The 7 Worst Things To Tell a Logo Designer:

1. “I know exactly what I want so it should be easy for you. I want it to look JUST LIKE…the (blank) logo only with a (blank) on it.”
2. “I’ll know it when I see it.”
3. “I want it to be red.”
4. “This is a real estate company and my cousin drew this cute house so whatever you do, you gotta use the house.”
5. “I’m the final approval except that after I approve it, we’ll have to run it by my Board of Directors for approval too.”
6.  “Can you do it by tomorrow? I’m going overseas on Wednesday and then to the Orient on Friday so I’ll have to look at it when I can and that might be tomorrow but I don’t know.”
7. “How come I can get a logo online for under $100? How come it costs more if I hire you?”

AND NOW…WHAT THE SEVEN WORST THINGS REALLY MEAN:
1. “I know exactly what I want so it should be easy for you. I want it to look JUST LIKE…the (blank) logo only with a (blank) on it.”
What you are really saying: “Your input, years of expertise and background on the subject are irrelevant to me. There’s nothing to this and besides, I want to tell people I designed it.”
What the designer should say to you: Please do it yourself!

2. “I’ll know it when I see it.”
What you are really saying: “I have no idea how I would like my company to be represented, but if you keep making logos for me endlessly (at the fixed rate we agree to) you’ll probably eventually hit something I like (before we both die).”
What the designer won’t say out loud to you: This client will make me nuts, and I won’t make a penny on this project because I’ll be doing it until I am much older or at least until I can learn to read his/her mind. Need to take a psychic-abilities course before embarking on this one.

3. “I want it to be red.”
What you are really saying: “I don’t know anything about logos except that they have colors in them and I like the color red.
What the designer should say to you: You’ll have to be pretty well-known before the color you use for your logo is as important as what the logo actually looks like. It’s a nice goal to have though.

4. “This is a real estate company and my cousin drew this cute house so whatever you do, you gotta use the house.”
What you are really saying: a. “I have no imagination and I believe that the only way to say ‘real estate’ is with a little house.”
b.  “If I do this for my cousin, he/she might leave me alone already”. c. “I don’t really care what this looks like except that it should have the house on it.”
What the designer should say to you: Why not have your cousin make the logo for you?

5. “I’m the final approval except that after I approve it, we’ll have to run it by my Board of Directors for approval too.”
What you are really saying: “I’m not really the final approval but I want you to think I am I need to feel important and besides I’m not concerned if I spin your wheels for a while…don’t you love doing this stuff?”
What the designer won’t say out loud to you: Working on this might be like playing lotto and I might be doing this logo forever.  Should negotiate an hourly fee instead of a flat one.

6.  “Can you do it by tomorrow? I’m going to Europe on Wednesday and then to the Orient on Friday so I’ll have to look at it when I can.”
What you are really saying: “My time is more important than your time and I don’t have a lot of attention for stuff like this but I’LL KNOW IT WHEN I SEE IT.” (see point 2)
What the designer should say to you: The short-attention span client who can’t focus on (any) project we are working on together is like trying to hail a cab on a rainy Friday night in Manhattan. Someone else is getting home, but I am soaked and have to walk anyway. I could say I’m too busy right now.

7. “How come I can get a logo online for under $100? How come it costs more if I hire you?”
What you are really saying: I have no way of valuing or understanding what you are doing for me since cheaper is always better and I can get it cheaper so maybe you are just trying to get money out of me.
What the designer should say to you: Here are a few more sites that have logos for even less than $75…Not speaking English is included.

Part 1 Why your logo is important:
Don’t let me try to convince you that the creation of your logo is important, but here are some simple reasons why you might want to create something well made and distinctive to represent your company:
1. The logo is your visual shorthand:
You need one fast way to tell your audience/customers that your company is for real. Logos are a great way, actually, to do this…if they look professional, unique, handsome, trustworthy…your company sends out those messages to the world. Hopefully, your company IS professional, unique and trustworthy, but that part is your problem.
2. The logo is the seed of all things “visually corporate”:
Creating a logo begins to create a visual style for your company, a style you will use on everything that says who you are. Is it financial-looking, serious and conservative, playful and wild, minimalist, modern, “period” influenced etc. etc. Your logo is the start of all things visually corporate. A smart designer helps you figure out how to apply the visual concepts represented in your logo to your site, your marketing kit, your letterhead, signage…everything a business needs to do business! No, that stuff won’t look exactly like your logo, but at the logo stage, you plant the seeds of your “identity”, which will matter in the long run.
3. The logo must be able to be useful – everywhere.
People begin to know who you are because they keep seeing your logo all over the place: repetition, repetition, repetition. And the trick is see it the SAME way over a countless variety of media…That’s why from the beginning, you should be using someone who knows what they’re doing. Here’s a story to illustrate what NOT to do:
Corporate client A had the nephew of the president create a logo on his laptop after school one day. (Hey, it was free and they were “entertainment” corporate after all!) Same company feels like they need additional identity, marketing and sales materials so they hire us to do it. (Nephew is not big on deadlines or reading too much). But the nephew’s logo has lots of tiny things on it, uses a zillion colors and a photograph in it…yes, a complex halftone in the middle. We have to use the logo at a third of the size it was created for the work the client needs us to do, but once it is made that small, you can no longer see anything in it but a lot of boxy shapes. We have to redraw it entirely, clean up the photograph, etc. so that the logo can be seen clearly at ANY size. Client has to pay extra money to do it and the whole thing requires more time than planned. He said “I never realised, etc”. THIS COULD BE YOU!!! Lesson: Don’t have your nephew make your logo, even if they say they “know Photoshop” and you get it for free.