What a Designer Should Ask a New Client
12 Questions To Ask Clients Before You Design Their New Logo
How to communicate with clients to come up with the perfect logo design
Working with a client can be a difficult process for many designers, whether you're getting your foot into the design industry or even if you're a veteran with several years of experience.
Clients may be interacted with in various ways, depending on whether you want to speak to them professionally or as if they were your best friend.
However, as a designer, your goal is to convey the client's vision to you to improve the design process.
In any case, it's vital to speak with them to find out what they require for their project, business, or product. All of this information will be beneficial for you.
So, here are several questions you can ask a client if you're a graphic designer.
1. What are the main goals of the business?
Some designers may request examples or fundamental company information while working with a client, but what you're losing out on is the critical information the firm has to give its clients.
This information is relevant to logo design because you may inquire about the company's overall vision. You can include these aspects into your logo design and utilize them to your advantage throughout the sketching phase.
So, throughout the sketching phase, you can play with different symbols and forms in negative space, styles, and shapes to improve the logo design.
2. Who is your target audience?
When working with clients, you first determine who their target audience is since different audiences might impact your design process. Still, it would be best if you also made the logo appealing to the targeted audience.
Some clients I've worked with in the past have been vague, responding to queries with phrases like "young people" or "large enterprises," so assisting them with this process will help you get a lot further with your logo design.
So, while informing the client, be as precise as possible and inquire about age, location, income, values, etc.
3. What do you want this logo to accomplish?
When you have a general idea of where the company is headed, you may inquire about the logo and benefit the client's business.
So, a client may tell you that they want to strengthen their brand image to attract consumers, or if the business is attempting to reach a new audience, they may re-brand and request a change in their brand identification.
4. What are the pros and cons of your current logo?
When a logo has been designed in the past for a client, they may stick with it for years, but a logo can become outdated after a while. So, asking a client about the pros and cons can give you a huge insight into how the redesign will benefit the company.
You can use the existing logo design and redesign it with different shapes and patterns representing the company in a new light, or even opt for a new style and try hand-crafted to improve their logo.
Obviously, if you're creating a new business logo, you can skip this question, but you can always ask about a competitor's logo and see what they like and dislike to help give you an idea.
5. Do you have a logo you like the look of or want me to emulate?
Not every client will know what they fully want for their brand or company, so it's always good to mention a similar brand and brand logo to see if they like the look of their image.
Doing this will allow you to emulate and design or sketch a similar concept with some characteristics of the emulated brand but keeping the main identity towards the client's business.
Not only will this make the design process easier, but you will have references to help you when you're sketching out the design, so you'll be more accurate and have an easier time even if you're not too creative.
6. Who are your main competitors?
Looking at another company within the same industry is very useful for the design process of the logo for the client. You can study how they make their own logo stand out and what makes them successful over other competing companies as you can see industry trends that'll benefit your own design process.
Be sure to study the industry the client is asking you to make because it will be bad if you lacked research and accidentally copied another company's logo.
Unless you've been asked to emulate a particular logo, it is always good to complete the required research so you can see how the industry is leading for the client's business.
7. Are there any themes or genres you want me to avoid?
Some companies will sometimes want to avoid any specific themes involved with their logo since it may draw unwanted press or bad PR on the company, which can be for various reasons.
So when communicating with a client, you want to ask them what is allowed and what isn't, and during the design process, you should send updates to the client and test themes that they may like or don't like.
You can't see through walls or see into the client's head, so it's always useful to have this question on hand.
8. What are the values for your brand?
Business values are a key to great logo design, and this is because you want to create a logo that represents the goal of what the client is trying to achieve.
So, if a company was supporting clean oceans, you would have water with sea life flourishing in the logo. If the company is about family, you show the values and traits of support and family in the logo design.
This question is fundamental as it's the structure and foundation of your logo design process, and you're building around that goal.
9. How do you want customers to perceive your brand?
Brand identity may be alien to smaller companies as they aren't too sure how to answer that question, so try to emphasize their position and put yourself in the clients' shoes to explain how customers perceive a brand.
A client would want their logo to have personality, such as if you had a hipster coffee shop, you would go for a traditional look to the logo. Still, if a logistics startup needed a logo, then a more formal and modern approach will be needed for their company.
Also, you can branch out to business-centric topics such as their ideal market position.
10. What are your successful marketing channels?
When it comes to the branding style of the business, it's always good to know about how the company markets itself to customers and the type of marketing they use, such as digital marketing or traditional marketing.
You can obtain an insight into how that will influence the design process of the logo. Also, if the logo is being used for internet marketing, you should stick to a more simple flat design.
However, if they promote in newspapers or on billboards, you may include more intricate details appropriate for the marketing channel.
11. Do you have any specific requests such as colors, fonts, and so on?
Sometimes, clients want to stick to a specific look for their brand, even if it goes against their competitors.
They may be doing their logo this way to stand out or be seen with a new perspective, but outside the box.
Different colors have many different meanings that can be varied, which can be used in conjunction with fonts and skeuomorphic or flat styles.
12. How good are you at decision-making?
When designing a logo for a client, you need to make sure they can make decisions effectively that will benefit their business. If the client is indecisive, the process could be delayed or take longer for the client to receive their logo.
So, to prepare for this, you should always prepare for indecisiveness early in the design process. Not all clients will stick to their word and may change a few elements down the line as the logo progresses, but they will communicate better with design changes or add technical aspects to the logo.
So the earlier you can prepare the client for this question, you won't face as many delays down the line or revisions, which saves time for the client.
What a Designer Should Ask a New Client
Source: https://bettermarketing.pub/12-questions-to-ask-clients-before-you-design-their-new-logo-9bb66875c208
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