graphic design, freelancing, illustration, advertising, web design

I agree completely with all of your points, and that a logo and corporate identity has an untold value.

However, the point I made on David’s site is that it’s all relative. In my job I might pay about £1,000 for a logo; a big corp like coca-cola would probably pay millions for a rebrand; and then the lone traders you get in the back of the free local newspaper who don’t even have a logo, they might only part with £100.

But I think a good number 7 would be: As with all things in life, you get what you pay for!

Hi Aaron,

I agree with you about the price of a logo being relative to the company purchasing it - this needs nicely into your point 7.
However I think that sometimes the smaller companies should invest a little more in their logo initially - as per point 6 - the logo is often the starting point of the whole corporate image.

Burger > logo ….depending on what time of the day it is.

But I do agree with you

Thanks for mentioning me, Tara.

Nice post, and in summary (as Aaron mentioned), you really do get what you pay for (unless you’re incredibly lucky).

Hi Brett
Thanks for your comment - was it lunchtime when you wrote it

Hi David
No problem, glad you don’t mind me getting inspiration from your blog post

Very nice post!

[…] Fuente: Graphic Design Blog  […]

[…] Source: Graphic Design Blog […]

Nice Post. I wrote a similar post because my designer friend is offer less than USD200 to create a logo and do up a full set of stationary. She was terribly upset and that inspired my post “How Much Should You Pay for A Logo Design”. I might not be a designer but being an account servicing person for so long, I do understand the frustration and misery a designer can feel. Some clients just doesn’t understand the process. Anyway, I got your post linked up.

[…] To have an another view, please read Davild Airey’s “What ’s Your Logo Worth” and Tara’s “6 Reasons Why Your Lunch Should Cost More than Your Lunch” […]

I agree. If you want to build a brand, you need an identifiable logo. I recently entered a contest to win a mascot at Bloggingtips.com. I’m hoping to win and get a brandable mascot myself instead of dishing out the $300 it normally costs… :fingers crossed:

It’s so hard to convince clients that the logo is the base of their company’s image….sometimes I just wanna quit

[…] That’s the low cost way to accomplish it. If you are at all serious about building your blog into a well-known, high quality brand, I highly recommend you invest the money up front in a good logo designer. Check out David Airey’s post on this topic, and the post at the Graphic Design Blog as well. […]

Excellent Article! Your Logo is an important part of your business or service. All major points need to be considered when designing a logo including the market you are targeting. Here is a great blog I found about logo design.

http://www.logoblog.org/

Your logo is the face of your business. Take it seriously. Once you launched it, you should preferably not have to change it again and again in the future. The investment you make on your business image, marketing and goodwill will be lost when you change your logo. Thus, it is important to spend time and resources to pin down a logo you feel works for you and your marketing. Now and in the future.

[…] 6 Reasons Why a Logo Should Cost More than your Lunch […]

So true, but does anyone other than me find it hard to design for themselves and a lot easier for someone else?

Hi Sam - definitely and so does Jorge who wrote a post about it on gdb
http://www.graphicdesignblog.co.uk/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-design-for-yourself/

I agree. Logo is very important and pros should do it for you.

Nice post! And I totally agree with you. A good logo design is the very important

I also directed by my boss to design a logo for his new business. It takes me a month to design what he actually wants. It doesnt ends there,it took me another month to revise to totally came up with the design to represent his new business. Now I understand him after reading this article.

logo design is so important but i hate it when people try make the logo too complicated. Our logo is simply a purple box with white text and it works perfect

I an new here…

This post is very interesting. I do think that a logo makes people have an impression on your business

Also, someone who is willing to do a logo for $50 can’t possibly bring the same level of experience and skill required for such a critical project. A $50 logo designer doesn’t have the wisdom to navigate the pitfalls of logo treatments because they don’t have the wisdom to do so!

As with most things in life - you get what your pay for - and in my opinion this is a perfect case in point.
You absolutely must have a recognisable and good logo, if you want to build a brand with credibility. It’s a shame that a lot of people on the internet just want things for free….
Great blog btw just stumbled across you and will definitely be back.
Cheers,
John

Nice post, and in summary (as Aaron mentioned), you really do get what you pay for (unless you’re incredibly lucky).

I totally agree. A logo is a brand and it takes time and creativity to develop something interesting. Remember this logo is your brand and must reflect your business or website.

Take some time to create a goof logo, if you struggle hire someone. It will help to build your brand.

I completely concur with your comments. A logo is a very personal thing. Most of the time it is the customer’s first major purchase for their new company. Many times I have found that my customers feel like they “gave birth” to the new logo and are very proud of it like a newborn child.

Interesting - a non-profit just contacted me with a request - first words out of their mouth: “now, we don’t have a lot of money to spend on this.”

Should I respond in kind: “then I don’t have a lot of time to spend on this.” ?

Of course, sometimes it might depend on if you are starting out and want to land a job that will enhance your portfolio or lead to additional work (with that client) or lead to referrals. But you might trap yourself into the guy that does logos for cheap!

A few more thoughts:
Your logo should also be able to standalone, and be able to be recognized in black and white. Too many flash colors are distracting - simplicity goes a long way. Lots of the $100 logos I have seen are over designed and can cross the line into tacky.
Logos that are cranked out quickly using clip art can’t possibly take include a cohesive brand study and thoughtfulness about how the logo will become part of an overarching brand strategy. The logo is an important touchpoint and therefore should be an investment. Additionally, a logo can become an important part of your intellectual property (lots of value on the balance sheet!) another reason to invest the time and money into doing it right.
Last point: Designers have extensive training and know how, they should be properly compensated for that.

One more thing that’s just been touched on above is the fact that a good logo is not just one logo. A good designer should be able to provide, in most cases, a color version (cmyk and spot), a one color/black version for fax headers or screen printing/embroidery, a grayscale version for newspapers or for printing on black and white office printers, and so forth.

Plus there’s the consideration of reproduction size. If it’s a square logo, what happens when the company co-sponsors an event and all the sponsor logos have to fit in the bottom half-inch of the program? Better to have a well-designed alternate version in horizontal format that will allow the company name to be readable.

And then there’s the design brief that explains to the client how to use the logos, and why they need to hang on to the eps files even if they can’t open them in MS Office.

Not every company has to consider all these elements, of course. But I think it’s a shame when I see a very pretty logo that will only ever look good in full color and at least an inch high.

Sure, you get what you pay for, as in most walks of life, but paying a couple million for redesign — which happens with every big corporation — is colossally stupid. But hey it’s an industry and ‘clients’ are willing to fork over those big bucks so who’re we to complain.

Thanks for the info.

A logo carries a brand and if you get a cheap automated logo it will reflect badly on your company. More than likely it will be spread across your whole business, on letterheads, signs, adverts etc so it is definitely worth spending a decent amount of money to get it professionally done.

Logos are a major part of each business, imagine if someone like apple had started off with a cheap and tacky logo (ignore the fact that at the very very start they actually did). One which was neither catchy or relevant, it would never become as easily recognisable, or became a brand.
There is nothing worst than building a company, realising that you have an awful logo after establishing yourself and having to try and build an identity for yourself again from scratch. So it is definitely worth spending more on something you are both happy and confident with.

i hate when people say making logo is so easy so why we must pay big bucks on it….. those people dont know shit about branding, making logo is like going to plastic surgeons…with your logo as your face…. do you believe a plastic surgeon who’s charging 40$ for you nose job??? (even if they could i think the nose job will change ur face in a very bad ways…:D)
or you go to a trustworthy clinic with a reliable doctor with price tag way above those prices…

Unfortunately the rise of Elance and the like has meant that companies have a wealth of designs to choose from at an ultra low cost from overseas. It’s very hard to compete, when you can get an “original” logo for $50. The risk, however, is that logos are churned out with such quantity that originality must surely be compromised.

My thought is that logo needs to be created by a professional designer but not any from the freelancers. Good news is that choosing the needed freelancer for logo is easier than for the website design

This is so true. I used to work at a company that would charge 30k for a 10 page website but wouldn’t touch logo design.

As a designer if someone asked me to do a new logo for them while I was designing their new site I would tell them that I would be happy to set some type, but I can’t design you a new logo.

They always seemed surprised by that, but then when I would explain how intense of a process the logo design was, then they would understand.

To the comment regarding it being difficult to get people to agree on a logo - yes. Because tastes are different, and every persons idea of what the company should be and where it should go are different. Incorporating all that into a logo is key, while proving to be extremely difficult. A logo can make or break you. And re-branding? Wow, forget about it. Start off right, even if it costs you a pretty penny. It’ll be worth it.

So for someone like me, who is just starting a non-profit organization, and looking for logo design, how much should I spend? My budget is not huge but I realize $50 is silly. Is it impossible to get a worth while logo for $250?

$250 would not allow an experienced designer in many countries to spend very long on a logo. There are usually several stages to logo design, the brief, thinking and sketching, initial designs, discussion and developement of chosen logo, tweaks etc. However I can see that it is difficult if you are starting a new non profit. The best thing would be to speak to a few graphic designers whose work you like and see what they suggest. Depending on the cause you are probably more than likely to find someone to help you.

Thanks for the reply, Tara The organization’s mission is to encourage social awareness through all forms of art. I am an artist as well, although I have no graphic design knowledge.

Great post, and just at the same time I have finally finished my logo. Its so much harder to make a logo for yourself than for a client! Do you agree?

Hi Mali

Designing anything for yourself is always much harder - you are just too close to it.

you said it. it’s just sad for potential clients of good honest designers that you have ppl like 50 buck logos peddling crap.

Hey i have a question. I am redoing my logo and I am the only in house designer. I need some feed back. Are there any website that allows you to post images for feedback?

Hi Michelle

Some of the forums let you post designs for comments. If you take a look at my post geting Help Online you’ll find a list of design forums to try.

Hi, i like a lot you blog and also i have a question, can you anwer if it possible.

How can I apply this kind of rules in a third world country, for example Mexico, in this place what they only want is a cheap designer although if he is not a good one.

Point 5 above is a big one for me, so often these new designs that I see are so 80’s, people need to design logos that match the day and age in which we live and not the lives of how they were 30 years ago.

Look at your picture above, look at what mc donalds has done considering how bad their food is for us. Longevity of a brand revolves around the logo.

I think the most important part of a logo is that you feel proud about it and that you want to protect it and show it of.

You can get this type of logo at any price. As long as you work with good people that are able to work with you untill you get something you can love you are good.

I think this will be hard to find at 50 bucks or lower.

I have had $50 ‘online’ logos made in the past and a $900 professional logo. For the $900 logo, I have a meeting, explaining what my company did, etc and 3 weeks later, they came up with the goods. The $900 logo was very good and was perfect for the company.

So, if you have the $$$ or £££, go with pro logos.

I think we also try to make the logo easy to remember.

I guess when they say a picture speaks a thousand words they are right. Just make sure your logo speaks positive words, if its cheap what does that say. thanks for the info

There is a lot more to logo design then most people think.

Yes, I agree, you’re definitely right, professional logo represent that we are professional too

Professional logos are the only way to create brand identity for your company.I totally agree to that professional logos make companies look professional.

I absolutely agree that profesional logo makes our buisness looks professional also it’s represent our professionality too.

Logos on websites are like id cards in the society. We need them for identity and can be a significant way of showing authenticity.

That picture is making me hungry. I suppose that means it is an effective logo!

Not if you develop the logo yourself.

Buying a good quality logo off course would make a big differance to any brand however it is actually finding the fundung for this that can prove cumbersome for a small business and espically for a business that is just starting out.

A picture is worth a thousand words. You want a professional logo so that those words are the right ones.

I would much rather pay for a quality logo that will give me good brand recognition than go the cheap route and have no brand recognition. A logo IS your company and paying extra is definetly worth it.

Yes you’re right, in many cases a logo requires a lot of thought and a lot of imagination, but sometimes it can just be about the right font. Look at Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Google

Nice post.

I’m currently getting a logo designed with ideas coming from a 2 people.

I understand that this is an art,as stated people see the logo first,it’s a statement.

It’ll be interesting to see how the 2 compare.

An equally important job for designers responding to a client asks who you to modernize there logo after it has been in use for a number of years.

Hear I would argue that the key thing to bare in mined is that the logo remains instantly recognizable as belonging to the client. IE the changes are a gradual evolution and not a revolution.

I have had logos made on the cheap that were good, however the one that I had professionally designed stood out in the crowd and was a logo that you could remember. It can be difficult to justify the cost of a pro logo, but its worth every penny.

Great article again Tara!

Love the title of the blog post haha!

I conclude had logos made on the tasteless that were good, however the matchless that I had professionally designed stood foreign ropes the assortment also was a logo that you could remember. It authority exemplify intricate to describe the monetary worth of a pro logo, but its plus every penny.

Speaking as someone with a really nice, paid-for logo, I think you should also add that designing a good logo requires skill and talent.
That’s worth paying for.