A well run logo project moves through six stages: brief, research, concepts, refinement, testing and final files. For a small business that typically takes four to eight weeks, and most of the variation comes from how quickly decisions get made on the client side.
Logo projects rarely go wrong in the drawing. They go wrong at the start, when the brief is vague, or in the middle, when feedback comes from five family members at once. Below is what each stage is for and what’s being asked of you at each point.
Stage 1: The brief
You provide: what the business does, who your best customers are, who you compete with, where the logo will appear most, and anything you already know you love or hate.
The designer provides: questions. Lots of them. A good designer will push on things you haven’t thought about, like whether the logo needs to be embroidered, fit a round social profile picture, or work as a single colour vinyl cut on a ute.
The brief is where you save money. “Something modern and clean” gives a designer nothing to work with. “Our customers are retirees getting bathrooms renovated. They need to trust us in their house. Every competitor uses a blue tap icon” gives them plenty.
Bring examples, and say what you like about each one. “I like this because it looks solid and simple” is far more useful than a folder of 40 logos with no comment.
Stage 2: Research
This stage is mostly invisible to you, and it’s often the bit that separates a $200 logo from a properly designed one.
The designer looks at your competitors and your category, what’s overused (every physio has a spine or a figure stretching; every electrician has a lightning bolt), and where there’s room to stand apart. They’ll also check where the logo has to work: sign sizes, vehicle panels, website headers, the tiny browser icon.
If your name hasn’t been checked for trade mark conflicts yet, now is the time, before anyone gets attached to a design. Our guide to trade marks for small businesses covers what to check.
Stage 3: Concepts
You’ll usually see two to four distinct directions. Not twenty. A designer who shows twenty options has generally not decided which ones are good, and is handing that job to you.
Each concept should be shown in context: on a sign, a shirt, a business card, a phone screen. A logo floating on a white page tells you very little about how it will feel on the side of a van.
A good concept presentation also explains the thinking. Why this typeface, why this shape, what problem it solves. You’re not obliged to agree, but you should understand why each option exists.
Your job here is to react honestly. It’s fine to say none of them are right, as long as you can say why. It’s also fine to like a part of one and a part of another, though be aware that combining concepts rarely works as well as people hope.
Stage 4: Refinement
Once you pick a direction, it gets refined: spacing, weight, colour, proportions, the tagline if there is one.
How many rounds is normal? Two or three rounds of refinement on a chosen concept is typical, and most quotes state how many are included. If you’re on round six, something has gone wrong earlier, usually in the brief or in who’s giving feedback.
Some habits that keep refinement short:
- Pick one person to give feedback. Collect everyone else’s views first, then send one consolidated response.
- Describe the problem, not the fix. “It feels a bit heavy” is better than “make it thinner”, because the designer may have a better way to solve it.
- Look at it at real size. Print it, put it on your phone home screen, stick it on the fridge for a day. First impressions on a laptop at 400% zoom aren’t reliable.
- Don’t ask the whole of Facebook. A poll will get you the least objectionable option, not the most effective one.
We’ve written more on this in how to give design feedback that helps.
Stage 5: Testing
Before sign off, the near final logo should be tested where it will live. Shrunk down to 16 pixels. In one colour. Reversed out of a dark photo. Embroidered (or at least mocked up). Read from a few metres away.
This is where small problems surface: a thin line that disappears at small sizes, letters that fill in when embroidered, a symbol that looks like something unintended when it’s tiny. It’s much cheaper to fix them now.
Stage 6: Final files
When the logo is approved, you should receive a complete set. At a minimum:
- Versions: primary, horizontal or stacked alternative, icon only
- Colour variations: full colour, one colour, black, white (reversed)
- Colour modes: RGB for screens, CMYK for print, and Pantone references if you’ll use spot colour
- Formats: vector files (SVG, EPS or PDF, and often AI) for printers and sign writers, plus PNG with a transparent background and JPG for everyday use
- A short guide: colour values, fonts, clear space and minimum size
Also make sure the agreement states that copyright in the final artwork is transferred to you. Ask for the font names and confirm that any fonts used are licensed for commercial use.
Store the files somewhere you control, like your own Google Drive or Dropbox, not just in an email from the designer. Some of the most common requests we get are from businesses whose only logo file is a blurry JPG pulled off an old website.
Where projects stall
From experience, logo projects lose weeks in three places:
- Waiting on the brief. The questionnaire sits in an inbox for a month.
- Feedback by committee. Business partners disagree and the designer gets conflicting emails.
- Late new information. “Oh, we’re also opening a café” in round three.
None of these are fatal, but all of them cost time and often money if revisions go past what’s included.
If you want to see where this process ends up, have a look at the branding for North Coast Head Neck & Jaw Centre. Our branding and logo design page explains what’s included in our projects, and when you’re ready to write a brief, we’re easy to reach.