Briefing a Better Logo. Part 3

This is a 3 part guide for Small Business Owners, and new business start ups to guide them though how to work with a freelance designer or agency when setting up their brand. Part 1 was published on Monday 24th and Part 2 on Wednesday 26th of this week.

Parts 1 and 2 covered the how to approach the brief when putting together the scope and direction of work for briefing a designer, you should now have a very detailed page of answers that give the designer enough guidance to be creative, but doesn't strangle the life out of the work. 

Now we're going to look at how to select the right designer or agency for the job, and touch on some of the warning signs.

1. Portfolio

Clearly a good portfolio is essential here, look for experience with a variety of brands, some big brand touch points, and some start up brand creation. Look for actual product photography of brands in-situ, and  don't be afraid to ask the designer which work is conceptual (so didn't make it to the real world) and which is operational, and being used. It really doesn't matter, good work is good work, but there should be a good mix of both.

2. Be Honest

After an agency has pitched their work they should always give you 3 options;

1. Pick one design and develop it further

2. Combine 2 or more of the ideas

3. Back to the drawing board.

Don't be afraid to send them back if nothing hits you in the guts from the start, you can't hurt a good designers feelings (that's probably not true, bet you could if you tried), and it's important you get something you love. This shouldn't cost you extra, but it depends on your agreement.

3. Pitch Options

In my experience it takes about a day or two to produce 3 good options, but I've seen designers promise so much more, and it's alway made me question how much thought they're putting into the work. Beware of designers promising 10+ variations of your logo, this is bad for a few reasons, firstly they clearly haven't understood your brief and secondly they're probably using stock logos, that they alter the wording on, and submit as bespoke work. If you've followed all of the steps on the Brief Builder in parts 1 & 2, your designer should be able to hit your requirement in 3 carefully crafted options.

4. Always get a Full Logo Suite

Once the logo is created and signed off, make sure you get it in all of the formats you'll need, these are;

• Full Colour Outlined EPS (Saved as Illustrator 10 to be safe)

• Black Mono Version EPS

• White Version EPS

• Full Colour Outlined GIF

• Black Mono Version GIF

• White Version GIF

• Full Colour JPEG

• Black JPEG

5. Develop this into a Brand

The next step is to develop this into a full blown brand, with a manual that any designer or agency can pick up and work easily with, we'll look at this next month.

Right, now, did I mention that Citizen design logos? Take a look at our work here, and if you want to meet up and go through a more extensive portfolio then please get in touch.

Read the whole Series.

Build a Better Brief Part 1

Build a Better Brief Part 2

Build a Better Brief Part 3

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07764 898 010

Briefing a Better Logo. Part 2

This is a 3 part guide for Small Business Owners, and new business start ups to guide them though how to work with a freelance designer or agency when setting up their brand. Part 1 was published on Monday 24th and Part 3 will follow on Friday 28th of this week.

Now, if you've been good and read Part 1 of Briefing a Better Logo you should have your answers to the Brand Foundations Questions, these are what your designer will start to build their ideas on, but before we let the creatives loose, we need to drill down into the brief further, and look at the form we want to logo to take.

There are 6 basic logo forms, let's go through these now.

1. Wordmark 

A wordmark consists of the company name in a stylised type and may include small abstract or pictorial elements. A famous example of this would be the FedEx logo.

2. Pictoral Mark

A pictorial mark uses literal or representative imagery to symbolise the brand. A famous example of this would be the Apple Logo.

3. Abstract Mark

Uses abstract shapes and symbols to convey an idea or attribute about the organization. An example of this would be the Olympics logo.

4. Letterform

An example of this would be the Olympics logo. Typically uses a very small amount of letters (1-2) to represent the organization. 

5. Emblem

An emblem features the name of the company typically enveloped by a pictorial element or shape. An example of this would be the StarBucks logo. 

6. Web 2.0

Although there is no official description of "Web 2.0" logos, some common elements can include: vibrant colors, subtle 3d feel, bold type, color transitions, and shadows. An example of this would be the Skype logo.

Armed with this level of detail, and your Brand Foundations from Part 1, you'll be on the right path of creating the perfect brief for your designer, they now have the tools to deliver exactly what you're looking for. BUT WAIT, there's a few things to look out for when choosing the right designer for your brief. 

In Part 3 published on Friday 28th, I'll outline some of the thing to look for in a designer or agency, and some of the common bullshit they'll start to drop on you when they're looking for the work.

Read the whole Series.

Build a Better Brief Part 1

Build a Better Brief Part 2

Build a Better Brief Part 3

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07764 898 010

Briefing a Better Logo. Part 1

This is a 3 part guide for Small Business Owners, and new business start ups to guide them though how to work with a freelance designer or agency when setting up their brand. Parts 2 and 3 will follow on Wednesday 26th and Friday 28th of this week.

In Part 1 of Briefing a Better Logo I'm going to look at how to prepare a brief for an agency when you want a new logo, later we'll talk how to develop this, and some of the hollow promises to look out for from crappy designers.

I'm not going to talk about specific design, form or typography, but the route to a successful logo through the focussed communication of ideas.

To begin with you need to consider three questions, you need to discuss these internally and form succinct, honest and non-bullshit responses all of which avoid the terms 'Out of the Box' and 'One-Stop-Shop'. 

Brand Foundations Questions.

1. What do you want to say?

What is your proposition, what do you do, what is your Twitter Pitch?

2. Who do you want to say it to?

Who is your target market, what do they do, what do they like, how do they talk?

3. Why do you want to say it?

What makes you special, what makes your products different and what can you leverage from that?

With these questions answered you have the foundations of a solid brief, and something that a designer will be able to instantly start putting ideas together with. 

Everything you've learnt here should go into each tiny form of the logo, these answers will help evolve the colours, the typography, the emblem and the wording on the logo, but this isn't enough, to get exactly what you want you need to drill down into more detail, and I'll tell you how to do that in Part 2 on Wednesday 26th October.

Read the whole Series.

Build a Better Brief Part 1

Build a Better Brief Part 2

Build a Better Brief Part 3

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07764 898 010