Logo Design Does Not Cost $5.00

Logo design in today's world is totally underrated. People do not understand how important a good logo is and how valuable it is to their business. This is why I am going to outline some very important facts, telling you why logo design should not cost $5.00, and why your logo is not something you should take lightly.

In broad terms, I will do this by comparing “cheap logo design” to “professional logo design” and I will outline the reasons why professional logo designers do not charge such low fees and why you should invest in a professional logo design.

What Is A Logo?

To understand what a logo is meant to do, we first must know what a logo is. Wikipedia explains that

“a logo’s design is for immediate recognition, inspiring trust, admiration, loyalty and an implied superiority. The logo is one aspect of a company’s commercial brand, or economic entity, and its shapes, colors, fonts, and images usually are different from others in a similar market. Logos are also used to identify organizations and other non-commercial entities.”

It makes me wonder why people have no logo or why they would even bother with a cheap logo design if a logo is meant to do all of these things?

Spec Work & Logo Design Contests

Before I get onto comparing cheap VS professional logo design I want to talk to you a bit about SPEC work. “Spec” has become the short form for any work done on a speculative basis. ie. You design this for me, and I will pay you if I like it.

To clarify, let’s create a scenario in another industry where SPEC work does NOT exist.

“I went for a dental check-up yesterday. After the dentist inspected my teeth, she suggested some work to prevent further tooth decay. I told her to go ahead, and if the dental work was satisfactory, I’d be more than happy to pay. She responded that she wouldn’t be able to do that, because she normally provides a service when a fee is agreed upon up-front. I said I’d let her know after I checked in with other local dentists.” - David Airey

This scenario happens in the design industry every day and is seen as very unethical as it is ruining the design industry. A designer should not have to invest time and resources with no guarantee of payment much alike a dentist or any other professional.

I do not want to go into this any further as much has been written about it but I would like to say please avoid design contests at all costs - these are the true epitome of SPEC work. Logo design contests are bad for your business. Period.

$5.00 (Cheap Logo Design)

Now that we have taken a look at the damage of Spec Work, let us now take a look at what quality you can expect from a logo in between the $5 to $200 bracket. The particular case I am looking at today is from a $35 logo design contest that was held on Digital Point Forums.

The “brief” for the logo design project:

"Make a logo for the site 'Spela Piano'. The meaning of that is Play Piano. This is a site where our members can learn to play piano online."

Below you can see the responses from the contest. Which one do you think won?

You will notice that nearly all of the logos above use free fonts and don’t assign to the rules of what makes a good logo. Examples: It's describable, memorable, effective without color and scalable.

Ask yourself these questions in regards to the logos above:

• How many of the logos can you describe or remember?
• Are these logos effective without color?
• Are they scalable?
• Do they gain immediate recognition?
• Convey the company’s personality, character or attitude?
• Relate to your clients by conveying a feeling of familiarity and credibility?
• Have association with quality and satisfaction?

I will leave these questions for you to decide.

Professional Logo Design

Relate to your clients by conveying a feeling of familiarity and credibility?
Have association with quality and satisfaction?

You decide.

Now compare these professionally designed logos and answer the same questions as above….

See the difference?

Why are they so different?

Professional logo designers have an actual design process that involves research, sketching, conceptualizing, and reflection and this is why they do not charge $5.00.

The design process of a professional logo designer usually consists of:

• The Design Brief: They conduct a questionnaire or interview with the client to get the design brief.
• Research: They conduct research focused on the industry itself, on its history, and on its competitors.
• Reference: They conduct research into logo designs that have been successful and current styles and trends that are related to the design brief.
• Sketching & Conceptualizing: They develop the logo design concept(s) around the brief and research. They use creativity and know how to design a logo.
• Reflection: They take breaks throughout their design process. This lets their ideas mature and lets them get renewed enthusiasm and receive feedback.
• Presentation: They then choose whether to present only a select few logos to the client or a whole collection.
• Celebration: They then drink beer or eat chocolate or sleep or start on next logo design. Or a combination.

Do you believe doing all of that costs $5.00? (I should hope not!)

Do you agree that logo design typically does, and should cost more than $5.00? What have you paid for a logo design?

By Just Creative Design

T-shirt 1

Logo 9

Logo 8

New Web Site

Here is the new site I designed.

My client had a great turnout at the trade show, selling 42 units on Saturday. As time goes on, we will modify and tweak the web site to keep it updated. Right now it is up, and they are taking orders.

Have a great day!

- HRD Design

website 4

Simple Ways to Become a More Environmentally Friendly Freelancer

Here are 29 simple ways to do so.

The great thing about being a freelancer is how much control you have over everything. There are no bosses to tell you what company policy is or how you should do things. That means YOU have not only the ability but the responsibility for your work life. Today for Blog Action Day we’re going to look at some simple ways that freelancers can make their work-life more environmentally friendly. Because remember it’s the small steps that produce the big, sustainable changes.

Listed below are a ton of ways that you can become a more environmentally friendly freelancer. And because we *REALLY* want FreelanceSwitch readers to really take this on and work towards being more environmentally friendly, we are pledging to donate $1 to charity for every reader who comments here as a pledge to take on any one of the suggestions below (or their own). Just write what you’re taking on in a comment and we’ll put $1 in your name towards the Blog Action Day charities up to a total of $500.

There are lots of really easy suggestions here that are completely free and don’t take much effort at all. So make today the day to change one habit for the better.

Print Design Jobs for Clients

1. Always offer a recycled option for printing to clients (or even better, only offer recycled options)!
   
   
2. Design standard size printed items to minimize paper offcuts.
   
   
3. Implement a white border in your designs so you don’t need bleed.
   
   
4. For packaging design jobs, find packaging solutions that require minimal materials.
   
   
5. Use thinner paper stocks for stationery.
   
   
6. Avoid laminating paper.
   
   
7. Encourage clients to use smaller brochures, flyers, books and so on for large print runs to avoid using more paper than necessary

Bonus:
Designcanchange.org: Beautiful site and a beautiful idea.
Lean why you as a designer need to get involved.

101 Things Designers Can Do To Change The Earth: Here are some fantastic ideas for designers to make a difference - and amazingly there’s no filler.

Around the Office

1. Collect any A4 paper which is printed on one side and wire bind it to use as note paper.
   
   
2. When you need to print something, print on both sides of a piece of paper.
   
   
3. Put two bins by your desk – one for recyclables and one for waste.
   
   
4. Recycle your printer cartridges.
   
   
5. Turn off your computer when you finish work for the night.
   
   
6. Buy a video camera & go to a virtual meeting on Skype rather than driving to physical ones.
   
   
7. Send and receive virtual faxes rather than paper ones.
   
   
8. Send your invoices via email rather than posting them.
   
   
9. Install energy efficient lighting around the office.
   
   
10. In summer if you can make do without air conditioning, open a window instead!
    
    
11. In winter, reduce your heating and wear a little extra clothing instead.
    

Change Your Client’s Habits

1. Ask your clients to join One Percent For The Planet and give a small portion of their sales to environmental charities.
   
   
2. Whenever you have the chance encourage clients to make environmentalism part of their brands. Show them that this can be an asset to their business rather than a burden, and that consumers react very positively to companies that take environmental positions.
   
   
3. Encourage clients to run web marketing campaigns rather than print ones where the end result will be much the same (because the end result in paper waste will be *very* different)

General Ideas

1. Become carbon neutral.
   
   
2. Upload large files rather then sending them on disc. If you don’t have FTP, then you can use a service like DropSend or YouSendIt.
   
   
3. Take on charity projects for an environmental not-for-profit.
   
   
4. Join One Percent For The Planet yourself and give a small portion of your sales to environmental charities.
   
   
5. Use Concept Share to cut down on faxes and printing.
   
   
6. For photographers, send digital PDF proofs, instead of print outs.
   
   
7. Whenever you can give things away instead of throwing them. For example old computer equipment, magazines, furniture. Rather than producing rubbish, see if someone else might get even more use out of your old things. You’d be surprised how one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
   

There’s our list, please do take on some of these changes and let’s take a stand!

What are you going to do?

By Cyan Ta'eed

Do Your Eyes Hurt From Reading?

EYE STRAIN

Every time you design a page of text, what you’re really doing is creating a high-stress workout for everyone who might end up reading it.

Reading is a very stressful task. When people read, their eyes need to make roughly four movements every second – that is 15,000 eye movements for every hour they spend reading. At the same time as the muscles controlling eye movement are working so rapidly, other muscles are busy keeping the lens inside the eye constantly focused at the distance of the book, magazine or computer.

Whew! It is no wonder that fatigue and other eye problems such as nearsightedness became widespread in the twentieth century. In a survey of more than 4000 computer workers, 40.5 per cent reported experiencing eye fatigue symptoms (sola Optical).

If you want people to be able to read the text you design comfortably, whether it is in print or on a screen, it is worth taking the trouble to make the eye workout as low impact as possible.

Continue reading here at eye magazine.