A logo is the signature of your brand, not the whole of it. Our guide to brand building covers the thinking that comes first: who you serve, what sets you apart and how you want to be known. This guide is about the next step: the logo design brief you give a designer, and what you should get back when the mark is made.
Most logo projects that go wrong do so at the start, with a brief that says too little, or at the end, when the business owner is handed one image file and nothing else. Both are easy to avoid.
What to put in a logo design brief
A brief is a short document, usually one or two pages, that tells the designer what they need to know before they draw anything. Write it in plain words. You do not need design language.
Your business in a few sentences
What you sell or do, where, and for whom. "We repair and service generators for farms and lodges in Central and Southern Province" tells a designer far more than "We are a leading provider of power solutions".
Your customers
Who buys from you, and what they care about when they choose. A logo for a children's clinic and a logo for a mining supplier should feel different, and the difference comes from who will see it.
What sets you apart
The one or two things you want people to remember. Speed, care, price, quality, a long history in one town: pick the ones that are true and that your customers already say about you.
Where the logo will be used
List every place, because each one asks something different of the mark:
- your website, and the small icon in a browser tab
- your WhatsApp Business profile photo, which shows in a circle
- social media profiles and posts
- invoices, quotes, letterheads and email signatures
- signboards, vehicles, uniforms and printed bags
- stamps, receipts and anything printed in one colour
A logo that only works large and in full colour will struggle on half of these.
What you like, and what you do not
Collect a few logos you admire, from any industry, and a few you dislike. Say why in one line each. "Simple, and still readable from across the road" is useful. "Make it pop" is not.
What must stay
If you already have a name, a colour customers know you by, or an old logo with goodwill behind it, say what must carry over.
The practical details
Your timeline, the budget you have in mind, who makes the final decision, and how many rounds of changes are included. Agree these before work starts, in writing.
Judging the first ideas
When the first ideas arrive, resist judging them only by taste. Ask a few practical questions of each:
- Does it still read when it is small? Look at it at the size of a browser tab icon and a WhatsApp profile photo.
- Does it work in one colour? Black on white, and white on a dark background, for stamps, embroidery and cheap printing.
- Does it fit a circle and a square? Profile photos crop to a circle on most platforms.
- Can you describe it in a sentence? People remember a mark they can put into words.
- Is it yours? It should not look like a logo another business already uses, especially one in your own field.
Give feedback on the problem, not the solution. "Our customers are mostly older farmers and this feels too playful" helps a designer more than "make the font bigger".
What you should get back
When the logo is approved, ask for a complete set, not one image file. A complete set usually includes:
- The master files in a vector format, such as SVG, PDF or the designer's source file. A vector file can be printed at any size, from a business card to a billboard, without going blurry.
- Image files for screens, such as PNG, at a few sizes, with a transparent background.
- The versions: the full logo, a short version or symbol for small spaces, a one-colour version, and a version for dark backgrounds.
- Your colours written down as codes a printer and a web designer can use, so the blue on your sign matches the blue on your website.
- The names of the typefaces, and the licence that lets you use them. Many fonts need a licence for business use; most fonts in Google Fonts are free for commercial use under the SIL Open Font License.
- A short guide of one or two pages: how much space to leave around the logo, the smallest size it should be used at, and a few examples of what not to do.
Keep these files somewhere safe that more than one person can reach, such as a shared folder, not only on one laptop or in a chat.
Make sure you own it
Before you pay the final invoice, agree in writing that the rights to the logo pass to your business once it is paid for. Without that, the designer may still hold rights to the work, which matters the day you want to register it as a trademark, use it on goods you sell, or hire a different designer.
Ask the designer to confirm that the logo is their original work and does not use stock images or icons that come with their own licence terms.
Common mistakes
- Choosing a logo by asking everyone you know. Ask your customers, or the people most like them.
- Asking for a copy of a famous logo. A famous mark works because people have seen it for years, not because of its shape alone.
- Using a logo before checking it on a phone, on a printed document and in one colour.
- Accepting one PNG file and nothing else, then paying again later for the files you needed.
- Changing the logo every year. Recognition comes from seeing the same mark again and again.
If you would like help
Branding and graphic design is one of the services we offer: a brand strategy, a logo and visual identity, design for print and screen, and guidelines your team and your printer can follow. When your logo is ready, our free email signature maker puts it under every email you send. Or talk to us about what your business needs.
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