The handoff is the last thing a client remembers about a branding project, and it decides whether the identity survives contact with the real world. Done well, the logo lands in the right place, at the right size, in the right colour, for years, without anyone emailing you. Done badly, the mark you spent weeks refining gets stretched in a slide deck and printed from a screenshot. This guide covers what a complete brand handoff contains, the order to present it in, how to walk the client through it, and what to keep for yourself, with a checklist you can copy.
What a complete handoff contains
Most handoffs fail by omission. Work through this list every time, even for a small client.
Logo files in every format and variant
The client needs each variant in each format they might plausibly use. Variants first: the full logo, the logomark alone and the logotype alone, in horizontal and stacked lockups where the design has them, each in full colour, black and white. If the identity has versions for light and dark backgrounds, include both and label them.
Then formats. SVG is the working format for anything on screen. PDF covers print and anyone who cannot open an SVG. PNG with a transparent background, exported at 2x, is what people drop into documents and presentations. EPS is only worth including if a printer or sign maker asks for it. A JPG cannot hold transparency, but a single JPG of the full colour logo on white saves you an email when someone's CMS refuses everything else.
Colour codes in every space
For each brand colour give HEX, RGB and CMYK, and a Pantone reference when the brand depends on a spot colour for packaging, signage, uniforms or merchandise. Put them in one table, name each colour and mark the primary. The CMYK values deserve attention: an automatic conversion from RGB often gives a muddy result, so set them by hand and check a proof if the colour matters.
Typefaces with licensing notes
Name the typefaces and the weights in use, and say where to get them. Be precise about licensing: your licence almost never extends to the client, so tell them which licence they need (desktop, web, app) and where to buy it. If the typeface is free, say so and give the link. Add a fallback for the office software they use every day.
Clear space and minimum size
One diagram is enough. Define clear space as a fraction of the mark, typically the height of a letter or of the logomark, referred to as X, and show it on all four sides. Give a minimum size in millimetres for print and pixels for screen, and if the logomark alone has a smaller minimum, say so.
Usage do's and don'ts
Six to ten rules, each shown visually. Do not stretch. Do not recolour. Do not add drop shadows or outlines. Do not place the colour logo on a busy photograph. Do not rebuild the lockup from its parts. The don'ts are what the client remembers, so pick the mistakes you have actually seen people make.
Templates, if scoped
Letterhead, email signature, social profile images, a presentation template. Include only what was agreed, and deliver templates in the software the client actually uses.
The source files question
Settle this in the contract, not on delivery day. A common position is that the client owns the final logo and receives clean, outlined vector masters, while you keep your working files with layers, alternatives and exploration. If you do hand over the Illustrator file, outline the type, delete unused artboards, clean the swatches and name the layers.
The order to present it
Present the handoff in the order the client will use it. Logo files first, because that is what they open in a hurry three months from now. Then colours, typography, the rules, and templates, with the guidelines document as the wrapper. A folder that opens with a 40 page PDF and buries the logo files four levels down is technically complete and practically useless.
How to walk the client through it
A short call
Book twenty to thirty minutes, share your screen and open the delivery in front of them. Show where the logo is and which file to use for what, where the colours are, how to install the fonts, and the two or three rules that matter most. Then ask who else will need the files: their web developer, their printer, whoever runs their social accounts. Offer to send the link to them directly; that one question prevents most wrong-version problems.
A written note
After the call, send a short email. Link to everything, summarise which file to use when in three lines, list the fonts to buy, and say how to reach you. This email will be forwarded for years, so write it for a stranger.
Where things live
Everything in one place, behind one link. Not attachments, not "somewhere in the shared drive". Name the folder or page with the brand name and a version or date, so that when two copies exist, anyone can tell which is current.
The problems that come from files
Delivering a brand as a set of files works on day one. The trouble starts afterwards.
Versions drift. The client keeps version three on a laptop, the printer still has version two, and the web developer has a PNG exported from a Word document.
The "can you send the logo again" email arrives every few months, usually when you are on deadline for someone else.
Folders get lost. Staff leave, laptops are replaced, the zip is cleared out of a downloads folder.
The printer gets the wrong file: an RGB PNG for a print job, or the JPG with the white box, and the business cards come back in a colour you never chose.
Colours get eyedropped from a JPG because the values were in a PDF nobody opened.
How a hosted page solves them
A hosted brand page addresses all of these at once. One link that is always the current version. Each logo variant downloadable in the format the person needs. Colour values that can be copied rather than retyped. Fonts named. The rules on the same page as the files. When something changes, you update the page and the link stays the same, so everyone downstream sees the same thing. Anchr Portal publishes a page like this from Illustrator, but a well organised page on your own site does the same job.
The handoff checklist
Copy this into your project template.
- Full logo, logomark and logotype, each in full colour, black and white
- Horizontal and stacked lockups, if the identity has both
- Versions for light and dark backgrounds, labelled
- Each variant as SVG, PDF and transparent PNG at 2x, plus EPS if requested
- Colour table with HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone where relevant
- Typefaces named, with weights, licence type, purchase link and office fallbacks
- Clear space and minimum size diagram
- Usage do's and don'ts, shown visually
- Templates in the client's own software, if scoped
- Source files delivered as agreed in the contract
- Files named consistently, folder or page named with brand and version
- Walkthrough call held, then a written note sent with the link, the "which file when" summary and font instructions
- Link sent to the client's developer, printer and social media contact
- Your own dated copy of the delivery archived
What to keep for yourself
Keep your working files: layered masters, rejected directions, the exploration that led to the final mark. They are your record of the work and often the start of the next project. Keep the fonts you licensed, because that licence is yours and does not transfer. Keep presentation decks and process documents unless they were in scope.
Keep a dated copy of exactly what you delivered, including the written note, so that a question two years from now about which blue is correct is answered from the record. And keep the licence terms you granted for the logo in writing, so both sides know what was sold.
Questions
Should I give the client the Illustrator file?
Usually yes for the final logo, as a clean, outlined vector master, because the client owns the mark and should be able to use it without you. Working files with layers, alternatives and exploration are a different matter and are normally yours to keep. Decide this in the contract so there is no negotiation at delivery.
Do I need to include Pantone values?
Only when the brand will be reproduced in ways that use spot colour: packaging, signage, embroidery, merchandise, some stationery. For a brand that lives on screen and in digital print, HEX, RGB and CMYK are enough. If you do specify Pantone, pick the reference from a physical guide rather than trusting a software conversion.
What if the client asks for a version in Word or PowerPoint?
Give it to them. A transparent PNG at 2x works in both, and if a letterhead or slide template was in scope, build it in the actual software. The brand will be used mostly by people without design tools, and a version that only opens in Illustrator does not protect the identity, it just guarantees a badly rebuilt one.
How long should the handoff stay available?
Indefinitely, as far as your own archive goes. For the client, the practical answer is that the files need to be findable for as long as the brand is in use, which is why a single link that survives staff changes beats a zip attached to an email from three years ago.
Do it in one click
Anchr Tools is an Illustrator extension built for this stage of the project. Anchr Ship exports every logo variant as SVG, PNG at 2x and PDF into one folder with consistent file names, so the format list above is covered without manual exports. Anchr Portal then publishes the brand as a hosted page at anchr.tools/b/your-brand: colours with copyable HEX, RGB and CMYK values, typography specimens, logo downloads for light and dark backgrounds, usage do's and don'ts and a "Download all" zip. The client needs no account, the link never changes, and each publish keeps the five previous versions. See an example at /b/demo or read more at /portal.