Logo Design

When presenting logo concepts to a client it is often productive to have written rationales to accompany each concept. This can help you, the designer, clarify your thoughts before getting the concepts in front of your client. The rationales will help your client to better understand the concepts from your point of view (especially if you are not there in person to present the concepts to your client). In turn, this will help your client make an educated decision when picking their final logo. All that effort will also help you to better defend and explain concerns and questions that may arise during the logo revision process.

Here are some topics to consider covering when in your writing rationales. In going through this process you may even see some areas for improvement in your concepts. If possible, run your draft rationales by a non-designer and get their feedback.

1. Symbolism: Clarify and identify the meanings behind the icons you chose to incorporate into the design. Go into as much detail as you feel necessary, the history, cultural relevance and so on.
2. Style: Why did you choose this style for the logo? Did you give it a distressed look because the mark is for an outdoors company, or is the logo clean and orderly because it’s for a closet organization company, etc.
3. Typography: Explain why you chose the typefaces used in the logo. How do they relate to the rest of the design and the company it represents?
4. Relationship: How does the concept relate to the company’s personality, goals, vision and values? Hopefully you learned a lot about the company in your creative brief process.
5. Color: Explain the color choices. Why did you choose them? What does the color represent? How does the color choice relate to the business? Sometimes color isn’t a part of the first round of concepts, so whenever color is does get introduced it’s important to add it to your rationale.