Do you often fail to present your logo/brand design to your clients? Well, no need to worry about it. As a designer, I have failed quite a lot while trying to pitch my design idea. It’s not just you, it happens to everyone at some point. I love creating logos and absolutely love my job, even more, when the client really likes my design.
I remember when I started my designing career. Like everybody else, I failed quite a lot when pitching my ideas just because my designs weren’t properly presented. Since then, I have learned quite a lot from my mistakes. I have been working in the graphic designing industry for more than 10 years now. I have worked on hundreds of design projects. Each and every project has its own story of designing.
I want to clarify the fact that designing a logo is way different than presenting it to your client. It is very difficult to convince your client about the importance and utility of the logo design. I had to redesign the entire logo again due to this kind of communication flaws in the logo presentation.
So here I am going to share some important tips for my fellow designers on the art of communicating your logo design to the client. I’ve listed 7 points to convince your client easily with the pitch-perfect logo design presentation.
1. Use Examples to Explain the Logo:
Remember that, your client wants to know how the logo design will benefit their brand. So you should explain the logo design with real life examples. You should show how the logo will look on their branding collateral. I recommend displaying the logo design on the client’s website, brochure, visiting cards and products.
To make it easier, avoid printing of the examples rather, you can also use mock-ups for presenting the logo on the client’s products. Subsequently, your client will get a better idea of using the logo.
2. Show a Glimpse of Finished Product with Mock-Ups:
I suggest that mock-ups are the most effective tool to present the logo design for the clients. It is not necessary that the layout is enough to get the approval of logo design from the client. The designers don’t use the mock-up in the best possible manner. I bet many of us don’t about the difference of using the mock-ups for presentation and portfolios.
I’ve seen that many of us use the portfolio mock-ups for client presentation. You should understand the fact displaying the logo with iPhone background or table shots won’t work out for client presentation. Using the presentation mock-ups to display logo design will enable you to explain the important feature in a much better way to the client.
3. Highlight the Important Features of Logo:
Designers make a big mistake by asking the client about the logo design. You avoid asking questions like what are your thoughts about this design. Always try to explain rather asking questions. Your client is here to understand how your logo design will help to increase brand awareness.
Your questions may confuse the client. Eventually, the client is keen about the advantages of logo design. So I suggest that keep it interactive and highlight the important features of the logo and its impact on the client’s brand. It will help you to solve your client’s doubts and get easy approval.
4. Stick to the Goals:
After explaining about the logo design you should ask about the client’s expectation. If your logo meets the expectations of the client then, you will get the approval of the design. In another case, if the client says that it doesn’t set with the goal then, you’ll get the perfect feedback brief to create a better design.
In any of the above case, your job will be easy. So I suggest that you should explain how the logo meets the goals of the client. You should also explain how the logo design signifies the client’s brand identity and connects with the target audience. Explain to them that it’ll help your brand to stand out among the competition.
5. Client’s Brief is the Key to Success:
I have faced many situations where I failed to design the perfect logo due to the lack of proper design brief. Thus, I advise collecting a suitable design brief from the client. The brief helps you to craft the best logo design that can get approved easily.
In another case, if the client doesn’t give you the brief then, craft your own. You should ask appropriate questions to make your own design brief. I recommend researching about client’s business and competitors. With the help of research, you will have better clarity of the target audience.
After getting done with brief you should get it approved from the client. As now you have the client’s approval, start with the designing process. In this way, you won’t fail in the presentation and the logo design will exactly match the client’s needs.
6. Explain with Slides:
You should different slides to explain about the logo design in the presentation. Make sure that you use the small logo in a single color. Thus, explaining with slides will allow you to communicate the effectiveness of the logo design. Consequently, your client will understand the impact and usefulness of the logo.
7. Keep Calm and Focused:
I know it is very difficult to hear the client’s negative feedback about your design. But you should stay calm and listen to the feedback carefully. It will help you to remain focused avoid mistakes in your next designing assignment. You should realize that the client knows better about his/her business and competition. Thus, they know their target audience.
If they are asking questions then, you should drive their attention towards the previously decided brief. Don’t allow the clients to leverage their personal thoughts about the logo design. Rather make them aware of the exceptional qualities of the logo.
I’ll wrap it up here, so consider the above points before presenting the logo design to your client. Accept the suggestions and feedback of the client but don’t agree on useless personal opinions of clients. Stick to the brief and pre-design research to craft the best presentation to pitch your logo design idea to the client.
