Creating a Winning Logo Presentation

Most recently I have been working on a logo for my favorite kind of client, a non profit organization! They are doing amazing work in Haiti helping build the community and environment around a small village in the mountains. A few years ago when I went to Haiti this was the organization that I worked through. If you would like to learn more about the work they are doing you can check out their website here: http://www.haitianartisans.com/.

Usually I like to present my ideas to clients in person. You get a chance to really talk about why you make the decisions you did and the client can ask you loads of questions. You can quickly figure out what the client is looking to change or what they like about your work, which you just can't get through an email. Sometimes of course this just isn't possible. As a freelance designer I do find that I will have to send out a presentation to a client for them to review on their own. What I'll do is run you through how to put together this presentation and even provide you with a template to get you started!

So, let's dig in here. First of all you want to make sure your presentation is clean and easy to understand. You want to make sure your client can easily understand the direction of the piece. I always start out with whatever the title is of the project, whatever is the most straightforward. If you have done a lot of projects for this one client you can use numbers or letters after it to help specify the number of this project. You can also just put down simply "logo". You just want to make sure that it's something that both you and your client can easily reference at a later date.

Next, you'll want to create a subtitle for this logo selection specifically. This will help if you have multiple versions that you are presenting. When I present logos to clients I like to show 3 versions for them to consider, sometimes even 4, so it's important for clarification to label each concept. For this project I used something simple for labeling "concept #". You can use this or you can just number each sheet. The key here is to put each concept onto a separate sheet.

Under your concept you'll want to put a little bit of an explanation. Since you aren't there to present your idea you'll want to write everything down that you would say if you were presenting this in person to your client. I make sure to reference if I used a resource they requested I use or certain colors requested. This way they can remember what their contribution is to the mark. It's key to really have a lot of clear communication, so make sure to reference as much as you need to about what they requested and how you implemented that request. Clients feel a sense of pride knowing that they are a crucial part of the process!

After this information you'll want to show which single mark is the considered the main possibility. There will be variations presented below, but you want them to see that this is considered how the mark will be used most often. You want the client to see this mark and be "wowed" so make sure you select one that you feel is the best of all the options.

Below your main logo you should show other ways in which the logo can be used. This is a much abbreviated version of a brand standard, ways in which it is acceptable for the logo to be used. This will help your client decide if they like the entire package which you are presenting. You will also want to provide a black and white version just so they can see how the colors will work together in this form.

Alrighty, so now they can see how slick your mark is but let's also share with them the fonts and colors used! This is very helpful because you want to make sure they know that you may or may not have used standard fonts like Georgia or Arial. There is a possibility that they may have to pay for rights to these fonts which effects the budget. I try to give options for my clients if they would like to purchase the fonts or not and how this will effect the budget. If they can't afford to purchase the fonts I will simply outline the mark before sending it out so they aren't able to use the font later. If they choose to purchase the font then no worries, just send them the type as is!

At the very bottom you'll want to put your name and company information so your client can get in touch with you. I wouldn't recommend putting color or too much personality into this part of the sheet. You'll want to make sure that it doesn't distract from the content! They already know you're a great designer, since they hired you, so no need to really wow them with graphic elements on this presentation. Clean and simple is the way to go!

Once the presentation is done I send them in an email to my client as a low quality PDF. This way they can evaluate the logos but they aren't good enough quality for them to take and use on their own. I also write a short note in the email mentioning that they should consider each sheet to be a separate idea and to decide which concept they like the most. There are usually revisions that a client will want, which is totally acceptable, but they should evaluate the marks on the style and concept, not colors and fonts. I have found that some logos never really get a chance because the client may not like blue and if you used blue in their logo then no matter how awesome the mark is that you designed it's screwed because of the colors. For sure you really want to emphasize that these things can be changed later.

So that is how you put together a killer presentation! You're clients will really be impressed if you show them a tight, thrall presentation. Just make sure you don't have any spelling errors! Hit me up with any questions you may have about how to make your presentations better. Enjoy!

Download the template!