Logo approval: a checklist and email template for sign-off

Before you ask for approval

• Show the logo where it will live: on a business card, a website header, a phone screen and a social avatar. Approving a mark on a white page is how “it looks different on the sign” starts.
• Show it small. If it fails at 32 pixels, say so now.
• Show the colour version and the one-colour version together, and name the colours.
• Say which round this is: “This is revision 2 of 2.”
• Ask for one combined set of feedback, from everyone who gets a say, by a date.

The logo approval checklist

Send this with the final version. The client ticks it, or replies with the answers.

• The name is spelt correctly and the tagline, if any, is the final wording.
• The colours are the ones we agreed, and I've seen the one-colour version.
• I've seen it at small sizes and on the backgrounds it will sit on.
• This is the version I want the final files made from.
• I understand that changes after this are a new round.

The approval email

Subject: Approval needed: the logo (final version). Body: “Hi [name], the final logo is attached as version 3, shown on the card, the site header and as a social avatar. This is revision 2 of 2. Could you run through the five checks below and reply ‘approved’ by Friday? I'll send the final files in every format the same day.” Then the checklist.

Keep the ask to one word. “Let me know your thoughts” invites round three.

What to record

The version number, the date, the name and email of the person who approved it, and the exact words they used. A screenshot of a chat message is better than nothing. A sign-off sheet or a dated approval record is better than a screenshot.

After approval

Send the files promptly, and send them once. If a change request arrives the next week, reply with the approval date and a quote for the extra round. That's not being difficult. It's the agreement working.

Questions