17 questions to kick-start your logo questionnaire

Logo design is at the forefront of a strong branding core and, these days, there’s an increasing need for businesses to really hone in on creating this. So during the design process, it’s important for both the business owners and designers to ask the right questions to ensure they are putting their best foot forward. Enter the logo questionnaire.

With the rise of social media and multiple marketing channels through which consumers do their research, it’s so easy for the business’ presence to get drowned out amongst the competition.

The purpose of a logo questionnaire
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Asking yourself the hard (but right!) questions about what you want in a logo design is very important. It allows you to dig deep and think about the core values of your business, and define your own voice that’s distinct from the competitors. While you may have a good idea of what your business will be about, specific questions will help you draw out details and information about your business that seem minor, but could hold the key to unlocking your unique brand identity.

The logo design brief questionnaire is specifically designed for that: it’s a list of questions for business owners to answer to help uncover important aspects about the business and help shape a strong logo design.

The logo design brief questionnaire does this in 3 ways:

1. Create a focus point for your branding and identity

The logo design questionnaire helps the business owner and designer fine-tune the primary focus around which the business revolves. By having the business owner answer specific questions around basic things such as the business operations and target audience, the process gets the conversation started and ideas flowing.

We’ll show you some sample questions further down below to get the process started! Even if none of the answers clearly define the branding yet, usually the discerning designer will start to see a common theme emerging from those answers. And that theme could help shape the core business identity—and from there, your logo design.

2. Uncover as many aspects of the business to shape your logo

The logo questionnaire usually comprises an extensive amount of questions. But before you get discouraged by this, it’s worth remembering that the questions ensure you leave no stones unturned to discover the right voice and the right style for your business logo.

Even for the most insightful business owner who knows what their business will look and feel like, there may be one or two forgotten things about their story that could actually be the key to unlocking that effective logo design. The specific questions in a logo design brief questionnaire will pull everything out in the open so you have as many puzzle pieces as possible to build the perfect logo.

3. Create a cohesive business brand

Think of the logo questionnaire as an effective fact-finding device. By culling as much information as possible early on in your branding journey, you will have all—if not, most—of the tools ready to tackle the next phase of your business branding.

Take this case as an example: a small bakery owner wants to upgrade from an online-only operation to a physical shop. When the time comes to decide on the shop’s interior decor, he refers back to his logo questionnaire to be reminded that it was his grandmother who first taught him how to bake. This compels him to recreate the interior of his grandmother’s kitchen in his new bakery.

Answering as many questions in the logo questionnaire form as possible can help set you up for success early on, and better prepare you for well beyond the logo design phase.

Important things to think about for your logo questionnaire
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The business story

Including questions around the story of the business will help uncover useful keywords that will inform where your logo design could go, stylistically. Include questions that encourage you to dig deep into the origin of the business, including when or where the business idea was first conceived, why you decided to go into this business or industry in the first place, and the important milestones the business has seen so far.

Take the story of the Evernote logo as an example: as a note-taking app whose core function is to help users retain and memorize information, the logo features the head of an elephant as it’s long believed that elephants have a great memory. By conjuring up the common phrase ‘an elephant never forgets’, Evernote promises its users that they can rely on the app to remember important things in their lives.

The more details you can dig up about the business and its journey so far, the better equipped you will be in crafting that perfect logo design.

Example questions

What is the nature of your business? What do you offer?

What are your business values, vision and mission?

Tell us the story behind your business—how did you land with that idea come about and what was the inspiration behind it?

Target audience

Identifying the business’s target audience is another sure-fire way to find that perfect logo design. By narrowing down the demographics of the business through an effective set of questions, you’ll be able to make better decisions about the styles and elements your logo should feature.

It’s worth thinking about creating business customer personas, so you may better identify the wants, likes and dislikes of your target audience.  The more you know, the better you can connect with them.

Example questions

Who is your target audience?

What are their likes?

What are their dislikes?

How do you connect with your target audience?

Brand colors, fonts and general style

Identifying the design and style preferences for the business is the logical next step in narrowing down that perfect logo design. Your logo questionnaire should dig deep into the visuals of the business, including colors, font style and even specific elements that speak to the business (eg. round shape, text-focused design).

Consider the choices of each element—are you basing your decision around the brand colors on your own personal preferences or based on what makes the most sense for your brand?

You should be researching colors to see what they symbolize, if your audiences would connect to them and what other brands are using them. If you have not already done so, start developing a brand style guide with your designer to establish a set of guidelines that define your business’ creative style.

Example questions

Given it’s mission, values and offerings, which colors best suit your brand?

Which font(s) would you imagine for your brand?

Describe your brand’s aesthetic, be that in several words or a phrase.

Your competitors

While it can be daunting to think about the business’ competition, it’s important to know what they look like and offer so you can see where your business fits in.

Does it do something similar to what they are, but more efficiently or cheaper? Does it offer extra services or products? How much overlap is there with your audiences? The more you can pinpoint and understand, the easier you’ll find it to hone in on a unique, authentic voice and visual identity—including the perfect logo.

Example questions

Who are your three top competitors?

Name at least one thing you like and dislike about the visual identities of each one; think colors, logo, imagery, font and their overall aesthetic.

Where do you see yourself positioned in comparison to these competitors? What do you do differently?

Longevity

While we can’t predict the future, there are some things to consider when developing a logo design–among them is whether the business might venture into other services or expand on product offerings. Considering these will ensure the logo design isn’t tied to one style that may be outdated when the expansion happens.

Example questions

Where do you see your business in 5 years’ time? What’s changed? 

What is the ideal next step/phase for your business?

Additional question ideas for your logo questionnaire
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While the above direct questions are often enough to pull out the key information for your logo creation, there are alternative methods to get ideas flowing, such as:

Picking one or the other

Select one or the other from a list of opposites. This list could be opposing personalities, characteristics or aesthetics. The idea is that you choose whichever option feels the most in sync with your brand and, when you take all your answers together, can provide a great springboard for your designer from during their creative process. See below for an example of how to tackle this:

I see my brand as more:

• Abstract/realistic
• Cursive/block letters
• Illustrative/photographic
• Classic/modern
• Mature/youthful
• Playful/sophisticated
• Luxurious/urban
• Organic/geometric

Describe your business/brand to a friend

Including a prompt in your logo questionnaire to describe your business to a friend can be an effective brainstorming trick: it can help you word important info for your logo design you might not have thought of otherwise.

While the standard questions of a logo questionnaire may be enough to encourage you to tell your business story, sometimes the certain framing of questions can hinder you from thinking outside the box. By removing the constraints and providing the ‘safe space’ of a friend, you could be more inclined to share details of your business that you may not think of otherwise, and find the gems among those details to craft your future logo.

Moodboard

Another great item to add to your logo questionnaire item is a moodboard. This is where you add all the images, photos or illustrations that somehow resonate with the vision for your business. You could include mottos, fonts or mascots you see from other brands that could work. You could include specific campaigns or brand identities from other businesses and point out what you like about them. You could include the work of different artists, stylists or photographers who capture a certain atmosphere or aesthetic and identify what it is about their work you’d like to capture for your brand.

Whether it’s a collection of inspiring imagery or simply naming other companies most similar to yours, this will form the cornerstone of your business brand and logo design.

To sum it all up…

The logo questionnaire is the lynchpin of your business’ perfect logo design. It provides a solid start to your branding and identity by doing it in 3 ways: it helps you stay focused on what your business is about, uncovers specific aspects by delving deep into your business objectives and ensures your logo stands the test of time. By asking all the right questions early on in your business journey, you’ll unlock a seamless creative process to the right logo design.

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