. Returning to the mid -the 1990s, it was popular once, but it has not been popular since then. What you have to do is compete and see the entire industry. For example, newspapers often use time, Helbertica or old style of printed products. The purchasing site tends to combine the type of source, such as Sans Pro regular and Crimson Text regular.
6. Who is Your Target Audience?
Is your business aimed at people who need mortgage refinancing? Do you sell medical students or provide HVAC repair services for large companies in the city? One of the most critical questions asked when designing the logo is who is the target audience. By identifying who the spectator is, he can eliminate the elements of the logo that he knows and does not work and concentrate on what he does. The logo designed for the elderly does not work for children under 20 years. The logo directed to the child must have a bright color, but the logo to point to housing buyers must be uniform, flat and formal.
7. Is It Visible Regardless of Size and Color?
A general design error is to create a draft logo with many colors and corners from the beginning. It can be seen well, but the logo will not be recognized if it changes to a black and white image or shrinks according to a small icon box. This is why it is important to design the logo in monochrome first. This guarantees that you first concentrate on the silhouette. When doing this, the logo can be recognized regardless of its size and color. Why is this important? It may be necessary to reduce the logo of the head of the letter or the image of the icon. You are not the only one who uses your logo. Advertising companies that are affiliated can present a logo in monochromatic colors or plans for posters. Blogs may need to resize the logo according to the blog post size.
8. Does It Feature a Memorable Design or Gimmick?
Some logos are related more than 20 years after launch. They achieved it by implementing a unique and memorable design philosophy, not only considering the questions on this list. Others use catchy tricks that emphasize the competition logo. One of the common tricks is to place hidden images in the logo. As described above, the Amazon logo arrow works from A Z and symbolizes how to sell everything I may think. Baskin Robbins, a taste of 31, uses a logo in which part of the letters B and R 31 is formed.
9. Is the Design Appropriate?
You must also ask if the logo design is appropriate. That is why the design team needs to be translators. The logo design may seem innocent in English, but it cannot be very pleasant in another language. The logo has no aggressive images. Some logos seem innocent, but due to the lack of ideas, designers could not see the hidden inappropriate images that others could see. A general example of an inappropriate logo is the 1973 logo of the Great Bishop Youth Committee. The initial purpose was to present adults to guide children, but the design suggests that children give the priest sexual benefits.
10. Does the Design Fit the Budget?
All these suggestions and questions are unimportant if you cannot afford to buy elaborate design logos. What is the one that constitutes an expensive logo? Light and large logos cost the impression. The exquisite design can be seen well, but hiring an artist every time he needs to duplicate and draw it is expensive. This makes the most straightforward design more attractive and affordable.
Conclusion
Obtaining thorough and thoughtful responses to these questions is crucial for the success of a logo design project for two main reasons. Firstly, the information gathered is invaluable in guiding the design process. Secondly, the act of responding to these questions helps the client establish a proper mindset for collaborating effectively on the project.
This approach is particularly beneficial for clients who may not be accustomed to working with creatives. It helps them understand that they’re investing in more than just a quick design in Photoshop—it’s a comprehensive analysis of their company and brand, resulting in well-thought-out and viable design concepts.
Of course, the process may not always proceed smoothly. Clients may change their preferences, and external factors such as shifts in marketing trends can impact the project unexpectedly (consider the example of the Ebola outbreak). It’s essential to be prepared for such changes by establishing clear communication channels and agreements, outlining what happens in case additional work is required. The sooner these considerations are addressed, the sooner you can embark on a logo design project that is both productive and enjoyable.