Step 7: Develop

You’ve received feedback from your client on the concepts.

There’s a few ways this feedback usually goes, most likely one of the scenarios below:

A. They don’t like any of the concepts.
B. They’ve chosen a concept but want changes.
C. They’ve chosen a concept with no changes.

How to navigate each scenario

A. They don’t like any of the concepts

There’s been some miscommunication between you and your client. Don’t be hard on yourself, and try not to be discouraged. Negative feedback can be hard to hear, but there’s always opportunity to do better next time around.

To progress further you’ll need to investigate to see where things might have gone off track.

Look back at your brief. Is there a chance you’ve interpreted it incorrectly? Look through all of your email communication, is there something you may have missed?

Talk to your client. Talk through each concept with them and find out what in particular they don’t like.

If they like the idea behind a particular concept but don’t like the style it’s been rendered in, then take that idea and develop it into the style they want.

If they’re unsure of the style they want, you could browse through some branding or logo books together, or share a Pinterest board with them to see if anything stands out.

In Step 1 you asked if there were any brands they liked the look of and why, and used their answers to guide the design direction and style of your concepts.

They may have changed their mind on the style and direction they want to go since you took the brief.

In this case, explain that you’re going to have to begin the logo design process again with an updated brief, which will most likely involve additional cost. Good clients will understand this.

Quality client communication and engagement is important in your logo design process.

If you don’t have good communication, then no matter how skilled of a designer you are, you won’t get the results you or your client wants. Which means neither of you will enjoy working together.

If you’ve tried your very best to satisfy your client but you keep hitting a ‘brick wall’, it might be time to end your working relationship with them.

B. They’ve chosen a concept but want changes

Great! Your client is engaged and involved in the development process, which you’ll find to be an exciting and rewarding collaborative process.

Be clear on what developments you’re going to make before you get back on the computer to make them.

Like in Step 2, where you clarify anything that is unclear, make sure you’re interpreting their feedback correctly. If their feedback is vague and you see potential for it to be misinterpreted, ask for clarification, ideally via email so you can refer back to it.

Here’s an email example you can use:

“Thanks for your feedback on the concepts. Just to clarify, you’re wanting me to develop Concept [X] further, and [insert your interpretation of their requests], is that correct?”

Once their changes have been clarified, update the concept and send your client an updated presentation.

C. They’ve chosen a concept with no changes

You’ve nailed the brief and translated information into a concept that represents their brand. Now you can move on to developing some colour options.

Adding colour

If your client gave you colour preferences when you took the brief in Step 1, provide a few options in varying tones.

If they’re open to any colours, choose ones to enhance the concept’s meaning (search ‘colour meanings’ online).

When creating your colour swatches, start in CMYK. Check your document mode at File > Document Color Mode. You will create your digital/RGB versions in the next step.

See if you can get the same colour with three channels rather than four. This will help your client get better print consistency, because more channels equals more chance for variance and inconsistency.

Revisions

You may go back and forth with your client a few times with design revisions in this stage.

Some designers restrict how many revisions they do, particularly when offering their services at a fixed cost.

With each revision, be sure to note where you are in the revision process for each concept (i.e. Concept 1-A) to make discussing the concepts easier.

If the job has a fixed price with limited revisions, indicate the revision (i.e. ‘Revision 1 of 3’) to emphasise that changes are limited, and to encourage your client to give thorough feedback, rather than expect unlimited tweaks.