Start with the process
Most businesses choose a branding studio by its portfolio, and it is understandable. The work is visible and easy to compare. The portfolio shows what a studio can make. It says much less about how the studio decides what to make. For an established business, the second question matters more, because the risk is not ugly design. It is attractive design built on the wrong decision.
Ask each studio to walk you through how it would approach your business. A strong answer starts with understanding: conversations with the owners, research into your clients and competitors, and a clear point where the position is agreed before design begins. Strategy, in Michael Porter’s words in What Is Strategy?, is about being different. A studio that skips straight to concepts is guessing at the difference.
The questions worth asking
The table on this page sets out the questions that reveal the most, and what good answers sound like. Two of them are often missed. The first is who makes the decisions, because a project with no agreed decision-maker drifts. The second is what happens after the logo: the rollout across the website, documents, signage and social channels is where most of the cost and effort sits.
| Question | A good answer | A reason to ask more |
|---|---|---|
| How will you learn about our business? | Conversations with owners and clients, and a review of competitors, before any design | Concepts are offered in the first meeting |
| What exactly will we receive? | A clear list of deliverables, revision rounds and files | The answer is a logo and some colours |
| How do you price the work? | A clear quote for a defined scope, with exclusions listed | Open-ended hourly billing with no estimate |
| Who will do the work? | Named people, and one day-to-day contact | The work is passed to people you have not met |
| Who owns the finished work? | You do, assigned in the agreement once it is paid for | Ownership is not mentioned in the agreement |
Check who will own the work
This is the detail most often overlooked. IP Australia’s guidance is clear that intellectual property created by a contractor generally belongs to the contractor unless the contract states otherwise. Paying for a logo does not automatically make it yours. The agreement should assign ownership of the final work to your business once it is paid for, and list the files you will receive, including editable master files.
Compare like with like
Quotes from different studios are often hard to compare because each defines the scope differently. Ask every studio to price the same list of deliverables, then compare the process, the people and the price together. The cheapest quote often leaves out research or rollout, which then appears later as extra cost. The most expensive is not always the most thorough.
A note on fit
The best results come when the studio understands the kind of client you want to win. Ask what they know about how your buyers choose, as well as what they know about design. Zelexis answers that question in every first conversation, and we will tell you plainly if another kind of specialist would suit the problem better.
A useful next step
Something to try this week.
Before your first call with any studio, write down three things you want people to understand about your business that they currently do not. Use them to judge the answers you get. A studio that asks about those three things before talking about design is usually the right kind of partner.