I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve sat at my local coffee shop, or even read through the comments on Facebook groups and heard someone talk about how the professional designers they are going to for a logo, are quoting them $200 to $1,000 for a series of logo options. Which is more oftent than not, followed by them thinking this is too expensive and asking if anyone has other options. Ultimatly leading them to people that suggest options like Fiverr or 99 Designs.
*Ugh, palm to face moment.*
Now, I completely understand that discussing prices often is a touchy subject and can lead to emotions running high or relationships ending because of discrepancies on what is a valuable price. So I want to highlight now that I’m not here to discredit anyone that has a lower budget and can’t currently afford a high end service. Nor am I hear to convince you to put yourself into debt trying to achieve a Coka Cola level design. I just want those out there wondering why one logo is $200 and another is $10,000 to understand how this value based service works, and what they should be recieving based on a variable of prices. While remembering that there is a logo for every business, and a reason why that business gets the value that they do.
The nuances behind logo design can be super confusing and I completely understand why people outside the design industry don’t always understand how designers come up with a prices. I mean how would you feel if you went to 5 designers for your logo, and each one quoted a wildy different price ranging from $50 all the way to $2,000? Wtf, how can the “same thing” have such a varying price range right?
Well, ultimately this is the crux of the matter… They are not the”same thing”.
So lets stop complaining, and stop pretending that logo design is a simple thing to label with a broad value, and put processes into a series of 3 price ranges that will help you (the client) prescribe to what works best for your brand.
What is the Definition of a Logo?
Logo | ˈlōɡō | noun
A symbol or other design adopted by an organization to identify its products, uniform, vehicles, services etc.
Everyone thinks that if the dictionary describes something it must be true. Well the truth behind this description of what a logo can be defined as is about one fifth of what your logo must mean to your brand from a design perspective. So below I’ve listed 4 more key points to remember when thinking about your logo.
- The graphic can be a vector and nothing else.
(This is so it can be blown up to any size without losing quality.) - It must clearly convey your brand’s values, even when scaled down to the size of the stamp or app icon.
- You must be able to use it in any type of media.
(ex. print, digital, engraving, embroidery etc.) - It must be one of a kind. Generitc work is the enemy to growth and customer loyalty.
If the designs you’re looking at for your brand’s logo fails to fit these criteria, it was not created to professional standards, and is not considered a real logo.
Check Out: Why Fiverr is the Worst Resource for Quality Design
$5 “LOGOS” ARE NOT LOGOS & I CANNOT STRESS THIS MORE
Going to places like Fiverr or 99 Designs does not count as a logo because there is no customized creative process involved. The entire idea behind these platforms are to create a transaction of here’s your logo give me my money. What’s more, the fool’s gold behind doing work on places like Fiverr is that you typically get stolen or unused graphics from stock producers or pervious projects that are slightly changed to fit the name of your business. Which makes those designs quite literally useless for any practical use becauase they weren’t uniquely created for you.
Define Your Process Collaboratively
The process is the defining element to what makes a logo more or less expensive. You can’t have a low, mid, or high end logo without how that logo was created. The final result may appear similar to the untrained eye, but the amount of time, research and labor that went into your logo versus another brand’s can be considerably different.
Even more over, the amount of money the designer has already put into creating your logo varies greatly as well. Look at it from their perspective: A legitimate agency or designer pays taxes, healthcare, accountant fees, and owns expensive professional design tools, software and equipment before even setting pen to paper. That isn’t even taking into account where in the world this designer is living. People from the Western world are not going to be cheap because their cost of living and providing for themselves and their families aren’t cheap. However conversely, if you go with someone that may be able to offer the same level of service for a lower price because of where they live and why type of tools the use. You may come across the consequences of working with someone that is not necessarily a professional designer.
So finding the right price for the right service is a juggling act that you have to play in order to find what is right for you and for your budget.
Set A Budget That Works For You
As much as it may seem that the designer is dictating to you how much the logo cost, you have the power to control the peramiters of the process. Remembering that the value of the logo is not solely in the designer’s work but in your potential to profit from that work is critical once you’ve decided on who you want to work with. If you’re going to be paying $1,000 for your logo, you better make sure that you can make a profit off of the residual use of that the logo and all the other assets of your brand that follow it. That’s why you see corporations pay designers millions to design their logos, because they stand to profit more that a non-profit or a mom & pop business.
Check Out: How Design Greatly Increases Your Business’ Growth
The reality that two different companies pay vastly different sums of money for seemingly the same final product may seem unreasonable and unfair. But this is because each logo is not the same and is produced in a value based market. Most artistic services live in this type of marketplace. If you think about it in another form and say that a musician makes a song that is played in a commercial, then logically that muscian will make a percentage of the value that comes from the profit made directly from that commercial. The may not have made the commerical as a whole, or even came up with the script for it. But would the value be the same without the song? Probably not. A graphic designer’s business is built similarly. So remembering to identifiy a good process for value that you can turn a profit off, will ultimately determine if the work was worth the money.
What Process Covers A Low Budget
If you have a budget that lives between $100 and $1,000 you’re in a the low budget bracket of how much a professional logo should cost. That said, the difference between even a $100 logo and a $500 logo can vary greatly. The only ways that I can see that you would get a logo for your business at a $100 budget are…
- These designers are not full‐time designers.
- These designers create 10‐20 logos per month.
Again these types of logos can ultimately cost you another $500 to $1,000 because they won’t be able to stay topical for a long period of time. This is because if a designer is not full-time or makes 10-20 logos per month they aren’t spending time to really get to know your business, and they aren’t likely to use original work that uniquely describes your business. So I would suggest saving a bit more and at the very least starting at the $500-$1,000 price point. It will give you more value for your money and you won’t end up having to redesign work that didn’t really help you stand out in the first place.
Okay, so the actual process that you should be recieving in this price point is…
- Asking client for design direction often through an initial questionnaire.
(favorite colors, fonts, symbols, etc.) - Creating several variations quickly and offering the client to pick their favorite to move forward with and refine.
- Refining the chosen option based on client’s input and appropriate design processes.
- Sending the final logo and the final invoice.
*Keep in mind at all levels that the larger the Logo Identity budget, the more time can and will be spent researching, creating and perfecting your final Logo.
What Process Covers A Mid Budget
If you’re raising the bar a bit more and know that you can afford a $1,000 to $10,000 budet for your branding then you will yeild so much higher of of a solution for more than just your logo. A complete logo design process involves the following phases:
- Researching the client and the competition.
- Setting the design direction (through the use of a design brief and/or a moodboard).
- Creating many design concepts.
- Refining concepts with the most potenal.
- Choosing the concept that best communicates the client’s values and brand message.
- Presenting the logo proposal to the client (with examples of everyday use).
- Revising the logo based on feedback (optional).
- Preparing multiple color and composition variations of the logo.
- Designing the brand guidelines
Obviously just comparing the prices of the low budget and the mid budget there are huge jumps in price. But even more obvious is the greater amount of labor and effort that goes into each of the processes. Often if the designer or agency is creating just the logo the project will only take another 30 to 60 hours more than the low budget process. But know that you can have the designer create more assets and even define more aspects to your brand’s visual voice. Which can make the project last between 3 to 8 weeks, depending on the work load of the designer at the time, if there are additional graphics included with the logo and if there are multiple logo formats required.
What Process Covers A High Budget
The higher the budget, the more people you can get involved to find the solution that your business needs. This budget range is nearly limitless and is really $10,000<. So if you’re going to be paying the amount make sure that you are getting a team of people that can do more than just design a pretty logo for you. Due to the fact that there are more people involved, know that you should receive a much more extensive process that provides you a logo design of high value. So this should include everything that you’re getting for the mid range budget but also include…
- More throuogh research of your business and every aspect of your industry.
- More designers. Which equals more ideas. Which equals the best work possible.
- A combination of the client and the audience helppig decide the direction of the brand and what works.
- Business naming and tag-lines are often included in the agency brand design package.
Typically this type of process will take several months and will be purchased by clients that have more than one person involved in deciding the final product. So understand that you will be having your work done with more depth and understanding how your product will make the highest profit for you through it’s design.
Final Thoughts
As an experienced designer who has seen brand projects come in and be rushed because of the cost. Don’t do that. You end up doing yourself and your brand more of a disservice because your not making your business’s brand a priority. If you’re not ready to put up 2 weeks of a paycheck from your current job, or however you make money, you’re not ready to get the brand off the ground. Do yourself a favor and put the money up front and get something that is of higher quality. People will see it, and be that much more loyal to your brand because it provides them high quality work.
