After taking part in a few forum conversations about $50 logos, and then reading David Airey’s – What’s Your Logo Worth it prompted me to put pen to paper.
Why should a logo cost more than your lunch?
- A logo is the very first impression people get of your company –
Before a potential client even walks through your door, your logo is a representation of your company. It can make a company appear large, small (whether it really is or not) fun, serious, professional… - A logo needs longevity
Once a logo is designed it will represent your company for many years. - A logo needs to be original
A logo should be designed specifically for your company. A cheap “generic logo” may not reflect your company’s values. A cheap logo may also use clip art which could end up being used by another company. - A logo should look professional
You wouldn’t take a potential new client to Mac Donalds for lunch, in effect this is what is being done with a cheap logo. A logo should give your company a professional image, appropriate to its needs. - A logo should reflect the time and thought gone in to designing it
One of the problems here is that people don’t always realise the amount work that goes into a professionally designed logo:- The research – even if the budget is quite small I would expect at the very least to find out who the company’s main competitors are and how they present themselves
- The brainstorming of ideas
- The rough sketches
- The 4 or 5 logo options worked up on the computer
- The amends, tweaking and further amends
- A logo is the starting point of your whole corporate image
The colours typography and style of a logo will often dictate the corporate look of the rest of a company’s literature.
Any more suggestions?
A post also worth reading is Vivienne’s How much should you pay for a logo?
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91 Comments
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
just stumbled across you and will definitely be back.
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
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
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