Logo FAQ’s

Over the course of my design career I’ve come across a number of clients who are confused about why logos can cost more than expected. I’ve also encountered a number of unfortunate logos for businesses out in the wild that reflect poorly on the business—don’t let this be you! Investing in your brand and hiring a designer to create a great logo, is one of the best things that you can do for your business.

In this post, I will break down why you should invest in a great logo, what you get for your money, my process, and how it compares to your mom’s neighbor’s cousin’s process who “only charges $25” aka fiverr and other cheap contest-based logo/design sites.

• Why you should invest in a professionally designed logo
• What goes into a good logo design?
• Why does it cost a lot of money?
• My logo design process
• Why not find a cheaper option?

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Why you should invest in a professionally designed logo:

1. Investing in your brand is directly investing in your business.
   Having a logo that is professionally designed is an invaluable marketing asset. It aligns you with your target audience, it positions you well within your industry, and differentiates you from your competitors. A well-designed logo conveys credibility and can stick in customers’ and clients’ heads, making them think of you when they require services/goods in your industry.
2. Your brand is representative of your business.
   A well-designed logo should be memorable and quickly communicate what you’re about. It sets the tone for your visual branding.
3. It will last a long time.
   Some of the best logos out there are timeless and have rarely been changed. A brand refresh is recommended every few years but usually the logo, if starting from a well-designed standpoint, should only need a few minor tweaks to keep it up to date.

Here are some examples of some well-designed iconic logos:

What goes into a good logo design?

The work that goes into a logo design is not simply what you see as the finished product—the majority of the work happens behind the scenes. There’s a lot of research, brainstorming, concepting, sketching, and refining. Designers research the industry your business is in, the audiences that you’re trying to attract to your business, and your competitors. Designers look for ideas to shape into a concept from various angles and throw out a lot.

We make sure that the logo is scalable as well—that it will look good as a small icon on social media or a business card, and also as large as a wall mural or a billboard.

As the client, you only see the best ideas. Along with your feedback, the designer is able to shape the concept into a refined final product.

Why does it cost a lot of money?

At the most basic level, logo design takes a lot of time, and like most professions, we designers charge for our time. We also carry varying levels of expertise (education + experience) that is factored into the cost as well. From a licensing standpoint, logos are not used for just a week or a month, or a year, they’re generally used for the duration of a businesses’ lifespan, across a variety of applications. This usage is factored into cost as well.

Here’s a glimpse into my general logo design process:

This all sounds great but I’m on a tight budget—how does this process differ from Fiverr and other budget design sites?

Budget options such as Fiverr (or your mom’s friend’s nephew who only charges $25) skip most of these steps, if not all. Most logo options from sources such as these work from logo templates (think glorified clip art), and apply your business name to that template. They might change the colors or typeface. They might not.

The biggest issues for your business using a logo produced this way are:

1. It’s not original.
   It won’t differentiate you from your competitor if your competitor also went a similar route and your logos are hard to distinguish from each other.
   
   Take a look at these commonly used logo templates and notice how they don’t stand apart from other logos in their respective industries:
   
2. No strategy is used.
   If your market and audience isn’t researched, how is your logo supposed to speak to them? How are they going to remember that mark, those colors? They will probably walk by, your business going unnoticed.
3. It’s unethical.  
   In essence, by paying $5, $25, or $50, etc. for a cheap logo, someone isn’t be paid fairly for their work. The business model of cheap freelance sites runs on a ‘contest model’ where many designers will submit their proposal for a logo and the client chooses one of which they will pay for. That means that (for example) on a site like 99designs, you receive 99 logo options, select 1, and 98 designers aren’t paid for the work that they did in designing your logo.
   
   It also contributes to an unfair marketplace when sites like these force designers to bring down their prices in order to compete. Most designers adhere to industry-standard pricing guidelines, however some feel they need to bring their prices down to compete, which in turn hurts us all.

As you can see, investing in a strong, professionally designed logo is some of the best money you can spend on your business. It benefits you and excites and entices your audience to seek you out!

I hope this helps give you all some insight into the behind-the-scenes of logo design and branding. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions. And if you’re thinking of creating a logo for your business or having an existing logo redesigned, please reach out—I would love for us to work together!