Before starting any project it’s essential to get the right preliminary information from your clients. This will help pave the way to a successful project, assist in bringing client’s vision into perspective and build a lasting relationship. Many of the questions below will also help in putting together an accurate quote for your client. Things such as deadlines, usage, etc. should take into account pricing.
Since my primary focus in is logo design, below are 20 questions to ask your clients prior to beginning their new logo design. Also, many of these questions can be applied to other forms of design, so feel free to integrate them into your questions for various forms of print and web design.
Company-related questions
1- How would you describe your services and/or products?
2- What are the long term goals of your company?
3- Why do you want a new logo? (if they already have one) What do you want your new logo to accomplish?
This question helps to understand the problem.
4- Who are your main competitors?
Having clients provide links allows you to get a better feel for their market and competition.
5- How are you different from your competitors?
6- What’s the age range of your target customer base?
Helps in creating an overall feeling and impression of the logo.
Project-related questions
7- Do you have a tag line? If so, would you like it stated along side your logo?
8- Do you have any specific imagery in mind for your logo?
9- Do you have any color preferences, or existing brand colors?
10- Do you have any colors that you do not wish to use?
11- What adjectives should best describe your logo?
12- What feeling or message do you want your logo to convey to those who view it?
13- How do you prefer your logo to be worded or written out?
Example: thedesigncubicle or the design cubicle
14- How would you like the typography to appear?
Example: script, bold, light, hand drawn, custom lettering
15- Where will you logo be used?
Example: print, web…
16- Where will your logo primarily be used?
If the primary usage is for the web, typically horizontal logos work best.
17- What’s your preferred deadline, time frame or exact date of completion?
18- Budget?
This is where I provide various pricing and concept numbers.
19- Would you like any addition design services to be packaged with your new logo?
Example: business cards, envelops, letterheads, etc.
20- What logos appeal to you and why?
Another question they can also with links and visual examples.
I also like to leave my clients with a field or extra room at the end where they can provide additional details and comments. Remember, being a graphic designer means you are a problem solver. You cannot solve a problem without knowing what the problem is – asking questions is a great start. What questions do you ask your clients prior to starting a project? Feel free to add to the above questions in the comments below.
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[...] 20 Questions To Ask Clients Prior To Designing A Logo http://www.thedesigncubicle.com/2009/07/20-questions-to-ask-clients-prior-to-designing-a-logo/ [...]
[...] 24 Most Ridiculously Thought Out Storefront Signs 13 Tips To Skyrocket Your Marketing Campaign 20 Questions To Ask Clients Prior To Designing A Logo How to Turn Your Blog Into a Business Timing Is A Critical Success Factor for Blog Posts Ways For [...]
[...] We recently found a blog that explores the questions we need to ask when starting a design project. You can read Brian Hoff’s column, “20 Questions to Ask Clients” here. posted by Account Ambassadors [...]
awesome list, noted them all done on a post-it and they are stuck to my monitor.
This should help alot.
It’s always interesting to see what price brackets certain industries work within. Some industries will do a logo for $100 dollars while other will do it for $5000 dollars, or even exorbitantly higher fees…
The trick is to keep the client informed. Does anyone think
it’s okay to ask what the client’s ideal budget is at this point? :-)
Freelance Designer….Great question, I was wondering the same. I actually work fulltime as a designer for a publishing company, but am approached on occasion to do logos, etc. It’s easy to come up with pricing on brochures, etc with an hourly rate. But I have always had a problem coming up with pricing on a logo, what is an expected price range?
Ellibbagate…
After looking at some student price guides for design students I made a decision… firstly I wouldnt be caught dead charging less than double what the student guide suggests. :-) Then again, I might be studying, but I have a 4 year head start on design experience above the average student where I study.
Based on what it said there I think one should just charge for the hours… 3 – 5 hours for a logo that just looks good but doesnt really relate to the company spesifically and 7.5 to 10 hours for something that has more thought put into it… then suggest letterheads and all that jazz to make more… It’s tempting to make up silly numbers and see whether you get the job, but will you get repeat business? I’m uploading a new article to my site right now. It’s called “5 reasons to use a freelance designer instead of a company”. I wrote it in lunch today. :-p My current employer really urks me big time!
You know, for me, there are far too many questions for your prospective client!
Of course you want to know things but do your research before you meet them.
It’s YOU who should be making recommendations, changes, and telling your client why and what the design will achieve. You’re the expert right?
If you start designing around what the competition has you are already in the losers position. The task is to create and design stuff that make syour client stand head and shoulders above “competition”.
Let’s get something else straight, just because someone is a student doesn’t mean they know anything about business!
You are selling skill not art! A logo doesn’t need to look good ” Brilliant design is a little like obscenity; you can’t define it but you know it when you see it.” – Malin Tisell.
Design, is not simply a trademark, a slogan or an easily remembered image. It is a studiously crafted personality profile of a corporation, product or service. It has to be created in such a way that people feel it deep down and remember that it stands for authenticity, trust & value!
Get this right and then it costs what it costs not how much should I charge!
[...] In: Design inspiration 1 Sep 2009 Questions to ask a client before starting a design project. Logo web site graphics in general. Go to Source [...]
thanks for u r questions…
now i am clear how to ask question
[...] at how in depth Graham Smith, of ImJustCreative, gets with his research process. And Brian Hoff of The Design Cubicle and Erik Peterson of Logo Critiques, do a good job of laying out questions to [...]
[...] 20 Questions To Ask Clients Prior To Designing A Logo Before starting any project it’s essential to get the right preliminary information from your clients. This will help pave the way to a successful project, assist in bringing client’s vision into perspective and build a lasting relationship. [...]
[...] short and insightful article from Design Cubicle. The suggested questions will help you get organized as well as remind you of what you should be [...]
Thanks for the great list of questions, I am sure it will help a lot of people out there when designing a logo!
[...] feile”. Nå som jeg er ferdig fant jeg så klart en ganske hendig side hvor det var blant annet 20 spørsmål man bør spørre en kunde om før man designer en logo. Den tror jeg kan bli kjekk til seinere [...]
[...] A good questionnaire template for your logo design needs (my logo-related questions are almost all *cough* stolen *cough* from there. [...]
thanks alot! this will be very helpful since im a rookie logo design.
[...] A good questionnaire template for your logo design needs (my logo-related questions are almost all *cough* stolen *cough* from there. [...]
Brian, thanks for taking the time to put this together. I’ll certainly be taking notes and being more diligent with the question asking in future… it really does make such a difference. Cheers.
I especially like number #11, it’s almost like asking the client to be creative as well. Thanks for the list!
[...] 20 Questions to Ask Clients Prior to Designing a Logo [...]
[...] 20 Questions To Ask Clients Prior to Designing a Logo [...]
@ The Baldchemist: I respectfully disagree that those are too many questions. Of course, you don’t need to use every single one of them necessarily, but I found that clients trust you more when you ask them these things.
Why? Because they notice that you actually know what you are talking about. Asking these specific questions doesn’t only help us to get a clearer understanding of the clients needs and desires, it often also helps the client to focus his thoughts and articulate what he wants. Since they are not the experts, as you rightly pointed out, I found that it is often difficult for them to express what they want. I can’t even count the times when the client talked about ‘layout’ and ‘structure’ and meant ‘color scheme’.
Every time I sat down with a (prospective) client and asked them questions like the above (and I will add many of the above to my repertoire), they became focused, interested and then enthusiastic because I helped them to see that their trust in me was justified and they themselves were clearer about what they wanted.
Just my two cents ;)
Hello Julia.
You know, I have found that most of the clients we deal with have come to us for solutions to specific marketing/branding image questions.
The reason I mentioned that one can ask too many questions is because it creates confusion.
Clients come to you for your expertise and knowledge. Of course one must gather information.
Our experience is that often clients don’t know what they need but have an idea what they want. Two entirely different things. What we seek to establish is client objectives. It is then up to us to create fabulopus solutions that assist the objective. I don’t believe that asking a client what they want or desire in anway gives credence to us. If they know already what they want and can articulate it then they needn’t have approached us in the first place.
But I see your point and if it works for you then there is no need to change your style.
Communication and dialogue isn’t about a list of questions and answers.
Any how, have a wonderful holiday and get as much joy as you can every day. Take care.
I don´t think that some questions above are necessary, like the 13-14-15…
I mean, if the client knows about design, he wouldn´t ask for a designer to do it …the client needs to trust on you, in your work…asking this kind of questions, can help you to reach out the client´s idea, but at the same time it can be confused, the client sometimes don´t care about it, like which color, or what kind of type will be used, and just care about how it´s gona be, how is it going to look like…
Another point is, always create a logo that works anywhere, not only for web but print also…even if it´s a website, you always need to put on papers, doing business cards, advertising and all kind of media we have…
[...] with my logo questionnaire, I also like to leave my clients with a field or extra room at the end where they can provide [...]
Yes, very helpful questions. I totally agree, I start a logo development only after completing a Requirements Specification with my client for this logo, this is a rule and it works. It’s very important what your Customer really needs for his business.
Great tips. It’s hard to really get a good feel for a company when you are trying to design the image and branding for a company. These questions should really come in handy. Thanks for sharing!
very useful list, thanks
This is a great list of questions to ask. Hopefully the company will have answers to all of the questions, that is usually the hardest part. #20 I think is very important, it gives you a very good idea of the style of logo they will be happy with. Thanks for the post.
The fact that there are more topics here about logo design than anything else, just proves that the process is more complicated than our clients can understand.
[...] 20 Questions To Ask Clients Prior To Designing A Logo Before starting any project it’s essential to get the right preliminary information from your clients. This will help pave the way to a successful project, assist in bringing client’s vision into perspective and build a lasting relationship. [...]
I like working by showing them examples of existing company logos. Normally it instantly eliminates the need of most of the other questions such as colour, font type, etc.
very useful article :)
Won’t the client get annoyed if you ask so many questions lol. Just kidding. Great post and logical points made.
John Foy, yes the client might get annoyed if you ask all those questions in an interview-like fashion, but not if you introduce them little by little in an informal conversation. Also, you might not need to ask all of them, i.e. if they already have a specif imagery they’d like to use, kind of narrows down a lot on the typography and color you can use.
You could also present them in a written form and ask them to fill as much information as they can. Some people like being practical as well and this will highly increase the efficiency of your work.
Brian, I loved this article very well written and I can see this article maturing my future projects. Give me holla sometimes @ sharifdysononline.com
Thanks B!
Excellent list! I agree with some of the comments that some of the questions might be overkill but I also know from working with clients that I’d rather have too much information (even bad information – like the client LOVES the fonts Papyrus and Comic Sans) than to have not enough information and keep repeatedly hitting a wall with them. Half the job of being a designer sometimes, or so it feels like, is to train non-designers about good versus bad design.
Great Questions! Although I think that there may be to many design related questions. I would only ask questions that would point me in the right direction, not questions like how you want the type to look. The truth is the client never truly knows what they want.
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This post was mentioned on Reddit by Neticule: Not bad! At first I thought “Wow, 20 questions is way more than I need to get started” – But by asking them all right off the bat, it will save a ton of time on revisions and such. I usually just ask a f…
I impress your site company related question. your question is mark by our company thanks for your suggestion.
Include this also
Do you want education or organization related logos?
Nice list…
I was searching for a list similar to this..
I hope this will help us to get clear idea about the requirement
Nice article. I also have a similar kind of questionnaire with me. But i have made every questions with suitable examples. Thats a 7 page PDF file ;*)
I especially like number #11. good your question is i follow by this question. Great design graphic blog! thanks
I have found #19 to be one of the best questions for my freelance career. It’s not really helpful in knowing how to design their logo, but I have landed many web design or print gigs just by offering additional services. This question also goes well after you finish the logo and they love it. They are then more willing to invest in your work.
I also love the closer, Brian. Design IS problem solving. This is a great way to start the problem solving process. Thanks for the post!
Nice list…
I was searching for a list similar to this..
I hope this will help us to get clear idea about the requirement
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