What is a logo design worth?

Often I was asked to provide a graphic design estimate through my website, out of all those quotes sent away, roughly only 20% came back with an acceptance, so where does the 80% go? Cheaper quotes supplied by other graphic design agencies?

If money was no concern, and you were to  ask 10 graphic design / advertising design agencies to work on a new logo design, all 10 designs will come back looking different, but does it mean the most expensive one will produce the best outcome? If I was to buy a Hi-Fi CD player model X9000, I would definitely hunt around to find the cheapest deal, and sometimes I am happy to pay a bit more for a reputable dealer. In the end of the day, the product/commodity is the same, doesn’t matter where I buy it from, but I could potentially save hundreds of dollars from shopping around! However, design is no commodity, and does not work the same way!

‘Pre-designed Logos’

Starting up a company can cost a lot of money, and you probably want to spend your money on equipment rather than on graphic design. Having said ‘design is no commodity’, if you Google ‘logo design’ or ‘cheap logo design’ or even ‘free logo design’, you will find plenty of sites with pre-designed logos for only $99! There are also logo design companies that will custom design a logo with unlimited revisions for only $60, surely this is a bargain and why pay $1000 and above for a logo when you can just pay less than $100 for an instant logo, you have really nothing to lose here? It all boils down to what you really want, some are happy with ready-made designs, and don’t mind having a logo looking similar to your competition, but if you are serious about your business, you really want to invest in the design of your new corporate identity / brand design / logo with a reputable graphic design company!

Logo vs Clip-art

So, what is the difference between a ‘logo’ and a ‘clip-art’? A drawing of a TV as the logo design for a TV salesman, a drawing of a car as the logo design for a car salesman; now a TV is a TV, and a car is a car only stylized; this is called a clip-art with no real hidden messages or concept behind the work. You’ll probably be sharing this logo design with your competition?

When you establish a company, you have a set of values and messages you want to get across your target market. Portraying this set of values and messages in one simple /elegant mark is no easy task! For examples: How do you portray “protection” or “piece of mind” for an insurance company? How do you portray “efficiency” or “reliability” for a courier company? It is up to the graphic designer to work with you to first understand your company, then to thoroughly research your market/competition to come up with an original / unique brand identity that will work for your business. It is a lot to ask for a ‘pre-designed logo’ or ‘clip-art’ to do the same thing for you here.

Reputable graphic designer is worth every penny

It is not hard to see a reputable graphic designer also charges more for his/her service, like how paintings / art works, usually famous = Higher value.  Not many people think of the amount of effort invested in order to become reputable / famous in the graphic design / art industry. There is no such thing as a free lunch, in reality it takes enormous amount of time,  talent, hard work, investment & persistence to be at the top of the trade…  A reputable graphic designer is also experienced, talented and has many leads from the word of mouth. It is often difficult to put a value on ‘art’, and in most cases ‘more famous’ = ‘more expensive’.

Here is the maths: Talent + Hardworking + Education + Time + Money + Experience = Famous = Higher value in work produced.

Good company identity design lasts for the life of your business

When your logo design is already established in your market, it is only a disaster if you have to change your logo design years down the track, so why not do it properly at the very start? A well designed company identity is timeless, and should last you the life of your business… 10 years? 20 years? or 100 years? It is worth every effort investing in the creation of your company identity, so there is really no excuse in skipping this important milestone of your business development! so, whatever it takes do it right the first time!

Something Funny to Share

Warning – Language may offend some viewers!