Short answer
What do I check before signing off the logo presented to me?
Five checks can be made before approving a logo, and none of them needs design training: shrink the mark to phone-icon size and see if it still reads, convert it to one colour and see if it survives, try it on a dark background, verify the spelling of the name letter by letter, and search for a similar registered mark in the classes you will file in. All five happen before sign-off.
Key takeaways
- Where a mark struggles most is not a large sign but an app icon on a phone; shrinking it to 32 pixels before sign-off is the fastest filter.
- A mark with no working single-colour version cannot be used on stamps, engraving or one-colour print — and that need usually appears within the first year.
- A mark that looks good in a colour presentation can fall apart on a dark background; asking to see the reversed version before approving is your right.
- The spelling of the brand name — capitalisation, spacing, apostrophes — must match the trademark application exactly.
- An approval given without a similarity search in your chosen classes carries with it the cost of a refused registration.
The five checks before sign-off
Shrink it to 32 pixels
Take the mark down to app-icon size. If the letters run together or fine lines in the symbol vanish, it does not work at that size — and that size is where your brand will be seen most.
Convert it to one colour
Strip the colour and leave it black. If two shapes that were only separated by colour now overlap, the mark depends on colour; it cannot be used on stamps, engraving or single-colour print.
Try it on a dark background
Presentations are usually made on white. When the reversed version is not requested, dark mode and black packaging cause problems at first use.
Verify the spelling
Capitalisation, word spacing, apostrophes and any local characters must all match the spelling that will go into the trademark application. This is the detail that is most tedious to correct later.
Ask for a similarity search
If a similar registered mark exists in the classes you will use, the mark you approved can be refused at registration. The search belongs before approval, not after.
Which feedback actually helps?
"I don't like it" is a conclusion, not feedback. Feedback that helps comes from the business rather than from taste: what does this mark say to our customer, does it stand apart next to our competitors, will it still say the same thing in ten years. The most productive input for a designer is a constraint, not a preference — where it will be used, at which sizes, and next to what.
Frequently asked
How many options should a presentation show?
- Fewer is a good sign. Three reasoned directions are more useful than fifteen variations: a long list means the designer is not defending a direction and is leaving the decision to you. In a good presentation each direction explains why it is that direction, and the choice becomes strategic rather than aesthetic.
Is looking like our competitors a problem?
- Yes, for two separate reasons. The commercial one: recognition is built on difference, and a mark repeating the sector's clichés is not remembered. The legal one: closeness to a registered mark in the same classes can draw an opposition to your application. Which is why looking at the sector's existing marks is work to be done before the presentation.
Sources
- 01Marka — başvuru, sınıflandırma ve işlem ücretleri — TÜRKPATENT, 2026
Queries this page answers
- what to check before approving a logo
- logo design checklist
- how to review a logo