5 Dollar logo design

Logo design in today’s world is totally under rated. People do not understand how important a good logo is and how valuable it is to their business and this is why I am going to outline some very important facts telling you exactly why logo design should not cost $5 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. A logo’s design is for immediate recognition, inspiring trust, admiration, loyalty and an implied superiority. The logo is oneaspect of a company’s commercial brand, or economic entity, and its shapes, colours, fonts, and images usually are different from others in a similar market. Logos are also used to identify organisations 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 & LogoDesign Contests

No Respect

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. - This is not right.

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

“Iwent 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 inwith other local dentists.”

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 pleaseavoid design contests and spec work at all costs. Logo Design Contests are bad for your business. Period.

For further reading on the damage of spec work I have written an in depth article outlining the “pros” and cons of spec work.

There have even been comics made about the damage of Spec Work:

* Comic 1
* Comic 2
* Comic 3

$5.00 (Cheap Logo Design)

Now that we have takena 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 was

“Make a logo for the site ‘Spela Piano’. The meaning of that is Play Piano. This is a sitewhere our members can learn to play piano online.”

Below you can see the responses from the contest, which one do you think won?

$2.50

You will notice that nearly all of the logos above use free standard issue fonts and don’t assign to the rules of what makes a good logo. Ie. describable, memorable, effective without colour and scalable.

Ask yourself these questions in regards to the logosabove:

* How many of the logos can you describe or remember?
* Are these logos effective without colour?
* 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...