The Logo Process Part 6: Presenting Concepts
Posted: March 11th, 2010 | Author: anthony | Filed under: The Logo Process | No Comments »
This is the sixth article in the series: The Logo Process. In this article I will explain methods for presenting your concepts to the client.
If you have been following the previous steps in this series you have come a long way. You have gotten yourself a client, gathered important information, conducted research, sketched, sketched, sketched some more and have come up with a few concepts. Now is the time to present them to your client.
Objectives
Your main objective is to have your client approve a concept. Once approved you can begin to make any adjustments or changes according to the feedback and discussion between you and the client. In a nutshell you want your client to fall in love with your concepts or a particular one.
Things to Include in your Presentation
Black and White Only: Any of your concepts should be presented in black and white. This does two things. It assures that the design will work in black and white and in one color. Second, it allows you and your client to focus on the design itself rather than concentrating on color.
Reduced Sized: Along with a concept that is at a regular size you should present a copy that is reduced to a small size. Think small enough to fit on a business card or even smaller. It is important that your client see that the logo will work at all sizes.
Tagline: Show how the concept will look with and without the tagline. Both In full size and reduced size.
Reversed Version: Also remember to show each concept reversed. A reverse version is essentially a white version on a black background.
The black background isn’t part of the design but is needed to see the design. A reverse version is when the logo needs to be displayed on a dark background via print process. When printing, anything that is white does not get applied with ink. This results in a cut-out result.
How to Present
When presenting your concepts there are certain things you should do to ensure the greatest chance at getting a concept approved.
Explain Your Work: The client hired you to solve a visual problem. That problem is to effectively and appropriately come up with an identity that represents their services and products.
As the designer you need to explain with each concept how the concept accomplishes the goals and objectives outlined in the brief. As the designer you are the expert, talk like it and defend your reasoning behind your design decisions.
Some designs are better than others. When you are presenting concepts you’re more than likely to know which design the client should choose. Explain why you think one design is better than another.
This enables you to guide your client to the best solution, but by providing a second option it gives them some freedom as well. Only include your best work, and concepts that will work.
The client wants to know how you are solving their problems and why the solutions you are presenting are the right solutions.
If you are presenting face to face with your client. Have your explanations written down.
White Space is Your Friend: As you layout your concepts it is important that you give your work room to breath.
White space is important to reduce tension between your designs and concepts. You want to let you and your client be able to focus and contemplate each design independently from another.
Numbering: On the side, underneath or below your concepts you want to have a number that identifies that concept. This aids the discussion and explanation process.
It is a lot easier and professional to say “Concept 1 is the best option because…” rather than “The concept with the swishy thing inside the box is the best option because…”
Numbering can also help you group your concepts. The full concept is 1 the reduced version is 1a the reversed version is 1b etc.
PDF: Using a PDF to present your concepts allows the designs to stay in vector format rather than a raster image. The client can zoom in and out of each design testing its flexibility without the compromising the integrity of the design.
When exporting your PDFs make sure you disable the ability for the design to be edited. This presents the design from being stolen right from the document or changes being made to the designs. If you are really paranoid you can even set a password to make changes.
PDFs are professional. PDFs are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Almost everyone knows how to use them and everyone can view them. They make organizing a presentation simple and easy. I highly recommend presenting your concepts in PDF.
The Layout
In the PDF that you send to your client you should make sure that is is a professional
level document. This means including a cover page, your contact information etc.
Here is an example of how I lay out concepts when presenting to a client.
Getting Feedback
Once you have laid out your concepts and sent them for review you need a way to collect feedback. There are a number of ways to do this.
Over the Phone: Arrange a meeting so that yo and your client can go over your concepts. Make sure to take notes about changes, suggestions etc.
Email: This is the most popular method and works best for a few reasons. It gives you and your client the proper amount of time to word their response and think about the concepts. It is also convenient because the words are in writing and can’t be forgotten like a phone conversation.
Within the PDF: In the PDF you can include a text field for your client to directly comment within the document. Also you can take advantage of the comment features in Adobe Reader that allows you and your client to create comment bubbles that can be placed in the document and can point to parts of the design.
Revisions
Once you get feedback from your client you should have an approved concept that now goes into the revision stage if needed. Revisions are like tweaks, adjustments and repositioning of elements of a concept.
You and your client should have agreed how many revision rounds are included before there is a fee during the contract drafting.
When revisions are made they should always be presented in the same professional manner outlined above.
In Conclusion
Presenting concepts to a client can be one of the most nervous aspects of the process. It is when you have put a lot of hard work into designing solutions from the ground up and now the moment has come to be judged. What will the client say? Will he/she like or hate any or all of them?
If you have done a good job of explaining your concepts and making sure they follow the goals and objectives outlined in the brief your client should be pleased with one or more.
Once any revisions are made the completed concept can move into the color development phase which will be the next article in this series.
Related Posts:
- The Logo Process Part 7: Color Development
- The Logo Process Part 2: Creating a Contract
- The Logo Process Part 5: Concept Development
- The Logo Process Part 8: Finalization
- The Logo Process Part 1: Gathering Information
- The Logo Process: The Complete Guide
- The Logo Process Part 4: Brainstorm and Sketching
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