If you’ve never worked with a professional creative before, hiring your first graphic designer (or branding studio/agency) can be a bit intimidating. But don’t let unknowns about the logo and brand development process slow you down!
You might be asking yourself:
- What if I hate what they make for me?
- How many rounds of revisions will I get?
- Will I get the editable files at the end?
- Can I make them understand my vision?
- How much is it going to cost?
These are common questions and we’re happy to answer them here or in your Discovery Call, which is the first meeting we have with you to make sure it’s a good fit for both us and you.
Before we too deep into answering frequently asked questions about logo design, we’d like to share our process to help you better understand what to expect. And if you’re a designer just starting out, feel free to utilize this as guidelines to develop your own creative process!
Neat + Nimble’s Logo and Brand Development Process
At the time of this writing, our creative process is what we would call AI assisted. We do NOT utilize AI generative designs, but artificial intelligence is a part of our tech stack and supports our workflow as a team.
Before a contract is signed, we connect with every client either virtually or by phone for a 30-45 minute discussion about their goals, needs, timelines, budget, and to answer any questions they have about our team, experience, deliverables, or other questions. At that time a scope of work is determined and a proposal is shared with the client. Once a contract is signed and deposit received a first meeting is scheduled, which is where the real work begins.
Creative Kickoff Meeting
Our logo and brand development workflow starts with research and information gathering. We kickoff every brand with a discussion about the business, the current audience(s), what growth and success looks like, and expectations of how the brand should be experienced. We share a hand-picked curated collection of visuals to help convey those ideas.
Logo Roughs
After considering all the information gathered we sketch. Pencil, paper, and our favorite playlist are all we need. We generate as many icon ideas as we can. We start playing with combinations, styles, and type ideas. We do a quick search online to rule-out any obvious copyright conflicts or “stock” looking options. We select the best concepts to present to the client, then we digitize. Top picks get scanned as sketches and render them in our creative software. (Called Adobe Illustrator with a filename that abbreviates to .ai which is a story for another day!)
We also cross-check the ideas against the global brand database to try to avoid showing you any ideas that aren’t viable.
We unveil the design roughs to you live. It’s important to us to read your body language and get feedback in your tone of voice, pauses, and facial expressions. It’s the most honest feedback we encounter about what we’re creating for you.
Revisions
During the logo reveal meeting we revise it together. Sometimes it means combining concepts, switching fonts, and applying color. Occassionally though, we need to start over with additional or new information, but that’s included in the original price too! Together we revise the work up to two times before we ask for your final approval.
Building the Brand Identity Guide
Once the logo and any additional illustrations are approved, colors and font selections are finalized and we build out the brand identity guide. This living document includes key information about the unique selling proposition of the brand, services or products offered, as well as brand values, messaging, visual styles we discuss with you along the way.
From the big picture all the way down to the tiniest pixel, we capture decisions that will impact your brand ecosystem top to bottom.
A draft is shared so you can provide feedback and notes about any last edits you may have before we finalize the document and logo file exports. The final deliverable is shared as a zipped file for easy download, archiving, and sharing with other vendors or creatives.
Does Our Process Sound Right for You?
If you’re ready to interview a creative team to develop your logo and brand identity system, we’d love to be considered! Reach out using our contact form to show you’re interested and we will schedule a Discovery call to determine what you need right now to define or refine your logo and branding!
And to answer a few of those earlier FAQs:
- If you hate the original concepts we reveal to you, we start over from scratch once. If it happens twice, the termination clause in our contract can be utilized and it outlines what happens with deposits and any creative work that was completed to that point.
- We include two rounds of revisions after the initial concept roughs. Rarely is a third round needed and discretion is used to determine if additional charges may apply.
- We do not include any of the editable working files in the final logo deliverables. Vector and raster files are provided and include full color, black only, reversed, and any color variations as determined between client and creative strategiest. An editable version of the brand identity guide is provided for future updating should the brand continue to evolve.
- It’s our goal to not only understand your vision (if you already know what you want), but to be able to execute it. If your vision doesn’t fit the style our team of artists and designers has experience in, we will convey that to you and may decline the job or refer you to another creative service provider.
- Price is dependant on a number of factors, including timeline, complexity, number of deliverables, and brand equity. We work to ensure high value and aim to have options for brands at a variety of spots on their building or sustaining journey. You can check our services page for package details and current offers.
Still unsure? You can check out our portfolio to review case studies of past designs and clients we’ve worked with.