How to test logo designs with your team (without another meeting)
Figuring out how to test logo designs inside a team or with a client usually runs into the same trap: the first person to speak in the review meeting anchors the entire room. Three loud opinions take over, eight quieter teammates stay silent, and you end up shipping a compromise nobody loves. Running logo concepts through pairwise visual duels lets every person react independently in under a minute — giving you an honest, defensible winner.
The concept the room almost buried
A brand studio presented four distinct wordmark and icon directions to a twelve-person startup team. Five minutes into the call, the CEO praised Concept A because it reminded him of an early sketch, and the conversation effectively ended there. Two product designers privately preferred Concept C for how cleanly it scaled to an app icon, while customer-facing teammates had opinions they didn't want to voice over the founder. A five-year brand identity was about to be chosen by groupthink.
Before locking the decision, the design lead exported all four marks on identical neutral backgrounds, created a Whichli poll, and dropped the single link into Slack. Every teammate voted on their own screen in forty seconds, comparing two logos at a time without seeing anyone else's vote first. When the dust settled, the 'quiet' Concept C had won twenty of twenty-six head-to-head duels, while the CEO's initial pick finished third. Seeing the whole team's unguided preference on one screen made the final sign-off effortless.
How to test a logo with duels
- 1
Export every logo concept at the same scale on the same neutral background — or use identical real-world mockups like an app icon or storefront sign — so voters judge the mark itself rather than presentation tricks.
- 2
Create a Whichli poll and label each option neutrally (Concept A, Concept B, or a three-word positioning cue). Avoid leading descriptions that telegraph which option the designer prefers.
- 3
Share the single link in Slack, Teams, or a client email thread and ask everyone to vote before the review call. Because no account is required, people actually finish voting in under a minute on their phone or laptop.
- 4
Open the live results page in your meeting to review both final picks and pairwise duel wins. Instead of debating subjective taste from scratch, the conversation starts with documented data on which mark held up best head-to-head.
Team questions
Can voting be anonymous so junior teammates aren't pressured?
Yes. Voters don't need an account or an email address, and the name field accepts initials, a role, or 'Anon' — or can be skipped entirely. More importantly, no one sees the standings until they finish their own matchups, eliminating bandwagon bias.
Can we include the client or external stakeholders in the vote?
Easily. The voting link works in any browser without a login. Many studios run an internal poll first to narrow eight rough sketches down to three strong directions, then duplicate the poll in one click to gather structured client feedback.
Is our unreleased branding safe from public search engines?
Yes. Polls are unlisted by default — they are marked noindex, excluded from public feeds, and reachable only by people holding the link. Everything is automatically deleted after 30 days, or you can wipe the poll and its images immediately from your admin link once sign-off is done.
Concepts ready for a verdict?
Create your poll