As I said in a previous post, Why Branding and Logo Design Are So Important, your logo is the visual representative of your business. Therefore, your logo design is vital to the branding and reputation of your company.
“Throwing together” a logo in Microsoft Word would look something like this…
…and has the obvious appearance of being thrown together. You get out what you put in.
Having your logo professionally designed is the only option, whether you are launching a new brand or redesigning your current brand. Your company name typed out using a font that you think is cool does not a logo create.
There is much more to designing the logo itself and there are so many considerations that must be taken. A (professionally designed) logo is not cheap. Why? Because the logo design takes time…lots of it.
First off, the designer must compare brands. We look at the logos of your competitors and see what they are doing. Is their logo memorable, professional in appearance and representative of the industry of which they are providing services? If so, we will mimic the feel of the logo, not copy the design. Hours play into the research process and, as you know, time is money.
Time spent so far: 1–3 hours
Then, the designer must begin brainstorming ideas. This is where sketching comes in. We take a sheet of paper and sketch dozens and sometimes hundreds of designs, combining ideas concepts. All of this is flowing directly from the mind of the designer, on the spot. This is why they don’t want you standing over their shoulder critiquing every little thing they’re jotting down. It would be extremely halting to the entire design process.
Time spent so far: 3–6 hours
The logo created must work in any size, having no tiny fine lines that will not transfer well onto certain mediums (embroidered shirts, coupons, etc.) Ideally, the logo must be able to fit on a stamp and still be recognizable, scaleable and showcasing all of its features.
Once the designer has come up with a concept that he or she likes, now comes the part of digital transference. The conceptual sketch must be digitized, so that the logo can become a vector file format, which allows for scaleability of any size, without losing resolution and/or quality. This is where a large part of the time is spent. The designer must trace over the sketched design, tweaking tiny individual anchor points, in order to come up with perfect curves, shapes and details.
Time spent so far: 6–10 hours
Finally, the digitized concept must be presented to the client, which can either be approved, rejected or approved with revisions. The chances of it being approved without revisions is 33.3%, which means that the designer will most likely have to change or redesign the entire concept.
Time spent so far: 10 hours+
Do logos get approved instantly? Rarely. So, what do you think happens next? If rejected, or approved with revisions, the designer must either start from scratch or expound upon what they have already created, which turns into more and more time tweaking the concept.
The average total time spent on a logo design is between 15 and 20 hours. The average person expects to be able to pay between $20–$50 for a logo design. This means that the absolute most compensation the designer will receive for their work is $3.33 per hour. Would you work for that rate?
Spend the time and the money and get a professionally designed logo that will help build your brand and expand your business. It is worth the investment and your company must have a professional and unique appearance that only a professional designer can offer.
Lastly, respect the designer that you hire. Just like you, they have a vision and they invest large amounts of time to help you visually represent your business in a better light. They can help turn the above logo into this…
…and make your logo more brand-able.
The post Why Logo Design Is Not Cheap appeared first on jlsCreative.
