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How
to Get Your Logo Approved by Your Board Anyone who has worked on a new logo is probably familiar with this situation. You spend weeks – sometimes months – working on background, defining your brand, hammering out your messaging, and creating logo concepts—only to have it shot down by your board. Here are some ways to avoid this dreaded pitfall:
Back up the design. Any good creative firm should provide you with a creative brief, which can be as simple as key words – or as complex as an organizational brand platform. This ensures that the design is on track with the organization's goals, and that every design has reasoning behind it. Have a short version. An in-depth messaging document is often necessary for people involved in day-to-day marketing activities. Unfortunately, the chances are slim to none that a board member will read this 25-page single-spaced document. Write a short synopsis, with key points such as adjectives to describe the organization (3-5), short messages, audiences and goals of the organization and of the new design. Refer to this when presenting concepts. Present in person. The worst thing that happens to any design is that it gets shot into cyberspace to stand up by itself! The presence of at least one member of the team working on the logo can head off many potential disasters or naysayers simply by being able to explain a design face-to-face. Second best: create an online presentation. If it's not possible to present your concepts in person, a good alternative is to develop an online presentation. Programs such as GoToMyPC or Adobe Connect are easy to use, and allow you the control to show the audience what you want them to see. If you are still forced to email a logo out to the group, be sure to BCC the team to avoid group-think and massive "reply all" chains. Involve your creative firm. We've all been there – in a presentation with visual concepts, and somebody says “Oh! But what if we used a swoosh and combined option 3 with option 1!” Having your creative firm there – who has most likely been through a number of other options not shown – can be good backup. They should be able provide an explanation as to how certain elements support or detract from your brand. If all else fails and there are still a few detractors, it helps to understand why somebody "just doesn't like it." For instance, when the question "Can we try Comic Sans instead?" is posed, asking what is not appealing about the chosen font – and steering away from such specific direction – can help to alleviate the person's concern. At the very least, asking more specific questions (Is it too corporate? Too friendly? Not friendly enough?) will serve to make the next option just as strong of a design, while still avoiding Comic Sans. These tactics can (and should!) be translated to almost any larger scale project such as an annual report or website.
Take a look at our new website: www.goris.com * * * © 2008 Bremmer
& Goris Communications. All rights reserved.
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Get
early buy-in.