Categories: Branding

How to Express Your Logo Vision to Your Designer

As a business owner, you have a rather daunting task on your hands when it comes to selecting an image that will represent your brand. A logo is something that’s going to speak for your business for many years to come. When someone looks at a product on the store shelves or an ad on a billboard, what they’re seeing before anything else is your logo.

I’m not saying that it’s easy to create a great logo, on the contrary, but since I’ve worked with logos for quite some time it’s easy to see some of the common mistakes people are making when attempting to create a winning logotype.

What exactly do they get wrong? Here are just a few of the common mistakes being made when businesses attempt to create a logo:

They create complicated, busy designs
They blend fonts and sizes
They misuse colors, and different colors send different signals.
They refuse to trust the professionals to design the logo
They continually redesign the logo; even if it’s not the best logo in the world people get used to it.
They exercise too much parity in their design
They create an amateurish logo
They do hire a designer, but then they fail to explain what “message” the logo should incorporate.
And the list goes on and on.

The end result is usually the same. When the company’s logo is finally created, it’s wholly unrepresentative of the brand, it doesn’t capture anyone’s attention, and it will inevitably be scrapped for a new design.

Making the mistakes listed above just draws the logo process out. If you want to get your business logo design right the first time, there’s a two-step process to follow. Step one: Hire a professional. Step two: Consult openly with the professional.

Define Your Image

The first step in the communications process is to distinctly define your brand’s image to the designer. What exactly is your brand all about? This goes beyond what you sell, the market you’re targeting, and other business aspects. While those aspects are very important to relate to the designer, you still have to go beyond that and express your brand’s personality. Only then can a designer truly know how to convey your brand’s mission through an image.

Provide a Mockup

A picture truly is worth a thousand words, so a great way to let the designer know what you’re looking for is to create a mockup of your logo. This obviously isn’t going to be professional quality work. But in terms of any shapes you were thinking about, different images, different colors, etc, you could provide a rough draft to give the designer something to work with. The final design will probably be a lot different than your mockup, but that’s usually a good thing; the mockup is only for inspiration.

Be Clear about the Style

What type of style were you thinking about? Perhaps you want only a symbol, text like an acronym, or a combination of the two. You might have different considerations about the size of the logo, the typography used, the color, shading and tone of it all, and other concerns. It’s important that you communicate everything you can about the style you’re hoping to achieve with your logo design.

Trust the Designer

There are a few common types of business owner out there when it comes to hiring a logo designer. The two most destructive types in terms of logo creation, however, are as follows. First you have the business owner who wants to look over the designer’s shoulder, not trusting the designer to realize the vision. This impedes progress and just frustrates everyone. Then you have the business owner who doesn’t give the designer enough details and then complains about the logo when it’s finished.

You have to be able to trust the designer here. Communicate your thoughts with your designer and let this person or team do the work.

At the end of the day, it’s very important that you remember that your logo design is going to represent your brand, perhaps for as long as you’re in business. To that end, it’s crucial that you create something that you’re very happy with.

A professional designer has the talent to give you exactly what you’re looking for, so don’t be shy about letting this person know as many details as possible as it pertains to your logo.

About the Author: Martin Nilsson works as the business developer of a business logo design company in Sweden. To know more about logo designing, visit their website Logosack today.

Deborah Sweeney

Deborah Sweeney is an advocate for protecting personal and business assets for business owners and entrepreneurs. With extensive experience in the field of corporate and intellectual property law, Deborah provides insightful commentary on the benefits of incorporation and trademark registration.

Education: Deborah received her Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration degrees from Pepperdine University, and has served as an adjunct professor at the University of West Los Angeles and San Fernando School of Law in corporate and intellectual property law.

Experience: After becoming a partner at LA-based law firm, Michel & Robinson, she became an in-house attorney for MyCorporation, formerly a division in Intuit. She took the company private in 2009 and after 10 years of entrepreneurship sold the company to Deluxe Corporation. Deborah is also well-recognized for her written work online as a contributing writer with some of the top business and entrepreneurial blogging sites including Forbes, Business Insider, SCORE, and Fox Business, among others.

Fun facts/Other pursuits: Originally from Southern California, Deborah enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons, Benjamin and Christopher, and practicing Pilates. Deborah believes in the importance of family and credits the entrepreneurial business model for giving her the flexibility to enjoy both a career and motherhood. Deborah, and MyCorporation, have previously been honored by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s List of the Valley’s Largest Women-Owned Businesses in 2012. MyCorporation received the Stevie Award for Best Women-Owned Business in 2011.