Logo concept

Example

A dental clinic compares two directions. The first is a wordmark with drawn lettering: it holds up on the facade, on a letterhead and in a narrow horizontal strip. The second is a symbol plus the name, where the symbol stands alone in a round avatar and as the icon of the booking app.

Both are shown in the same places — facade, door plate, letterhead, avatar, dark background. The clinic picks the second, because the app will be the main channel and the icon will be seen more often than the building. Corrections then go deep on the chosen one only: the weight of the line, the spacing of the letters, the size at which the mark still reads.

Why it matters for a business

Ten variants look like more choice, but they move the decision onto taste, and the winner is usually whatever looks best on the screen during the presentation. A few considered directions, shown on real carriers, put the question the way the job puts it: where will this mark be used most, and what does it have to survive?

The reasoning that comes with a concept has later value too. When someone asks a year from now why the letters look like that, the answer is written down, and the decision is not reopened every time a new person joins the room.

What to ask

• How many concepts do you get, and why that many? Our own answer sits among the questions on the logo design page.
• Are the concepts shown on carriers, or only on white?
• How many rounds of correction are included on the chosen one?
• What happens to the concepts you do not choose, and may you use them later?
• Do you get the reasoning in writing, not only in the meeting?

A concept is worth judging by where the mark will work hardest, not by which drawing is the prettiest on the day it is shown.