When you start the process of designing a logo for your new business or redesigning and rebranding an existing company, you have lots of questions. That’s good. You want to ask all the right questions for the best logo design project outcome. Your logo, done right, is amongst your most valuable business assets.
No matter where you decide to design your logo using a free online logo creator, for best results you need to ask these questions first.
Your questions will cover many of areas of concern; such as which designs and colors will be most attractive to your target customers, what is the logo design process, can you trademark a logo and what is the best logo design contest sites.
I will thoroughly discuss all these questions and more, that you should ask when designing a logo. Here are the right questions to ask the many different groups of people that can help you get the very best logo design for your company.
The questions you should ask yourself, your employees, your existing customers, your prospective target customers, your competition, your industry experts, your lawyer, your graphic designer, and your logo design site.
One of the worst mistakes I see new entrepreneurs make in logo design is not asking enough questions of the right people.
They often confuse their personal tastes and preferences with the types of logo design that will work best for their company’s brand and attract their target customer – which may not be exactly the type of person they are!
Often the business owner is not the same sort of person as the target customer by confusing the two the results will be incompatible with good branding decisions which can dramatically negatively affect business sales.
I recommend that you write down the answers to these questions and have them at the ready when you start designing a logo. Sharing the answers to these questions will help graphic designers develop your best logo.
All the Right Questions to Ask When Designing a Logo
Questions About Your Company
The first place to start when inquiring about creating a logo design is your company information.
- What is the exact name of your company?
- Will you include your LLC or INC in your company name?
- Which words in your company name do you want to emphasize?
- What is your product or service line?
- What characteristics of your products/services set your company apart from others in the marketplace?
- Do you want to include your tagline in your logo?
- Do you have a tagline or slogan?
- Should you get a tagline or slogan written for your logo brand?
- Why should customers choose your company over competitors when buying your types of product or service?
- How big is your company in terms of revenue and number of employees?
- How long has your company been in business?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses of your firm?
- Who is your strongest competitor?
- What are your other competitors, both direct and indirect?
- Why was your company launched?
- What is your brand story?
- Personally what motivated you to found this business?
- What color palettes do you prefer and you think will resonate and attract your target audience?
- Why do you prefer these colors?
- What will be the primary uses for this logo; signage, websites or business cards?
- Do you have preferences for typography or brand character illustrations?
- What restrictions, if any, are there on the logo design?
- What logos do you like, both in and outside, of your industry and why?
- What logos do you dislike, both within and outside of your industry, and why?
Questions to Ask Your Employees
- What do you see as our company’s offerings primary benefit to our customers?
- What do customers say to you about why they purchase your products as opposed to your competitors?
Questions to Ask Your Existing Customers
- Why do you purchase our brand and not others from the industry?
- If you were to describe our products to your friends what would you say, in a sentence or two?
- What three words would you use to describe our product or service benefits?
Questions to Ask About Your Prospective Target Customers
- Who are your target customers? Their needs and desires?
- What is their primary motivation for purchasing your type of business or service?
- What are their ages? Their income levels? Geographic regions? Genders? Their occupations? Family life?
- Their other favorite brands?
Questions to Ask Your Competitors and Industry Experts
- What do your competitor’s logos look like in design, fonts, and colors?
- How can your company stand out against those competitors but still fit within your industry?
- What colors should I avoid to prevent confusion with competitive brands?
- What shapes and designs should I also avoid to not appear as a lesser-known knockoff brand and not infringe upon registered trademark logos?
Questions to Ask Your Graphic Designers and Ad Agency
- What is your logo design process step by step?
- How long will it take from start to final logo finished files?
- What will I need to provide?
- How many logo samples will I get to review?
- How many revisions are included in the initial package price?
- What are some samples of recent logos that you have created?
- What types of colors do you think would be best for our company logo?
- What type of logo will you design for our company a wordmark, icon design or illustration character?
Questions to Ask Your Crowd Sourced Logo Design Site
- What are the best logo design contest sites?
- How does the logo design contest work on your site?
- How soon will I receive logo design submission ideas?
- How many different logo designs will I receive?
- Can I request edits and revisions to logo design submissions?
- Is there a money back guarantee if I don’t like any of the designs submitted? How long after my order am I eligible for a refund?
- How do I communicate with the graphic designers?
- Is it easy to fill out the logo design brief order? Are there logo samples and colors to select as samples of my design preferences?
- How long is the logo design contest open?
Questions for Your Attorney
- How can I be sure that I am not infringing on another copyright or trademark with this new logo design?
- What is the process to obtain full ownership of my new logo design?
- Can I trademark my logo?
- How can I trademark my company name?
- What should I do if somebody copies my logo or company name?
