How to Understand your Design Client, Logo Design, UI/UX & Graphic Design
Design exercise generator: FakeClients.com
When you receive your first design brief, it’s often hard to get to know exactly what the client wants and what the client needs. These two things can often be completely different. If you want your client to have the perfect logo for their business, you’ll sometimes need to ditch some of their wishes in the interest of their business, their goals, and intentions. For example, you wouldn't want to go through with a design where a client that operates a big bank asks for a playful handwritten logo with a monkey as its mascot. A great way to divert from ideas like this is to find a way to use these ideas in a way that aligns with their industry and keeps your client happy. A great example of this is would be to incorporate the mascot in a way like the insurance firm Geico uses its mascot. That way the company doesn’t come over as childish while still speaking to a younger audience. In the case of Geico, their mascot is a separate entity from their logo and can be used in cases where they want to come over as friendly and gain trust, such as a tv commercial. Don’t try to completely ignore the ideas of your client, there’s often a deeper meaning behind their ideas which can give the company their character. Ask what the monkey means as a mascot, why the client wants the logo to be handwritten and playful, and what meaning all of those factors have to the company. The need for the logo to be handwritten might come from the fact that they would want to resemble the founders signature and thus their heritage in the logo in some way.
Try to ask many questions before actually beginning with your research because after all, your client knows their business best, and from the inside. Don’t only ask what they want, however. It might even be more important to ask what the client doesn’t want. Clients will often forget to state the things they absolutely don’t like and wouldn’t want to be incorporated into their logo. The client wouldn’t want to adopt the color of a rival business for example. If you end up using that particular color as the base of their new logo and incorporate it in the new brand identity, it’ll be a lot of work and a big hassle for you and your client to completely start over with your design.
Get to know what they do, who they work for and what type of customers they want to attract. Because, for the coming days, weeks, or even months, you’ll need to learn to project yourself into their costumes and think like them when looking at the logo concepts you created.
How to use briefs: "How to use design briefs to practice design"
