Fresh, Half-Baked or Leftover Logos? Which Does Your Business Deserve?

You may have heard of web sites that offer CHEAP! logos for your business or promise a logo designed "just for you" in under two hours. Often for less than the price of lunch, they claim to provide a custom-designed identity or offer a choice from the submissions of dozens of designers. If you think about this, though, it should be apparent that creating a unique logo with no input from and little or no information about a business is an oxymoron at best. Designing a unique and effective identity for your business involves discovery, research, collaboration between you and your designer, and the ability to interpret all of this information into a workable creative solution that is uniquely representative of your business. When you remove this crucial interaction from the design process, there is no meaningful flow of ideas between you and your designer to create an identity that best represents your company. You remove any hope that the identity will stand out as the recognizable mark of  your business and your business alone. And that's just the beginning. There's no guarantee that the use of a logo from these sites won't<a href="http://blog.crowdspring.com/2009/02/27/ask-crowdspring-can-royalty-free-stock-be-used-for-logo-design/"> infringe on copyright or intellectual property rights</a>, often by having clip art used as part or all of the logo. A logo purchased from one of these sites for your business could also be bought by another organization. To prevent that, be prepared to pay more if you want to own exclusive rights for the logo you want to use (and to possibly pay these fees on a yearly basis to retain exclusivity). And it still won't protect against the logo design being altered just slightly so that it can be offered up for sale again! Do you have the time and resources to monitor these sites to make sure that won’t happen? I recently received an email from one of these on-line logo services with the enticement to recycle my "unused" logos for extra money on their site, i.e.; logos I've created for my clients that didn't make the final cut. Leftovers being represented as unique logos to buyers?? Reputable designers create identities carefully for each of their clients, and while not every initial concept can be "the one," they're definitely not designed with just any old business in mind. There is so much a designer needs to know about your business’ objectives and goals, culture and personality, and the greater understanding that goes with the interchange between you and the designer as your identity develops. Unlike the nameless, faceless contributors to the crowd-sourced logo sites, talented designers in your area would be happy to meet with you to discuss your project, share with you how they have solved similar problems for their other clients, and provide you with a proposal and budget. Taking the time to utilize this process will ensure that you find the right designer to fit your needs and budget. A logo is so much more than just a pretty picture- it is the visual representation of a business- the consistent public face presented to clients and prospects every day. It requires so much more than a few dollars, a few minutes on-line and the click of a mouse to fulfill. After all, isn't your business worth more than that? 2009-11-05T22:16:06Z

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Are crowd-sourced logo design sites the best way to develop an identity for your business?