New Business Owner's Guide To Logo Design

Astonishing fact: a Google search for the keywords “logo design” yields almost a billion results! Even though far from all of them are relevant, the fact remains that there are at least thousands of online logo design providers out there, and each one of them has its own modus operandi (method of operation). It is thus not the least surprising that a new businessman looking to brand a starting company can sometimes find himself at a loss which logo design provider to choose.

The purpose of the following article is to help the owners of young businesses in selecting a logo design company depending on the type of service they are seeking. We will discuss the pros and cons of each type of logo design provider (logo design studio with in-house designers, crowdsourcing companies and freelancers), followed by a suggestion of a reputable online company with a good track record for each of those types.

The logo design studio

The essential logo design provider, a logo design studio is a company that employs a team of professional designers to create a bundle of logos for the client. The advantages of a good logo design studio lie in quality and reliability. The work of in-house designers is easier to control than that of overseas designers used by crowdsourcing companies. In addition, dealing with a quality logo design studio is a guarantee that your logos will be created by certified professional designers, working as a team to obtain an optimal result. Logo design studios also offer customer support, be it by phone or by email.
However, a logo design studio provides a limited bundle of initial samples (typically 6 to 8) with a relatively long waiting time (about 5 business days). Although most studios offer a “rush order” option, it is usually more expensive.

For instance: LogoBee
A reputable logo design firm which was founded in 2000 and since then has constantly been one of the top 20 results in a Google search for “logo design”. LogoBee has many returning clients and around 14 000 logo projects under its belt.

The crowdsourcing logo company

Crowdsourcing is a relatively recent tendency in logo design. Design companies specialized in crowdsourcing try to involve as many designers as possible in a “contest” of sorts, in which only the creator of the logo eventually chosen by the client receives payment. The shtick of crowdsourcing companies is all in the quantity of samples – usually hundreds – created by diverse designers from different backgrounds.
Unfortunately, most of the advantages of the logo design studio are lost in a crowdsourcing company. Since most of the designers work overseas, the company has very little control over them. There is effectively no guarantee the designers are not stealing someone else’s work or indeed that they are even real designers. There is no teamwork between designers, either. Effectively, if the client wants to merge the elements of two logos into one, he has to pay for both logos separately. In addition, crowdsourcing companies also usually offer no phone support at all.

For example: 99designs
Founded in 2008, this wildly successful company has already worked on over 200,000 projects, including all kinds of graphic and industrial design.

The freelancer
Self-explanatory: a freelancer is just one single independent designer creating logos on his or her own. Freelancers usually offer negotiable and cheaper prices than the options above in addition to fast services. The client is also dealing directly with the designer rather than a company representative. This allows the designer to get a better understanding of what the client wants and act in consequence.
The problems with freelance design are some of the same that plague crowdsourcing: no phone support, no teamwork, poor legal warranties. In addition, with only one person designing, the odds of not finding your ideal logo are higher. The client also has to deal with the risk of not receiving the results on time due to the freelancer’s personal problems, such as severe illness.

For instance: Freelancer
Even though every single freelancer is a micro-“company” of his or her own, there is nary a better place to find one than Freelancer.com, a huge freelancing marketplace with over 8 million registered professionals.

The template provider

This is a rather non standard option as it is not exactly “custom” logo design. Logo template providers offer a choice from a gallery of premade logos. This option is typically significantly cheaper than any of the above. Some providers even offer premade logos for free; however this is only an option if the client is able to modify the logo himself. As for those for whom this is not an option, they can get the template provider to modify the templates for them for a small fee.
The major limitation of this option is that it doesn’t work unless the client happens to like one of the logos in the provided gallery, since the modifications the template provider will add are typically minor.

For instance: LogoMaker
LogoMaker is an online logo design interface allowing any new business owner to create their own logo within minutes. You can create a logo for free, but downloading a high quality version for business cards and marketing materials requires a $49 fee.

To sum it all up…

Usually, the design studio is synonymous with high quality and reliability, the crowd-sourcing company with quantity, the freelancer with affordable service and personal client/designer relationship, and the template provider with minimal expenses.

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