As a logo designer, you’re always looking for ways to improve your skills and impress your clients. But sometimes, you may be making mistakes that are preventing you from achieving success. In this article, we will discuss seven logo presentation mistakes that you need to avoid. If you want to create successful logo designs that wow your clients, make sure to avoid these common mistakes!
Seven Deadly Logo Presentation Mistakes
There are seven logo presentation mistakes that you’re committing as a logo designer that you need to stop doing. You may not be doing all of these, but I virtually guarantee you you’re doing at least one of these things. So today’s article is about how you can present your logo designs better and get more of them approved, because these logo presentation mistakes are going to be costing you money. That’s what I’m here to do: assist you in not just increasing revenue, but also improving your processes. So today’s article is about how you may use your logo and the seven mistakes that you should stop making. We’ll discuss how to address them as well.
Emailing Proofs Is Too Impersonal
The first don’t is emailing the logo to your client to present it. That is not how you present a logo correctly. The best way you can do that is by either doing it in person, doing it through something like Zoom or some sort of video sharing, like Google Meet. And actually presenting it with them one on one, set an appointment for a half an hour to walk them through the process of how you actually created that logo. This is a really big deal. You want to present it on Zoom. That’s the first one.
Attached Proofs Are Logo Presentation Mistakes
The second is don’t just send attachments, whether it’s through Facebook Messenger or through some other form of communication like text messaging. You actually need to make a presentation deck, whether that’s in Google Slides or PowerPoint or Adobe Spark. You need to actually make a presentation and present the logo in detail of the different concepts that you’re offering, the fonts that you’re using, and why. This is an opportunity to really craft something and build a lot of value in your logo presentation. So don’t just send attachments or screenshots over to your customers.
I’ve done this on occasion. Just when I know for sure that I have a really amazing rapport, like an existing client I’ve already been working with for years, and they asked me and we did a bunch of concepts already, and I know I nailed it. Then I’ll send them a text and say, “Hey, what do you think about this?” And if they love it, then great. But for the general rule, you should be actually presenting these on a presentation deck like in Google Slides.
Heavily Stylized Proofs
The third don’t is sending over the logo files and sending over the logos in general with a bunch of different effects and colors and styling and stylizing. Don’t do drop shadows and bevels and embosses and strokes and gradients and all the other things you need to keep the logo black and white. That is the way to do it. Because if you can get a concept that they love that’s in black and white, you can explain to them that they love it in black and white.
Then, when you add all those fancy things like the mockups and the colors and the gradients and the shadows, they’re going to love it. But you need to make sure that they love that concept right from the beginning, with the black-and-white concepts. Keep it very simple; keep it straight to the point and get to the actual idea around the concept itself, not about the colors and all the other stylizing. You want to just keep it simple.
An Even Number of Concepts
The fourth don’t is sending an even number of concepts. I see a lot of people do this. They send two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve concepts to a customer. I’ve always done odd numbers because you’re able to eliminate one pretty quickly. Usually when you just have three, one of them immediately goes out, and now you’re only picking between A and B.
I probably sell more logo concepts in the three concept package than five or seven. Five is great as well, but you’re able to easily eliminate one or two right off the bat and you’re still left with an odd number. So this is a really important thing that I do in all of my presentations is make sure I supply three, five, or seven concepts. This is something that you should do as well.
Too Many Concepts are Logo Presentation Mistakes, Too
The fifth don’t, and it goes along with the concepts, is sending too many concepts. The customer does not need 810, 1215, 18 concepts. Don’t overwhelm them with the amount of ideas and decisions to make. You’re the expert. You need to narrow it down for them. You can create 12, 13, 14, 15 concepts, but you need to narrow it down to the best three, five, or seven concepts.
This is a really important piece of what we do as well. As we come together as a team. We bounce the ideas off of people in our network, people who are really relevant to the type of client that we’re working with, and we get that feedback and we narrow it down as much as we possibly can. I don’t ever sell anything more than seven concepts. There’s no need for it, and you don’t need to do that either.
Mockup Mishaps
The sixth don’t is actually making mockups and business cards and social graphics before you even finalize the logo. Some people like to put this in their presentations and they add all these extra things, the colors, the bevels, the business cards, the vehicle graphics. They spend all this time when the concept of the logo itself hasn’t even been finalized. So you need to make sure that you keep it simple, do just the logo concepts, get approval on that, and then you can move on to those next phases.
You don’t need to mock up the logo. The logo mockup comes at the very end, after they’ve approved the style and fonts and colors. All those things are really important, so you want to make sure that you focus their energy on just approving the main concept. Once you have their approval, move them on to colors and getting the colors that you’re going to use based on the information you collected. Get approvals on that before moving forward.
Then, once you know the final concept is approved, you can start to actually create a logo mockup that they can use on social media or you can use on your portfolio. A lot of people are jumping way down the road too early, and I don’t want you to do that. So make sure that you don’t spend too much time focusing on stuff until you have that approval. Getting the approval and getting the client to approve of that logo is the most important piece.
Don’t Leave It All Up to The Client
The seventh don’t is leaving it all up to them. You create the concept and you just send it over to them. You email it or you do whatever you’re doing, and hopefully you’re not done yet. But you put it on a pitch deck, right? You put it on a pitch deck, and now you’re just like, all right, just pick one. Well, part of the presentation process is telling them the origin story of why you picked this font, why you picked the style, how you came up with the design concepts, why you feel it fits their brand, and tying it back to the discovery session that you did at the very beginning.
If they know that this actually relates to exactly what you told them, now they’re going to be interested in it. But if there’s no context, they have no information. They don’t understand why these concepts were created or how they were created or what the idea was behind it. They don’t see any of the drawings, and you don’t really show any of the origin of it. You just show them the finished concept. They’re not going to love it. They’re not going to have any attachment to any idea or history behind it.
How Logo Presentation Mistakes Affect Brands
A lot of the logos that we see nowadays have become popular because they have a lot of hidden messages or certain things about them to give them that origin story that is central to creating a memorable brand. They either evolve and change into something new, or they have a smile, something unique and creative. So you don’t want to miss that piece of your presentation. This is an important piece that I do in every single presentation I do as I walk them through it and lead the client.
That is the right way to present the logos you want to lead them to. What is your outcome that you are hoping that they pick? Which concept do you recommend for them? They may go a different direction, but if you give your strong recommendation, they go a different direction. You’re still serving the customer. You should lead them and tell them your professional recommendation of what you think the best logo concept is for them. And they should value that. They should trust you, and they should want to be a part of that.
Final Thoughts on Logo Presentation Mistakes
So those are the seven most common logo presentation mistakes and solutions to avoid them. Hopefully, this article really helps you guys out and gives you some clear direction on presenting a logo. I want to see you guys winning and we’re going to be talking more about this in the Facebook group in the coming weeks. Make sure you check out the Instagraphics Pro Network on Facebook and I look forward to seeing you guys there. Thank you so much for reading. I’m Adrian Boysel, and as always, keep looking up.