So you’ve been briefed, done your research, sketched and put together a few logo ideas for your client. But what now? What’s the best way of presenting these to the client?
In my experience attaching a few jpegs to an email with a short “here are my ideas…” message doesn’t normally cut it. You have spent time on your ideas and looked at various options and applications of the logo so it’s important that you communicate that information in a visual way.
I normally provide the client with a maximum of 3 ideas for their logo. I try to stick to a similar idea and colour scheme but make them different enough to show some exploration i.e. don’t just show a different font or colour scheme.
For the purpose of this blog post I’ll assume that you are presenting your ideas remotely in the form of a PDF but if you do have the opportunity to present face-to-face, still produce a PDF, but also make print outs of each page and mount them onto Foam Board at A3 size. You can email them the PDF after the presentation.
Layout of your PDF presentation
The first page in your PDF should be a plain black or white page with the project name, your clients name and the date.
Page 2: A simple paragraph of text summarising the brief
Page 3: Your prefered logo design (on the colour background you assume it will be used on most)
Page 4: Your second favourite design
Page 5: Your least favourite design
Page 6: Your preferred logo design in full colour, single colour and reversed out
Page 7: Your colour palette and perhaps some simple ideas behind the designs
Page 8: The logo mocked up in various applications. Be mindful of where you choose to mock the logo up and think about your clients business. No point in putting the logo onto a t-shirt if your client is a lawyer for example.
Page 9: Your contact details
The info on page 8 will be of great use to your client as it’s sometimes difficult for people that aren’t designers to visualise how and where the logo will be used. By spending a bit longer on this page you find yourself winning a little extra business in the longrun.
Putting your contact details on the last page is good practice as you never know where the PDF might end up. This might be another opportunity for promoting yourself to whoever your client chooses to share the PDF with. It might sound odd but I guarantee your client will share that PDF with their friends, family members and colleagues to canvas opinion.
Each scenario is different and this is just a suggested way of presenting but here are some brief tips:
Try not to
- present too many ideas, it will confuse the client
- although not presenting enough ideas with little backup info may lead your client to think you haven’t thought about the project
- Be too technical i.e. listing Pantone colours, HEX codes and dimensions should be left for the style guide
Try to
- be clear in your thought process
- support ideas with research
- explain colour choices
- show logos in use in relevant ways
Have you got any good tips for me? What works or doesn’t work for you? Please comment below.
Thanks Mark. This was very helpful!
Thanks for the helpful info and the PDF file to check over.
I normally post the logo samples on a page of my web site and send my client the link of where they and their friends and/or business parterns can view them. The logo samples are shown in color and black and white with number of colors listed and font info. Once they choose the final logo then I create a PDF proof file with the logo in color, black and white, and on a business card and tee shirt. I ask them to print this proof file and check over it.
Once you create a logo design for a client and you post the design to your site do you present the logo image in a way that helps prevent it from being easily stolen? I just watched this video that talks about how to create a logo image that makes it harder to steal: A Web Presentation Technique – YouTube – youtube.com/watch?v=1bSzO4iMXRg&feature=youtu.be