We’re often asked how much does a logo design cost?
Logo’s are a critical aspect of all business’ marketing. As a company’s most prominent graphical representation, a logo anchors a company’s brand and becomes the single most visible manifestation of the company. It’s a big part of what we do here at An.X so, in the course of some general research, we found this article and found it really interesting that some of the worlds best known brands never actually paid a penny for the design of their logos! Pretty amazing really.
The designer that created the famous Nike swoosh for example was paid very little for the work.
It was good to read that Nike did eventually reward Carolyn Davidson, the designer of the most famous swoosh in the world. Back in 1971 she was paid just $35 for this iconic logo. Nike then went onto present her with a beautiful ring and an undisclosed amount of shares in the company by way of a thank you some years later.
These days there are online services that offer to design a logo for your business at very low cost through a variety of means including outsourcing to far off countries with lower personnel overheads or through crowd sourcing methods. Whilst this may be the only viable option for a start up with little capital, we’d always advise more established companies that you speak directly to a design professional who can not only meet you face to face but, more importantly, actually guide you on what to brief them. Plus, they’ll properly interrogate that brief, asking searching questions about the values of your competition, your own business’ position in the marketplace and the target audience(s) you’re looking at.
Many of these agencies will have cool websites, loads of clients that they have worked with, some interesting portfolios or case studies to review. Some will be near by, some far away and all, of course, will promise that they can get the job done. So, what can you do to help you choose from this long list of design suppliers?
- Outline the project – what does it entail, what is its goal and what’s your budget?
- Gather examples of designs you do and don’t like and give some thought as to why. This is especially important for those you do admire. What is it about them that reflects your business? Ideally you’ll be able to answer this from a customer’s perspective. Whilst your personal opinion is important, the one opinion that really counts is that of you customers.
- Draw up your short list of agencies to speak to. Ideally a maximum of five. You can find them through Google of course, but personal recommendations from your own inner circle are much more valuable. Take a look at their website. Is it regularly updated? Are all of those clients listed genuine? What about the testimonials? Sadly, it’s all too easy to fool people by putting up logos of clients you never actually worked for or to fake testimonials. Any good agency will be more than willing to provide additional details and the chance to speak to current clients.
- When you do come to make you decision about who to help you with that logo design do remember that, yes, you can get a logo designed for under £100. But the chances are that it will show and, more critically, its suitability for your business and audience will be more down to luck than professional judgment.
Here at An.X we are logo design and branding specialists with more than 20 years experience in delivering design and marketing to a variety of different business sectors and we would be more than happy to discuss your requirements. Thank you for reading this article if you enjoyed it please like and share it so others can too. We have a page recapping many of the logo designs we’ve created over 20 years and it can be seen here.