Logo design is a common question for people starting a business with no design contacts yet. There are a number of options you can choose when trying to decide who to pay to design your logo. Let’s look at the pros and cons of each.
- Design it yourself.
Pros:
- Free! You can’t beat the price, especially if you have the time.
- You know exactly what you want and don’t have to try and communicate it with anyone.
- Complete creative control.
Cons:
- It will most likely be ugly if you have never designed before.
- It will cost you time. Time to think it through, time to learn to use the programs, time to design to scrap it and start a new one because the old one was ugly.
- If you need it resized, adjusted, or anything of the sort you will be in trouble.
It’s for these strong cons that I advise against designing your logo on your own. It usually isn’t worth it, and you end up with an amateur-looking logo.
- Pay a Graphic Designer.
Pros:
- You are working with a professional. Graphic Designers come in a range of experience and price, but you basically get what you pay for (up to about $500+ in my opinion). A great graphic designer can deliver you a better logo than you ever imagined and can boost the idea of starting a ‘little side thing’ to feeling like a fully legitimate, professional business.
- All the files and sizes you need for further use of your logo.
- They know what is good and what is bad. This goes for colour combinations, fonts, composition, etc.
Cons:
- Can be Costly. Most people starting a business are on a slim budget, and a logo may not be considered worth the investment in the early stages. I would recommend paying at least $100 for a logo, and no more than $500.
- You might not get what you want…at all.
- The process can be a bit annoying. Your Graphic Designer will want to ask you a number of questions regarding your business. They will then send you a few drafts, then work with you to refine from there. It’s not a hands off approach.
If you have the budget, this is your best option. Do your research on a designer and choose someone whose style you like. Go with an experienced designer, not your nephew who just installed a bootleg copy of Illustrator.
- Crowd-Source
Crowd-sourcing involves using sites like 99Designs.com, Crowdspring.com or DesignCrowd.com where you set a budget, describe what logo you are after, and let designers from all over the world submit entries where eventually you pick the one you like the most and pay that designer.
Pros:
- Plenty of options.
- Pricing is usually good (you get what you pay for still applies though)
- Very hassle free
Cons:
- You may end up with copied or recycled work.
- You have to sift through a lot of designs that will look the same.
- You are still not guaranteed to get what you want.
- You may consider crowdsourcing unethical. From a freelance designer point of view I understand this. But from a business owner/minimize expenses point of view, this free market – let the best man win style seems like a reasonable choice.
Plenty of people have successfully used crowdsourcing sites to get great design work done, so definitely check the sites out and consider them.
At the end of the day, the choice is yours. If your business is very visual and marketing based, you should not be skimping on design work. But if you are perhaps a staple-product B2B business where what you look like doesn’t really matter, you may be able to cut corners.