How to brief a logo designer so the first round is usable

A usable first round comes from a brief that says who the logo is for, where it will appear, what it must not resemble and what files you need at the end. Send it before the designer starts, in writing, in under two pages. The phrases that waste a round are the vague ones: "make it modern", "something like a big national brand", "we will know it when we see it". Those pass the decision to the designer and then reject the result.

The fill-in brief

Copy this into a document and complete every line. A blank line is a question you will answer later, at the cost of a round.

1. Business name, exactly as spelt (with any tagline, yes or no):
2. What we do, in one sentence a stranger would follow:
3. Who buys from us (trade, size, region):
4. Where the logo will appear first (signboard, packaging, invoice, app icon, vehicle):
5. Smallest size it must work at (for example, a 2 cm stamp on a carton):
6. Colours we already use or must avoid:
7. Three competitors or neighbours, and what we do not want to look like:
8. Two or three marks we admire, and what we like in each:
9. Languages and scripts the name must appear in:
10. Files needed at the end:
11. Number of rounds agreed, and who gives final approval:

Item 11 matters more than it looks. If three partners each comment separately, one designer receives three conflicting briefs. Name one approver.

Why items 4 and 5 decide the design

Where a logo lives sets what it can be. A fine-line monogram looks elegant on a visiting card and vanishes when stamped on a jute sack or stitched on a uniform pocket. A mark with four colours costs more to print on bags or boards than one in a single colour. Say these things up front.

Item 9 is easy to forget in India. A name that must appear in both English and Devanagari, Kannada or Tamil needs designing for both from the start, not translated onto the finished mark later.

What not to say

"Make it pop." Pop for whom? Say what the logo should be noticed against: a crowded shelf, a grey factory gate, a phone screen.

"Like [a famous brand]." The designer cannot copy it, and you cannot use it. Say what you admire instead: the plain shape, the one colour, the confidence.

"Use all our colours." A logo with five colours is expensive to print and often prints badly. Pick one main colour and one support.

"Add the machine, the map of India and the globe." A symbol should stand for one idea. If three ideas are demanded, the result is a crest that cannot be read at small size.

"Show us five options." Five weak options are less useful than two strong directions. Ask for two or three.

Showing references without causing trouble

Collect marks you like. Collect the ones you dislike too, since they show what to avoid. For each, write one line: "clean because it is one shape", "too thin to stamp". Include marks from outside your trade as well, such as a bank, a school or a transport company, so the designer sees what you respond to and not only what your competitors already do.

Do not send a competitor's logo and ask for "something like this but different". If a trademark-style conflict arises later, it will be your problem as much as theirs. For protection and registration questions, speak to your own adviser, because rules differ and change.

An invented example: a coconut-oil packer in Kollam and the 4 cm problem

Imagine an invented, small coconut-oil packer in Kollam selling one-litre pouches to shops. The owner's first message to a designer read: "Modern logo with coconut, palm and our green. Like a famous national brand but simple. Show five."

Five logos came back, full of leaves, fine lines and gradients. None worked on the pouch, where the printer used two colours and left about 4 cm for the mark. The owner had never mentioned the printing limit, so the round was lost.

The rewritten brief gave the pouch size, the two-colour print and a reference to one bold mark on a rival's tin that the owner liked for its plainness. It asked for Malayalam and English versions. Two directions came back. One fitted the pouch and the other broke the rule in item 5, which the owner could now see at once instead of after paying. Even the good one needed an extra round, because the Malayalam letters crowded the mark at 4 cm and had to be redrawn. Printing limits and scripts belong at the top of the brief for exactly this reason. A brief cannot rescue a vague business, though. If the owner could not have written item 2 in one sentence, the logo was not the first problem.

Rounds, rights and the last payment

Agree in writing how many rounds are included and what counts as one: a new direction, or a change to a chosen one. Ask who owns the artwork once you have paid, and whether you receive the editable files. Terms vary between designers, so ask your own adviser. A clear sentence in the brief can settle most arguments early. Hold back the final instalment until the files in item 10 have arrived and opened properly on a computer other than the designer's.

Giving feedback after round one

When the first round arrives, resist saying "I don't like it". Answer three questions per option in writing: does it say what we do, does it work at the smallest size, does it fit where it will appear. Then choose one direction and ask for refinement only. Changing the whole brief at that point restarts the job.

Test every option in black on white, then at the smallest size on your list, before you show it to staff. Print it at that size and hold it at arm's length; a mark that turns to a blob there will also turn to a blob on a WhatsApp profile picture. Staff opinion matters less than whether a stranger can read the name.

Start by filling items 1 to 4 tonight. For a designer's help with the whole job, see logo and visual identity design, and the marketing hub for the wider planning. If the brief proves harder to fill than the logo would be to draw, the positioning is probably unfinished, so tell us what you need.