Memorable logos are 13% more likely to catch the consumer’s eye and 7% more likely to make them curious about the brand.
This means that your company’s logo (and overall design) is a part of your marketing plan that you can’t overlook. You need to make sure that your image is easily recognizable.
The ultimate goal is to get to Nike-status. You see a checkmark symbol and what do you think of? The brand spent a mere $35 and ended up getting one of the most memorable logos there are.
So if it’s not about spending thousands of dollars on a logo … what’s the secret? Simply put, it’s all about clear communication.
You have an idea of what you want and, in order to get it, you need to be able to explain to the designer what that is. Even if your idea is vague, you still have information that will make the designer’s work a lot easier, since no one knows your business better than you do.
That’s when creating a detailed logo design brief comes in handy. Don’t know what we’re talking about? Keep on reading.
What is a Logo Design Brief and Why Is It Important?
A logo design brief is a document that you will (or should) make when you hire a graphic designer to create a logo. It’s the starting point of the project and it should provide the designer with as much relevant information as possible.
In short, what you do is you envision the logo in your mind and then answer a series of questions about it. In the end, what you get is an instructions manual for the designer in the project.
You may not know the answers to every single question, but creating a good brief is also about teamwork. You know about your business and the designer knows about design. There can be an exchange of ideas between the two in the process of writing the brief and when you’re both happy with the document, the project can start.
The reason why a creative brief is so important is that it is the foundation of the whole project. If you don’t start off on the right foot, you’ll come upon some setbacks that would have been easily preventable. The project takes longer to get done and you end up spending more than you wanted to. Not ideal, hey?
So why not have a little bit more work during the initial stage of the project and then see everything go a lot smoother?
What You Should Always Include in a Logo Design Brief
When your schedule is flooded with a million other tasks, it can be easy to overlook the importance of writing a complete logo brief. After all, they’re an experienced designer, they’ll know how to read between the lines. In the long run, that’s not a good decision.
Every time you sit down to work on a creative brief, remember that the more detail you give the designer, the higher the chances are of them creating the logo you’ve always envisioned.
Make sure your brief includes all the following information and you’ll see that the end result of the project will be nothing less than amazing.
1. Description of the Company
The first thing the designer needs to know is what your company is all about.
Start off the brief by describing your business. This is a good section to include your website, social media links, and any other relevant company-internal materials.
Questions:
- What products/services do you offer?
- What’s your brand’s history?
- What’s the overall message you want to convey with your business?
- What’s your slogan?
2. Description of the Project
Next, describe the specific task you want the designer to complete.
If the creation of the logo is part of an even bigger project — like the revamping of your company’s imagery — be sure to mention it in this section of the brief.
Another important thing to include in the description of the project are the deliverables. These are the different items that you’ll need the designer to deliver at the different stages of the project.
A good technique is to create a timeline with the specific dates in which you’ll need the different deliverables.
Questions:
- Why do you need a new logo?
- Are there are restrictions to this project?
- What specific pieces do you need?
- In which dates do you need to receive each piece?
3. Your Goals
Any project that you initiate must have SMART goals. This is probably one of the most critical parts of your brief, where you get into more detail about the question “Why do you need a new logo?” that you’ve answered before.
SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. As a business owner, you’ve most likely created goals using this method. Make sure that you do the same for this project.
Questions:
- What do you want to achieve with this project?
- When do you want to achieve those results?
- How will you measure the results?
4. Your Target Audience
Knowing who you want to speak to is a great guideline for the designer to know which creative route they should take, as different demographics prefer different design choices.
What appeals to generation Z, for instance, is much different than what appeals to millennials.
In this section, you can simply make a list of traits that your target tends to presents. However, you can take it one step further and create a persona, that is, a fictional character that represents your typical customer.
Describe your persona with as much detail as possible, answering the questions below, and the designer will know exactly who they’re creating for.
Questions:
- Who’s the target you want to reach with this project?
- What are their demographic characteristics (gender, age, location, lifestyle, etc)?
- What are your target’s needs?
5. Your Competition
Your logo design brief isn’t all about your brand — you need to include information about your main competitors as well.
Why? The designer you hire is probably not familiar with the industry you’re a part of. By dedicating a whole section of the brief to your competitors, you inform the creator about the trends happening in the market.
From there, you can decide if you want to go with the flow of the industry or shy away from the current trends.
Questions:
- Who are your main competitors?
- How are their logos?
- If anyone has recently updated their logo, which creative route did they take?
- Are there any design choices from the competition that you particularly like or dislike?
6. Project Details
Up until this section you’ve talked about your brand and the niche you work in.
Now it’s time to get into the actual design. It can be a good idea to build this part of the brief in collaboration with the designer, especially if you’re not sure about what characteristics you want the logo to have.
So consider scheduling a meeting with the designer to talk about the following points.
Style
The style that you choose for your new logo should be consistent with the rest of the imagery associated with your brand.
If you want to completely revamp your look, you’ll need to work on every single design piece that you use, and not just the logo. Some common logo styles that you can choose from are: minimal, retro, subtle, serious, classic, modern, vintage and more.
Color Preferences
Color psychology is a huge part of graphic design. In branding, colors aren’t chosen by chance and once you become familiar with what each color transmits, that becomes quite clear.
By now, the designer has probably already seen some of your other design pieces, so they have an idea of which colors you use. Still, it’s a topic worth discussing with the creator, in order to make sure that your palette of choice makes sense with your brand.
Font Preferences
When you think about design, you probably automatically think about the drawings, colors, and shapes. But typography is just as important.
Maybe the creator will use the same font you’ve always used, maybe they’ll suggest a new one that might work better. The most important thing is that it makes sense with the brand, that it’s easily readable and that it blends in well with the other elements of the logo.
8. Deadlines and Budget
Finally, your creative brief should include the exact deadline you have for the project. Previously you created a timeline for the deliverables, so you’ve probably already mentioned the deadline, but include it once again to make sure there are no misunderstandings.
One thing that can happen regarding your desired timeline is that it’s not realistic considering the work that needs to be done. Be open to listening to the designer’s concerns regarding this and to define a new deadline that’s more attainable.
You should also be open about the budget you can allocate to this project. Discuss this with the designer and try to find a quantity that’s both within your budget and fair to the creator.
A Balance Between Business Goals and Creativity
After reading everything you should include in your logo design brief, you might be wondering if there’s any space left for creativity from the designer’s part.
Even though it seems like the document might restrict the designer, we can assure you that it does nothing more than guiding them.
When it comes to creativity, it’s on you to be open to the ideas that they create based on the information you provided them with.
So our advice is that you make sure that your business objectives are being taken into consideration, but also that you let the designer do their thing. That balance will allow you to get a final logo that joins both yours and the creative’s knowledge. The perfect recipe for success!
If you want to read more about logo designs, we have a whole category on our blog dedicated to the topic. Go ahead and explore!
If you’re not exactly sure where to start or need some inspiration for your design brief, explore our vast logo design catalog and create a logo today.
