Do It Yourself…!
Knowledge is Power I highly recommend reading and learning about graphic/web design. It's a good idea in a long-term sense whether you do design projects yourself now or hire in the future. You will be able to communicate more effectively to your graphic professionals when your business is ready to outsource. By learning design techniques, it will help you organize how to present your image to your target market. The most important lesson to remember is if you start your design project, don't forget about Quality. Read books. Take classes. Learn the software.
Hiring a Professional
How much time do you have? Designing your marketing materials (website, business card, stationary, ezine, postcards, etc.) is not just about learning about the graphic design software and, in the case of web design... learning HTML. Your designer will know how to harness color theory and how to organize your content & information to readable chunks, allow your viewers to focus on the important benefits, evoke a certain feeling or thought, and add supporting graphics that clearly and effectively communicate your message.
Don't you want to concentrate on business? When you are a small business, you probably play the role of sales, customer service, accounting and need to concentrate on strategies to build business. You do care about quality, right?
A. Corporate Branding and Professional Logo Design
Branding tools like logo designs, business cards etc goes a long way in creating your corporate image. Any marketing communication material should ideally have your corporate logo on it, which would give more credibility for your business as well as help your client to perceive your business as a professional enterprise.
Logo design is an absolutely indispensable part of corporate branding strategy and should always be assigned to professional logo designers. A professional logo designer is not just a graphic designer but he should also have ideas about branding and positioning of business. Depending on your requirements he will create a logo that would successfully exude the nature and attitude of your business. While working on any of our logo design orders we ( Custom Logo Design )always try to capture as much as information possible, from the client.
Basically there are 4 types of logos, glyph, alpha-glyph, alphanumeric or a combination of any of these. A professional logo designer or a specialist logo design firm can definitely help you with decision making in this aspect.
Types of Logos
Glyph: This includes symbols, icons, pictures etc that represents your company. These are most widely used for secondary communication rather than business logos, except for few like, Apple. Glyphs though used rarely as logos, if created properly by talented logo designers can be extremely sophisticated and create a deep impact as a corporate identity.
Alpha-Glyph: An alpha-glyph logo uses a letter from the name of the company to graphically convey the nature of the business. Ideal examples of this type of logos can be seen with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), IBM, Honda, Motorola, and Oklahoma State University. Choice of font, color, letter spacing etc can make big difference in creating an impressive corporate logo.
Combination Logos: This is the most common type of logos and is found everywhere. Most of these are actually glyph or alpha-glyph with an alphanumeric company name. Some good examples of combination logos are UPS, Red Hat Linux and Intel.
Placing your corporate logo on all marketing collaterals including business cards, brochures, flyers etc helps you to mark those collaterals as your company property and establish your corporate identity.
Logos and marketing materials are integral part of a company’s brand establishment strategy. A logo done by an amateur can ruin the credibility of your business in no time but when done by a professional logo designer can definitely add value to your business. A professional logo designer can help you to decide which type of logo is best suited for your business and can make people perceive your company as a huge corporate house with much credibility even when it might be just an one man shop.
It’s the image of the company that matters, if you intend to portray a positive and impressive image of your company go for a professional logo design today.
B. How Much Is A Great Business Logo Really Worth?
A great logo can help a business project a positive image while a bad logo can bring a negative impression about a company. If a logo is the company spokesman, how much is it really
worth?
Cheap logo designs are all over the Internet - logo designs under $150!, $99 logo designs, $75 logo designs, $49 logo designs and even lower! You will easily find a wide range of prices for logo design on the Internet. Be careful of cheap logo design offers, some designers may be using clip art. A logo design that includes a royalty free piece of clip art cannot be copyrighted. That same piece of clip art could be used on dozens of other logo designs. A designers portfolio should be displayed and there should be a wide variety of logo samples.
Some logo designers charge one flat fee for a logo with no questions asked. Can you imagine Coca-Cola purchasing a logo design for $99? All designs are not equal. Some logo designers charge additional costs for extra colors, extra modifications and extra preliminary designs. How much is a logo design really worth? A logo design is more valuable to a company than a single spot illustration.
A logo has more value than just the hours spent on creating it. It becomes the companies identity. Professional graphic design rates average anywhere from $30 to $75 per hour. If you see a logo design priced at $125 and that designer charges $50 per hour for design work, do you assume that they spent 2.5 hours on your logo? That price would include the time spent to contact you, the research done on your company and competition, the preliminary ideas, the changes, the finalizing of the logo, the file prep for each different format, sending the logo, billing and allowing you to have all rights to the design. So how much time was actually spent creating your logo?
Many professional graphic designers would be hard pressed to create a top notch illustration for under $150 let alone a creative, well designed logo. So beware of logos priced under $150, you may get what you pay for.
There's even more confusion about logo pricing. Some designers base their logo rates on several of these factors:
Logo Modifications - You could get charged for each time you want a change or modification to your logo. If a logo designer asks the right questions, does the research and stays in close communication with the client there should be no need for major changes during the creation of a logo design. Be a good communicator and explain to the logo designer exactly what you want your logo to be saying about your business. Extra Colors - Printers charge more for extra colors. If a logo designer charges more for a two color logo than they do for a three color logo, get a detailed explanation as to why.
A logo designer should be able to decide for you the correct amount of preliminary designs it will require to create your perfect logo. An example would be asking for a yellow duck logo
design and changing your mind to a red dog design once the logos are presented to you.
Adding an identity program to your logo is a legitimate cost. Designing the business card, letterhead and envelope layouts are normally a higher priced package. You should receive camera ready files for each design.
There is a standard reference for pricing graphic design and corporate identity projects. Any logo designer can purchase the book. A professional graphic designer would have a tough time supporting a family and a studio designing all of their logos below $200.
I'm not writing this to give exact prices for a logo design because each logo designers circumstances are different. The standard logo design rates are based on two major components,
company size and application or distribution size. The majority of logo designs created over the Internet are created for small companies and individuals with limited application and distribution uses. Fortune 500 companies normally pay much higher logo design rates and use advertising agencies.
My conclusion is that the value of a logo should be based on a few important criteria:
1. Experience of the logo designer
2. Size & budget of the company using the logo
3. Scope and usage of the logo
4. Difficulty of the design
An individual or small company with small to average uses should be prepared to pay anywhere from $300 to $1500 for a top quality, professional logo design. What's included with your logo? You will then have to pay another graphic designer or printer to create the correct files. Be aware of what file types you will be needing and ask your logo designer what file types are included in their price.
The most common file types needed are AI (Illustrator) and EPS for most professional print jobs. These are vector format files. These files should be in a CMYK color format. Be aware that not all colors translate well on the Internet, especially GIF files. Ask if the logo designer used web safe colors. You should receive crisp 72 dpi files for the Internet. Be sure and ask your logo designer about your logo colors. You will need this information each time your logo is printed. Ask your designer how long they keep your logo on file in case you lose your
versions later down the road.
You should also receive all rights (copyrights) to your logo. How long have they designed logos? In closing let me say that the information above is a personal opinion and is taken from years of searching logo design web sites and reading books on graphic design. An advertising agency handles logo design on a larger scale and incorporates an entire corporate identity service. Their logo design rates are many times higher than a graphic designers.
Knowledge is Power I highly recommend reading and learning about graphic/web design. It's a good idea in a long-term sense whether you do design projects yourself now or hire in the future. You will be able to communicate more effectively to your graphic professionals when your business is ready to outsource. By learning design techniques, it will help you organize how to present your image to your target market. The most important lesson to remember is if you start your design project, don't forget about Quality. Read books. Take classes. Learn the software.
Hiring a Professional
How much time do you have? Designing your marketing materials (website, business card, stationary, ezine, postcards, etc.) is not just about learning about the graphic design software and, in the case of web design... learning HTML. Your designer will know how to harness color theory and how to organize your content & information to readable chunks, allow your viewers to focus on the important benefits, evoke a certain feeling or thought, and add supporting graphics that clearly and effectively communicate your message.
Don't you want to concentrate on business? When you are a small business, you probably play the role of sales, customer service, accounting and need to concentrate on strategies to build business. You do care about quality, right?
A. Corporate Branding and Professional Logo Design
Branding tools like logo designs, business cards etc goes a long way in creating your corporate image. Any marketing communication material should ideally have your corporate logo on it, which would give more credibility for your business as well as help your client to perceive your business as a professional enterprise.
Logo design is an absolutely indispensable part of corporate branding strategy and should always be assigned to professional logo designers. A professional logo designer is not just a graphic designer but he should also have ideas about branding and positioning of business. Depending on your requirements he will create a logo that would successfully exude the nature and attitude of your business. While working on any of our logo design orders we ( Custom Logo Design )always try to capture as much as information possible, from the client.
Basically there are 4 types of logos, glyph, alpha-glyph, alphanumeric or a combination of any of these. A professional logo designer or a specialist logo design firm can definitely help you with decision making in this aspect.
Types of Logos
Glyph: This includes symbols, icons, pictures etc that represents your company. These are most widely used for secondary communication rather than business logos, except for few like, Apple. Glyphs though used rarely as logos, if created properly by talented logo designers can be extremely sophisticated and create a deep impact as a corporate identity.
Alpha-Glyph: An alpha-glyph logo uses a letter from the name of the company to graphically convey the nature of the business. Ideal examples of this type of logos can be seen with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), IBM, Honda, Motorola, and Oklahoma State University. Choice of font, color, letter spacing etc can make big difference in creating an impressive corporate logo.
Combination Logos: This is the most common type of logos and is found everywhere. Most of these are actually glyph or alpha-glyph with an alphanumeric company name. Some good examples of combination logos are UPS, Red Hat Linux and Intel.
Placing your corporate logo on all marketing collaterals including business cards, brochures, flyers etc helps you to mark those collaterals as your company property and establish your corporate identity.
Logos and marketing materials are integral part of a company’s brand establishment strategy. A logo done by an amateur can ruin the credibility of your business in no time but when done by a professional logo designer can definitely add value to your business. A professional logo designer can help you to decide which type of logo is best suited for your business and can make people perceive your company as a huge corporate house with much credibility even when it might be just an one man shop.
It’s the image of the company that matters, if you intend to portray a positive and impressive image of your company go for a professional logo design today.
B. How Much Is A Great Business Logo Really Worth?
A great logo can help a business project a positive image while a bad logo can bring a negative impression about a company. If a logo is the company spokesman, how much is it really
worth?
Cheap logo designs are all over the Internet - logo designs under $150!, $99 logo designs, $75 logo designs, $49 logo designs and even lower! You will easily find a wide range of prices for logo design on the Internet. Be careful of cheap logo design offers, some designers may be using clip art. A logo design that includes a royalty free piece of clip art cannot be copyrighted. That same piece of clip art could be used on dozens of other logo designs. A designers portfolio should be displayed and there should be a wide variety of logo samples.
Some logo designers charge one flat fee for a logo with no questions asked. Can you imagine Coca-Cola purchasing a logo design for $99? All designs are not equal. Some logo designers charge additional costs for extra colors, extra modifications and extra preliminary designs. How much is a logo design really worth? A logo design is more valuable to a company than a single spot illustration.
A logo has more value than just the hours spent on creating it. It becomes the companies identity. Professional graphic design rates average anywhere from $30 to $75 per hour. If you see a logo design priced at $125 and that designer charges $50 per hour for design work, do you assume that they spent 2.5 hours on your logo? That price would include the time spent to contact you, the research done on your company and competition, the preliminary ideas, the changes, the finalizing of the logo, the file prep for each different format, sending the logo, billing and allowing you to have all rights to the design. So how much time was actually spent creating your logo?
Many professional graphic designers would be hard pressed to create a top notch illustration for under $150 let alone a creative, well designed logo. So beware of logos priced under $150, you may get what you pay for.
There's even more confusion about logo pricing. Some designers base their logo rates on several of these factors:
Logo Modifications - You could get charged for each time you want a change or modification to your logo. If a logo designer asks the right questions, does the research and stays in close communication with the client there should be no need for major changes during the creation of a logo design. Be a good communicator and explain to the logo designer exactly what you want your logo to be saying about your business. Extra Colors - Printers charge more for extra colors. If a logo designer charges more for a two color logo than they do for a three color logo, get a detailed explanation as to why.
A logo designer should be able to decide for you the correct amount of preliminary designs it will require to create your perfect logo. An example would be asking for a yellow duck logo
design and changing your mind to a red dog design once the logos are presented to you.
Adding an identity program to your logo is a legitimate cost. Designing the business card, letterhead and envelope layouts are normally a higher priced package. You should receive camera ready files for each design.
There is a standard reference for pricing graphic design and corporate identity projects. Any logo designer can purchase the book. A professional graphic designer would have a tough time supporting a family and a studio designing all of their logos below $200.
I'm not writing this to give exact prices for a logo design because each logo designers circumstances are different. The standard logo design rates are based on two major components,
company size and application or distribution size. The majority of logo designs created over the Internet are created for small companies and individuals with limited application and distribution uses. Fortune 500 companies normally pay much higher logo design rates and use advertising agencies.
My conclusion is that the value of a logo should be based on a few important criteria:
1. Experience of the logo designer
2. Size & budget of the company using the logo
3. Scope and usage of the logo
4. Difficulty of the design
An individual or small company with small to average uses should be prepared to pay anywhere from $300 to $1500 for a top quality, professional logo design. What's included with your logo? You will then have to pay another graphic designer or printer to create the correct files. Be aware of what file types you will be needing and ask your logo designer what file types are included in their price.
The most common file types needed are AI (Illustrator) and EPS for most professional print jobs. These are vector format files. These files should be in a CMYK color format. Be aware that not all colors translate well on the Internet, especially GIF files. Ask if the logo designer used web safe colors. You should receive crisp 72 dpi files for the Internet. Be sure and ask your logo designer about your logo colors. You will need this information each time your logo is printed. Ask your designer how long they keep your logo on file in case you lose your
versions later down the road.
You should also receive all rights (copyrights) to your logo. How long have they designed logos? In closing let me say that the information above is a personal opinion and is taken from years of searching logo design web sites and reading books on graphic design. An advertising agency handles logo design on a larger scale and incorporates an entire corporate identity service. Their logo design rates are many times higher than a graphic designers.
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