I have never really agreed with the idea of options in branding.

At uni, we were told to fill the wall. Push out as many ideas as possible, refine them, then kill off the ones that didn’t work. We had to show all the bodies.

Those options weren’t there so someone could pick a favourite. They were there to prove that the idea we chose survived the process.

Agency work is different.

We still move through ideas. A lot of them. And most still die. They fall apart when you blow them up on a truck, or put them next to a competitor, or paste them on a tiny social tile. So we move on. Over and over. Until something actually holds up.

By the time we present, we know which idea has done that. We know which one works across applications, which one still makes sense when you push it, and which one keeps the story intact.

That’s why the idea of three options is strange. There is usually only one winner. One idea that has really survived the work.

Yet designers are still asked for options. So they do what the brief asks. They show three routes. The one they believe in. And two bodies.

There is a cost to this as well. Ask for three “equally strong” options and the work gets thinner. Energy goes into keeping three ideas alive instead of driving one as far as it needs to go. That is when the red herrings start to appear. Concepts floated so they can be safely rejected. Half-cooked ideas made up to fill the gap. Routes that look like an option but exist purely to satisfy the expectation of choice.

Do you really want to risk picking the sloppy second?

When you ask for options without seeing the process behind them, you are being asked to choose between three polished pictures without seeing the work that killed off all the others.

A better deal for both sides is simple. Pitch the best idea. Show how it behaves in the real world, not just on a white slide. Talk through what didn’t work on the way. Push it, question it, and make it stronger together.

You still have a say. Your risk is still respected. The difference is we stop pretending that three logo options are three equal answers.