Zaheer Dodhia, CEO of Logo Design, is a serial entrepreneur, heading projects like ZillionDesigns, PCStore and Hummingbird International.
There are a dozen or more ways to handle the process of designing a logo for a business. For example, you can do it yourself as the entrepreneur behind the company; hire a firm or a freelancer to handle it for you; use a free design software; or crowdsource. But another approach that often goes unconsidered is collaboration.
A collaborative approach to logo designing is pretty much just what it sounds like: not just an individual working on the design, but a team of people who share insights, suggestions and feedback in order to achieve the goal of creating a well-designed logo. Within your company, there are others who may deserve a say in the process of logo design: your stakeholders.
Who should get a say in your logo design?
• Investors
Typically, when we think of stakeholders, we first think of the most obvious example: investors. These are the people who have considered the merits of your company—and the likelihood of its success—and decided to put their money where their mouth is and back your business from the ground floor. Investors may very well jump at the chance to have creative input in your logo design, whether it’s the first iteration or a redesign after your business has been operational for some time.
• Employees
Along with that primary group of stakeholders, however, there are others who may also bring useful design insights to the table. Your employees are stakeholders in another sense: They’re invested in the success of the company. Even if they haven’t put actual money into it, their emotions should be involved and their loyalty engaged.
• Customers
A third set to consider is your customers. If you’re designing a logo for a new startup that hasn’t yet hit the ground running, this may be trickier to pursue, as you might not have many to start with. But if you’re getting ready for a rebrand, it’s important to, at the very least, let your customers know that the logo they know will be changing, as this will help you maintain brand equity. And I’ve found that inviting suggestions and even design ideas from customers can be a great way to further their engagement, build their loyalty and foster communication.
What are the benefits of keeping the design process open and collaborative?
But why might you want to opt for a collaborative approach to your logo design in the first place?
In my experience, a chief benefit is the fact that it allows your stakeholders a chance to invest in your company in a deeper and more personal way. Logos aren’t just there to look pretty or to label your brand; they should be designed purposefully, with meaning behind each design element. Inviting your stakeholders to weigh in on which ielements should be chosen and why gives them an opportunity to think more deeply about your company, the values behind it and what it means to them. This, in turn, can help foster enthusiasm, which can further build their loyalty.
On top of that, you’re benefiting the stakeholders by reassuring them that their opinion matters to you. You’re giving them a chance to be heard—which is also an excellent trait for an entrepreneur and business owner. According to psychological research, listening has been identified as “a key workplace skill, important for ensuring high-quality communication, building relationships, and motivating employees,” among others.
How can you open up your logo design for input?
Logo design has its own repetitive process for reaching the intended goal: a great logo that perfectly reflects your business. For a collaborative approach, the process can be similar, if somewhat complicated by the involvement of a team rather than an individual.
An important starting point is setting out your parameters for the logo. Is there any existing branding in place, such as fonts, color palette and image style? Write up a creative brief to keep all those details firmly in mind.
The next part is reaching out to the stakeholders—your investors, employees and possibly your existing customers. Explain the goal and the process, and provide them with guidelines.
Keep in mind that there’s bound to be a degree of weeding when it comes to the feedback you receive. Everyone has different ideas of what constitutes good logo design, and it’s unlikely that your team will all have similar experiences with graphic design.
What sort of limits should you set on collaborative design?
In an ideal world, we could take all the time we want in order to ensure absolute perfection in our brand designs. But this isn’t an ideal world, and time waits for no entrepreneur. Here are some of the limits I recommend setting on your collaborative approach to logo design:
• Set a time limit. You can’t just keep redesigning forever. Your business needs a logo.
• Realize—and express—that not everyone’s likely to be completely 100% happy with the final result. That’s just reality. You can’t please everyone all the time.
• Remember that suggestions can sometimes go overboard—sometimes literally, as when a crowd in the UK was allowed to choose a name for a research boat and the most popular suggestion was “Boaty McBoatface.”
• Keep the good of the brand at the heart of the design. Know when and what to cull, and adjust elements to ensure harmony and a whole-cloth feel for the logo.
Graphic design is often seen as a one-person job. But just as it typically takes more than a single entrepreneur to start and run a company, it may take more input to achieve the best design possible. Taking a collaborative approach to logo design can also contribute to the emotional investment of those involved—and in my experience, the bigger your enthusiastic support group, the better it is for your brand.
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