How to Prepare Materials for an Order: Logos, Texts, References
Standardized submission of materials by the client is not just an administrative step but a fundamental basis for successful, efficient, and profitable execution of a creative project. Ensuring high quality and completeness of initial input directly affects the accuracy of workload estimation and minimizes risks related to exceeding budget or deadlines. Incomplete or incorrect materials, such as low-quality images or missing licenses, inevitably lead to unplanned purchases of assets, tools, or technical solutions by the executor, increasing overall costs and affecting profitability.
The process of standardized material submission is a key mechanism for preventing unpredictable changes in the project scope. A clear definition of what the client must provide, such as vector logos, font licenses, or strategic texts, sets boundaries of responsibility from the very beginning. This allows the team to focus on creative and technical work instead of correcting basic errors or searching for required assets.
In addition, consistent submission of materials, especially when a brand book is available, ensures that all creative outputs produced within the project adhere to the established visual style and communication strategy. This guarantees brand recognition and helps build trust among the audience. Therefore, requiring clients to submit materials that meet quality standards is a necessary preventive measure that protects the agency’s financial performance and ensures the quality of the final product.
Preparing Logos and Branding Elements
Preparation of visual assets, including logos, requires strict adherence to technical standards that ensure scalability and universal application. It is also critically important to comply with legal requirements regarding font usage.
For all professional design and print work, providing a logo in vector format is essential. Vector graphics are based on mathematical paths and objects, allowing them to scale to any size, from the smallest interface element to a large billboard, without any loss of quality or pixelation.
Clients must provide native files created in vector editors such as Adobe Illustrator (AI), Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) or, when using other software, CorelDRAW (CDR). These formats are industry standards because they preserve objects, paths and text as editable vector elements.
Acceptable Raster Formats and Critical Limitations
Raster formats such as JPEG, GIF, TIFF or PNG may be acceptable only for narrow digital use. However, they are limited by their original resolution. The most common mistake that jeopardizes the final product’s quality is submitting low-resolution raster images that were optimized for web or created via screenshots. Such material is unsuitable for professional design because it becomes blurry or pixelated when scaled.
When choosing raster formats, high-resolution PNG is preferred because it supports transparent backgrounds. JPEG does not support transparency and is generally unsuitable as a standalone logo file. Clients must be clearly warned that low resolution is a critical flaw.
Color Specification and Ensuring Consistency
To achieve visual consistency of the brand across all platforms, the client must provide accurate color specifications. This ensures that the colors displayed on screens and printed materials match exactly.
Two key models are required:
CMYK, used for professional printing
HEX, used for digital environments such as web design and UI or UX
If a brandbook exists, it should serve as the single source of truth. It contains detailed guidelines on brand colors, typography and limitations regarding logo usage, greatly reducing the risk of errors during production.
Guidelines for Text Content: Strategy, Structure and Tone
Submitting text content is primarily a strategic task. Text quality is evaluated not only by grammar but also by its ability to engage the target audience and drive conversions.
Defining the Strategic Basis: Audience and Objectives
Before writing, the client must provide a detailed description of their target audience. This should include not only demographic data but also insights into their pain points and desires. Without a clear understanding of the audience, it is impossible to create text that truly resonates or drives purchasing decisions. Sales-oriented text must directly address these needs.
Establishing the Tone of Communication
The desired tone of voice must be clearly stated, whether expert, friendly, formal or innovative. This ensures that the copywriter adapts the writing style to match the brand’s character and positions communication correctly for the end consumer.
Preparing Sales-Oriented Texts: From Technical Descriptions to Benefits
Submitted content must focus on selling, not on generic descriptions. High-quality text should meet the following criteria:
Emotional Engagement: building trust and emotional connection that motivates the customer without additional persuasion.
Benefits First: explaining how features or product components solve specific customer problems rather than merely listing characteristics.
Readability and Motivation: the text must be well-structured, easy to read and contain persuasive strong words that motivate action.
Best Practices for Submitting Documents
A shared cloud environment should be used for processing texts. Google Docs is strongly recommended. This tool greatly simplifies the feedback cycle thanks to its collaborative editing, commenting and version tracking capabilities.
One of the advantages of Google Docs is the ability to integrate specialized quality control tools such as OnlineCorrector, which checks text for compliance with Ukrainian spelling rules. This ensures an initial quality check by the client and reduces the workload on the agency’s editors.
Additionally, using Google Docs is strategically important for projects that require multilingual adaptation. The automatic translation feature creates a copy of the document with a translation while preserving the original formatting, paragraphs and fonts. This significantly simplifies the preparation of press releases or descriptions in multiple languages, ensuring structural consistency of the content and minimizing risks in international communication.
Guidelines for References and Visual Direction (Moodboards)
References, or moodboards, are a functional communication tool that defines the aesthetic direction and sets technical expectations, ensuring that the final design aligns with both business goals and technical feasibility.
The Role of References in Design and Strategy
References help the designer identify an aesthetic that matches the vibe and mood of the future design. They also play a key role in defining user-friendly solutions in UI and UX. References should not only demonstrate the desired style but also define the direction of the project.
The Principle of Why, Not What
References must not be based on subjective reasoning. The phrase “because it looks nice” is not a valid argument for a designer. Every element in a reference must be tied to solving a specific problem, such as improving information perception, enhancing customer service or speeding up search. This transforms subjective client desires into concrete, measurable requirements.
Creating an Effective Moodboard
An effective moodboard is a diverse collection of materials that conveys a unified vision of the project. It should include not only images but also font samples, color palettes, illustrations, icons and patterns. A large number of references is an advantage because it allows designers to combine elements from different styles to create unique solutions.
Clients should pay attention to projects by industry leaders such as Google, Apple and Microsoft to see how certain functions are implemented. These companies set industry standards, and their experience can significantly expand a designer’s visual perspective and establish high usability benchmarks.
Early Detection of Technical Risks
Providing detailed, even unconventional, references early in the project is extremely valuable for the development team. It allows developers to review design requirements in advance, plan the workload and identify potential implementation challenges, such as complex animations or interactive features.
Submitting these materials at an early stage serves as an informal technical specification, transforming functional complexity into concrete estimates of time and resources. This prevents unexpected and costly scope changes later in the project.
Logistics and Project Management: Optimizing the Delivery Process
Organized and secure asset transfer is the final preparation stage that ensures a quick start for the creative team. Failure to follow file transfer standards can lead to loss, corruption or data security issues.
Centralized Tools for File Submission
Due to the large size of vector files, high-resolution images and supporting documentation such as licenses and brandbooks, standard email is not suitable for transferring materials. Clients must use professional cloud services or specialized file transfer tools.
Recommended platforms that meet industry standards include Google Drive, WeTransfer and Dropbox. In particular, platforms like Dropbox offer advanced security features such as password protection, long-term file recovery and support for transferring large volumes of data. Using such tools ensures both efficient logistics and the protection of the client’s commercial assets.
All materials, including logos, texts and moodboards, should be collected in a single, clearly named folder. This prevents the dispersal of critical assets and simplifies indexing for further work.
Integration with the Project Management System
For effective management of creative processes, the client’s material submission must be formalized within the task management system. This transforms ad hoc file sharing into a measurable project stage.
Tools such as Wrike, Airtable or CRM systems integrated with task managers like KeyCRM can be used to set clear deadlines for submitting materials. This enables automatic assignment of tasks to team members and sends reminders to the client, ensuring accountability. Once the task “material submission” is marked as completed, the team can begin work immediately, supporting uninterrupted workflow.
The success of any creative project begins with thorough preparation of client materials. Adherence to these technical, strategic and logistical standards transforms a potentially chaotic onboarding process into a clean and structured starting point.
To maximize the effectiveness of this guide, it is recommended to integrate it into an automated client communication workflow. Practical instructions should be published in a blog, promoted regularly with consistent posts, and included in the first automated message that the client receives after signing the contract. Setting clear expectations proactively eliminates most common issues related to incoming materials and ensures a smooth project launch.