How much would I pay for a logo?

Design Discussions general design discussion
1

I will shortly be looking to have a logo design created, and am wondering how much I am likely to pay for this.

At this time I cannot give you the company name, as it has not yet been registered.

Once registered though, is this something that people here would be interested in doing? Like throwing up a few concept logos from which I could possibly choose a style that I liked and get the individual to take it through to a final design?

I’m not a designer by any means, though I will most likely throw up a couple of sketches (which you will all laugh at ) just to get the ball rolling. I have some ideas, but am completely open.

Anyway - am I posting in the right place? Or is there a better forum/site for logo etc?

The final logo would have to be suitable to be printed on cards, letterhead etc, as well as on the web.

2

250 will be alright. that’s a normal charge. Yet, it could go up to thousands depends on who the client is.

3

…a good workable logo takes a lot more thought/time/$ to refine and develope than it appears…years ago, a well known manufacturer hired a top corporate identity firm to create an new logo and style book…$500K later and the deed was done…only when the product designer, me, reduced the “bug” to a size proportional to the product it didn’t read…the bold/condensed font became a dozen vertical lines and a hair thin horizontal line disappeared entirely…looked great on letter head or on the side of a semi though…in the end the company had me (one year out of school) rework the logo…so it cost them $500.5K in the end…good luck

4

There are a couple of ways you could go at this. The first and cheapest is to go to one of those web sites that will design a logo for $200. They will take the name of your company, integrate with some clip art and send you three concepts. If you don’t like any of those, send them another $200 and they will send you three more concepts and so on and so on. There is NO effort on their part to understand you or you company.

If you take a structured approach, it will probably cost you more. Any reputable design firm will take the time to understand your positioning strategy (or help you develop one) and design to the goal and objectives of that strategy. All of your materials; corporate ID, product, packaging, ads, brochure, messaging, etc., should follow that strategy, speaking with one, integrated voice about who you are and who you want to be. The cost will depend mostly on the amount of customer research you want to do. On the low end, I would say an agency would do the job for $2,000-3,000. If you are NBC and redoing the peacock, its probably closer to $1-2 million.

Option 3 is for a student to do the project. They may cost $500-1,000. They won’t have the methodology of an agency but you may get lucky with their intuitive skills and get something great.

5

it really depends on who you hire for the job and how serious you want the logo to represent your company and services. I am interested to know more about your project. :slight_smile:[/code][/list]

6

What you’re suggesting sounds like spec work. Here are two articles that discuss that phenomenon:

Why Speculative Work is Unethical
by Habib Bajrami
http://www.creativelatitude.com/articles/article_0804_habib.html

In their own words, why these designers are against Speculative Design Competitions
http://www.creativelatitude.com/articles/articles_logo_this.html

Here is an article about those bargain-basement, online “logo factories”:

The Logo Factor
by Steve Douglas
http://www.creativelatitude.com/articles/article_0505_douglas.html

As for the example flat fee of $250, let’s do the math. Let’s assume that my hourly rate is $25 (it’s actually substantially more). Your fee buys 10 hours of my time. 10 hours to produce, from our first interaction to the finished product, your company identity, which will serve to represent you in all contexts for a long time to come. In addition to actual design time, this fee has to cover:

  • all client/designer communication (phone, email, etc.)
  • research (your company, mission, product/service, as well as your competition)
  • all supplies (such as printing comps, and any books I buy just for this project)

So, let’s assume for the sake of simplicity, that all our communication takes 1 hour total, my research takes 1 hour, and I spend $25 on supplies. That leaves me with 7 hours for brainstorming, sketching, initial presentation, revisions, refinements, and final product. Under these circumstances, I would obviously skimp whenever I could, perhaps pulling out old rejected concepts from previous projects, or designing a logo that’s a modification of something I saw in a design annual, or going with a visual cliche because it’s easy. Why? Because you should expect to pay more than that for such a critical component of your business.

If you’re serious about you company, be prepared to take your identity seriously. Don’t expect to find someone by trolling this board. Try posting on aigadesignjobs.org or creativehotlist.com instead (where you can also find designers’ portfolios). Put out an RFQ (Request for Qualifications) and have designers submit their resumes and portfolios in response to a detailed brief. Also, expect that your final product will be a logo (perhaps in variations for different applications) as well as a system for all your basic needs (business card, stationery, etc.). These materials all need to speak the same language, and you’ll want one designer or firm to handle all of them. You may also want to get a standards manual explaining how the identity is to be used in the future, to make sure that subsequent materials are consistent.

Good luck to you.

7

iab is right about those $200 logo companies. My friend’s firm recently used one of them, and I got to see some of the work in progress. Personally, I didn’t really think the work was professional-quality. More alarming, though, was the fact that the sketches showed no direction! It seemed like they weren’t thinking at all about the design problem, just trying all the fonts on their computer to see what the client liked. They even repeatedly misspelled the company’s slogan, which can easily be corrected but it just shows you how little attention they were paying to what they were doing. When the company got their final logo file, it was an Illustrator file with the logo as a bitmap! That means it can’t be used big or it will look pixellated. Also, the file elements were both CMYK and RGB, making it very expensive to print. The logo should have been designed as black and white, with a single or two-color version as well. These people were obviously hacks who were putting no thought into their work. My friend’s company was looking for a cheap logo, but what they got was something that they won’t even really be able to use, and they can’t get their money back now. You get what you pay for.

8

bullsh!t. try ebay or craigslist. you can get this done for fifty bucks.

9

1 cent?

How would we know what you would pay for a logo. Your job is to get the highest quality work for the cheapest amount possible.

The designer’s goal is to do the highest quality work for the highest amount possible. Once you start playing the cheapo, the designer’s goal shifts.

10

so you don’t get killed. why don’t you just buy 40 hour blocks of time until you get the job done.
you got to be realistic about what it takes to get it done.
if you think it’s like $500—you realistically think if you were getting paid $500 how much time you would give someone—that amounts to 4 hours and a meeting.
what can you accomplish by lunch time?
block it out how much time you think it takes and then multiply by $/hr.

11

good point, “time.”

to the original poster, the point is, what is YOUR time, talent, education and experience worth? can you put a dollar figure on that? a dollar per hour figure on that?

if so, assume that someone else with the same level of talent, education and experience in their own field will demand a similar dollar figure. assume this, rather than assuming that people who ARE talented and experienced designers will sweat for you for free.

no one goes to a lawyer, doctor or financial consultant expecting a freebie so don’t come to designers expecting one either. ask your designer what they charge and then pay it. shortchange your lawyers and not your designer for once. or else…pay your lawyer or your doctor or yourself to design the logo.

12

Hi. I’m the original poster - I didn’t realise I was not signed in when I posted originally.

Ok. The company is a startup software/technologies company that initially will produce $0 until we have a product to market. However, we want to get our name out there and therefore would like to be able to at least do some business cards. We currently have no logo - a clean slate.

We have very little to spend initially, so I may just have to see what we can whip up - and perhaps revisit the logo when we have money coming in (as it appears that it could be an expensive exercise - we dont want a generic logo that has been spat out of “Logo Creator” or something similar).

Or perhaps just go with a specific typeface for the name in the meantime - not sure.

I cannot divulge the company name at this time as we have not yet registered the name here in Australia, and I’d hate to attempt to register it and find someone has beaten me to it :slight_smile:

Once I can state the name, I’ll come back and see what happens. I have read and understand what people have to say about spec work - fair enough too. Even if I could just get a little feedback on my own designs then that would be fine.

Anyway - we’ll see what happens :slight_smile:

Many thanks for your replies to date.

Dean.

13

aXLe,

It is very common for startups not to have a corporate ID. All of the ones I have worked with usually had a card and letterhead from Kinkos. When they got some capital (usually from investors) it was the investors who insisted on spending money on the corporate ID. They want the company to seem more “real”. My advice is before you spend money on your logo, do a very generic (like from Repo Man) business card and letterhead. That way your company can’t be pigeon-holed until you are ready to commit to a strategy.

14

aXLe,

Before you start asking how much it will cost, you need to determine how much you need. A logo is just one element of a brand, and your brand is your promise to the consumer of an experience.

Pretty important stuff, but don’t take my word for it, check out the brand valuations published by Interbrand.

In your situation, you could consider offering a royalty reimbursement arrangement. If the potential payout is good, you could get a hell of a lot of professional work for zero initial investment. Your brand could make or break you in the early days.

15

cg,

Is the royalty reimbursement approach common? Do you have any further information on likely arrangements etc? That definately is of interest.

16

You may find this interesting, amusing, and perhaps offensive:

http://www.katzidesign.com/blog/2005/08/taking-bite-out-of-logoworks.html

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding LogoWorks (one of the dirt-cheap online logo design companies). It started with graphic designers getting all upset about the cut-rate prices and the way the process works. Then, people started documenting logo rip-offs, where designers for LogoWorks, probably in a hurry and out of ideas, rip off (or seem to) existing logos. The list goes on and on, and it’s a pretty good read. The link above is an archive of various LogoWorks-related articles and blogs, both for and against the company and their approach.