Before You Design A Logo Do This One Thing

How can you understand your client's sense of design style? What questions can you ask them? Are there any exercises to help you get on the same page?
In this episode, we bring back a clip from our Adobe Max interview with design legend, Paula Scher as she shares what she has learned in her years of experience.
Who is Paula Scher?
Paula Scher is a Partner @ Pentagram and one of the most influential graphic designers in the world. Described as the “master conjurer of the instantly familiar,” Scher straddles the line between pop culture and fine art in her work. Iconic, smart, and accessible, her images have entered into the American vernacular... See more @ www.pentagram.com/about/paula...
See the full interview with Paula from Adobe Max 2019 here:
• Graphic Design Legend ...
Our Adobe Max Interview Playlist:
• Adobe Max Conference 2019
In partnership with Adobe - See more content on Adobe Creative Cloud's channel here: / adobecreativecloud
#PaulaScher #Pentagram #AdobeMax2019
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Host- Chris Do
Cinematography- Ricky Lucas, Jona Garcia, Stewart Schuster, Jayden Nguyen
Live Editor- Jona Garcia
Editor- Mark Contreras
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Futur theme song- Adam Sanborne

[@waeez1799]

Her experience is gold

[@taufiqshamad443]

So does her hair

[@SteHanBotha]

Thanks so much for this thefutur, Chris and Paula! Here's my takeaway: 1. Show them Examples (Ask: Like? and Dislike? and mark with 2 different colored sticky notes) 2. Modern? or Traditional? (or somewhere in between? maybe use a sliding scale to gauge this) 3. Talk about their competitors (How do they want to be the same? or different? listen carefully) 4. Pretend you're a personal shopper and you wanna get them something new (but in their taste)

[@ptgames5678]

The Futur is always coming out with mind-blowing content!

[@orangecountywebsites]

Every day every where Omnipresent

[@adrianferrette]

I'll always hop at the opportunity to gain insight from Paula. Much thanks for the content! 🙏🏽

[@germainemedia]

I love this so much. You can tell an expert by the way they're able to simplify things

[@ericsmith3723]

You can tell a true master by how much knowledge you gain from listening to them just for a few minutes. Gold.

[@viajandoconlala]

So experienced that she has a sharp knife to just go straight to the point... Thanks, guys for this gem!

[@fredmand]

Excellent piece! Best interview i have listened to in a while

[@MrJoystickid]

Think this is the best design advice I've ever heard.

[@DanielWhiteWithCanon]

Love this channel It has helped me so much and I am just in photography.

[@angelfmusic]

Man this is pure gold.

[@kuvvatashyrov2677]

Best content I ever seen. Thank you Futur & Chris Do!

[@DionnaLHayden]

This is gold. Thank you for sharing!

[@aniketpal9250]

I really like, how you guys have introduced her "public" design in those texts

[@treasuretroves5497]

She is an amazing creative! Thank you so much.

[@ginnerzapata5909]

Just what I needed. Lately, I fell in this state where I was feeling kind of "superior" and was trying to impose my taste on my clients (and ended actually losing them). Thanks futur team.

[@pamelah6431]

Great insight. Humility is such an unlikely gift.

[@aric85]

What an absolutely brilliant explanation.

[@abdullahhareed6545]

She is my Legendary list on top

[@petervl2255]

Another gem! Thank you. I have an appointment scheduled with a potential new client next week and this is just what I needed.

[@thefutur]

Best of luck!

[@RonaldCortez]

A Goldmine of information!

[@rolberg]

Thanks Chris! I needed this advice!

[@topeadebayo8863]

this was really important , so much value

[@brotherpantichrist]

Pure wisdom, learned so much in these five minutes, thanks again!

[@thefutur]

Glad to hear

[@afnan-here6288]

Paula And Sagi Are my inspirations

[@juangermano8179]

This video should have 500k views.

[@brendacr4850]

Back in 2018 I was working as a volunteer at AGI congress and I went to the bathroom, just as I was about to enter the room, I heard her voice 😳😳😳 I just froze. I think I turned back around, never got the chance to meet her. I really really admire her

[@priscillaknight4678]

Love Paula! A legend!!

[@oyinsantolulope6191]

I feel every creatives needs to understand business like a gig. What ever the client specs for creatives relating it to the impact on the business . Treat the situation like a "dating therapy" . The truth is they know what they need but there's not clear view point on how to get there . Keep peeling the onion shell (questions) till it surface out. And your excuse for doing that is " if I don't understand the deepest problem and feel it like am in your shoes . I can't maximize the value of input I'll be bringing to the table" . Thanks

[@Andylium]

Maybe for the people that don't have that AMAZING logo book that Pentagram has, it's time to go deep and curate some logos. Create the categories and gather a dozen of logos that can be in that category and so on. Print, holes, Trapper Keeper. All set. Great way to go instead of bringing up the moodboards first thing that scare the sh!t out of some of my clients.

[@victorsazon1751]

THE QUEEN OF GRAPHIC DESIGN

[@javierbrancaccio]

Amazing interview 👏👏

[@essare108]

she's absolutely right - on how do you buy gifts for friends / shop for them.. exactly....

[@agoodmansaid]

I saw the thumbnail and I was like "whoa! This is that legendary pentagram lady!"

[@johnbonninquilala5877]

why was she called the pentagram lady?

[@intagengaming8462]

@@johnbonninquilala5877 she’s a partner at Pentagram (one of the greatest design firms of all time)

[@bonzai0331]

Nice. Thank you.

[@iancostello3923]

Fantastic information

[@karendover6001]

Building on the party dress example, maybe ask the client if they want to stand out from everyone in black by wearing a red belt on a black dress, or by wearing a red dress.

[@bluntbrave4488]

And that red belt on that dress is what differentiates them from all the sheep in the room ❤️ Thanks for another legendary piece of content! #girlpower 👊

[@dottiemathews6853]

when i design for my clients i get to know them by seeing what personality they have and connect that with their company or organization they represent. then, i come up with the design and show it to them, then, they can add or take way whatever they want in the logo.

[@MaryTanHooper]

She is a genius ❣️💪👍

[@philphilphil]

She’s the best.

[@wajahatsheikh929]

Noted and I will put on my client logo questionnaires. what kind of form you like and why you like and what you want to be to take this mark. Thanks The futur Team

[@IshmaelIslam]

I see Paula Scher, I click!

[@batmanreturns7655]

Great content

[@vitoriabdallavalle]

what a legend

[@GoryGaming]

I’ve been doing this subconsciously

[@lakshmanankomathmanalath]

Great!!!

[@MUHAMMADumair-zr5kg]

Nice

[@MrInsider33]

This is a nice way to find out the clients taste! But IMO you should design for THEYR customer, not yours, no? But of course your client has to like it too in the end

[@jackiee91]

Hmmmm, I wonder how this contrasts wth Sagi Haviv's tip on making iconic logos where the logo is not love at first sight

[@thefutur]

different approaches. both effective obviously.

[@NGH99999]

Fantastic advice, and excellent interview. Thank you for this. Big, unanswered challenges, for me: What the heck do you do when you have two or more stakeholders, on a given project, who have widely diverging tastes? and… What's a good way to handle/address the stakeholder who just doesn't "get" design, aesthetics, brand, strategy, etc.? Are there Futur videos on these matters that maybe I've missed?

[@thefutur]

That’s probably more inside the pro group where this has been answered.

[@angelmatos9143]

10 people are given a pencil & a blank sheet of paper. One of them is Picasso. That's Paula Scher.

[@fayyazb]

WOW! LEGEND...ARY!!

[@nadhirsulaiman4805]

Paula Paula Paula !

[@Gorge0usSuicide]

is Chris wearing a different hat!? whatttttt

[@el_teodoro]

It really suits him well

[@srinivasnahak3473]

My key takeaway is just "Be humane.."

[@ThisDesignLife]

I appreciate her wisdom... but surely it's about the clien't audience's design style, not just the clients?

[@thefutur]

this is a fit check for what the client wants. they are paying the bill and not their clients.

[@ThisDesignLife]

The Futur I don’t understand. Clients are communicating to an audience not to themselves

[@oyinsantolulope6191]

@@ThisDesignLife I feel there is a misunderstanding , but here is my point . 1. Trying to know the real problem the creatives (designer) client want to solve, so you can impact the clients audience more effeciently . That's the point here. 2. When they ask for changes or request for spec. You'll need to narrate the impact of the spec to value of their business. This is the easiest way for creatives to achieve the satisfaction of impacting a business without clients getting in their way. On the other hand you can quickly heal up from the creative block that allows you to learn about client pain point and stop caring too much about your spec, and the benefit is you avoid "UNPREPARED" modifications will you watch each and every project end smoothly. Thanks

[@gillianthedesigner]

It depends, I think. 🤔 The client maybe telling their audience what they like instead of following audience already likes. It is the difference between innovative companies and competitive companies. None are bad, just different. I know the futur does discovery. That process should tell you how to approach either the way Paula mentioned or another.

[@ThisDesignLife]

Gillian Biernat can you give me an example of that?

[@username87324]

I just saw this video from an emailer I got! Glad I checked it out. We just started our agency so these are some important but valuable tips. We've had a few mistakes where we did a design and the client did not like it. This is a good way to avoid that. I would love to hear who else had experiences like that. I think our agency site gives an idea of the style we create www.practice-practice.co

[@cassauten1044]

i would apreciate if everyone would stop with the critism and negativity because now that we are one its creating an overload of negative vibes and too much bad vibes equals chaos and gives the father of lies the better known as satan more power than this world can handle and its literally crumbling down around us and everyone is so distracted by trying to judge the next man that i dont think they see the truth!!!

[@szyabr1101]

Damn, Chris looks buffed

[@thefutur]

Haha

[@richardchen7593]

wait, is this a repost?

[@thefutur]

Cutdown

[@richardchen7593]

@@thefutur Is it possible to have Paula on your show? That would be freaking epic!!!

[@andrewhersh4040]

Something about this REALLY rubs me the wrong way. How is what the client LIKES the most important thing? "I need you to design us a great stop sign. The only color I personally like is green."

[@SOUTHNEK]

Love this - Respect your elders, because you really don't know squat.

[@JoshuaDMugayi]

I would say its Blurring the lines between what a client wants, what's appropriate for the industry & what the target customers expect from them. It's not all about the client's taste. Nah (It's not all about them) They have a product, service, a community, etc they need to get their target market/customers to buy into. It's a delicate dance between all those aspects.

[@ThisDesignLife]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well. She almost made it sound like they were being commission to create a piece of art.

[@maximedurante7574]

@@ThisDesignLife You're just selling strategic advice and positionning when you were just hired to design a logo. You can do that, but you should charge extra. You should have a clear brief...

[@strikingitrich7630]

Whats the one thing?

[@thefutur]

Show them work to gauge their taste.

[@ninadxq]

first after the notification

[@tonsfocus]

Funny, her speaking mannerisms reminds me of Ray Dalio.

[@fgprado]

Design according to customer's taste? Mmmm... nope. That is not design.