Branding · 5 min read · June 2026
How many logo concepts should you actually get?
One designer quotes ₹8,000 for three concepts. Another quotes ₹6,000 for twelve. The second looks like better value and is almost always worse, for a reason that becomes obvious once you divide the money by the options.
A logo concept is not a drawing. It is a decision about what the mark should say, followed by the drawing that tests it. The decision is most of the work — reading the market, looking at what competitors already own, choosing which of several possible directions the business should stand in.
Twelve concepts at ₹6,000 gives each one ₹500 of attention. Nobody researches a market, considers a direction and tests a mark for ₹500. What you get instead is one idea drawn twelve ways, or twelve template shapes with your name set beneath them.
What the same ₹8,000 buys
The number of options is not a measure of effort. It is usually a measure of how thinly the effort has been spread.
Why many options make deciding harder
There is a second cost, and clients feel it before they can name it. Presented with twelve marks, you stop judging whether any of them is right for the business and start judging which one you like the look of. Those are different questions, and the second one has no correct answer.
Twelve options turns your logo into a matter of taste. Three well-argued ones keep it a business decision.
It also spreads the decision. Twelve marks get forwarded to family, staff and the WhatsApp group, everyone picks a favourite, and you end up choosing the least objectionable rather than the strongest. I have watched good marks lose to weak ones this way more than once.
What three concepts should look like
Genuinely different directions, not variations. If two of the three could be described in the same sentence, you have two concepts and a spare.
DIRECTION A
The safe one
Reads clearly, sits comfortably in your sector, and nobody will question it. Often the right answer for a business selling to cautious buyers.
DIRECTION B
The distinctive one
Deliberately unlike your competitors. Higher risk, higher recall. This is where a small business can genuinely outmanoeuvre a larger one.
DIRECTION C
The one you did not ask for
A reading of the business you may not have considered. Sometimes rejected immediately, sometimes the one that gets chosen — either way it tells you something.
Each should arrive with the reasoning attached, and shown where it will actually live — on the signboard, on the box, at favicon size. A mark presented alone on a white slide tells you almost nothing about whether it works.
What to ask instead of "how many?"
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What will you show me each concept on?
A mark on a white slide hides every problem. Signboard, box, phone screen and stamp is the real test.
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How did you arrive at these directions?
There should be an answer involving your market and your competitors, not just "I thought it looked good".
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How many revision rounds on the chosen one?
Two is normal. Refining the winner matters far more than having had extra options at the start.
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What files do I get, and do I own them?
Vector source, print and web exports, and full ownership in writing. Ask this before paying anything.
Related reading
Three concepts, argued properly.
That is what my logo projects include, from ₹8,000, each shown where it will actually be used. If one of them is clearly right, we stop there.