Logo Road

May 12th, 2011 admin

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. For
many companies, a logo is the only identifiable mark a potential
customer may ever see, so it needs to be memorable, descriptive
and easily recognizable. 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. At $49 each, do
all of the logos look the same? Do the majority of them have
block lettering and a swoosh?

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? What a deal! Or how about Bob’s bait shop paying
$750 for a logo. There goes the budget! All companies are not
equal in size, budget and usage. All designs are not equal. Does
a swoosh take the same amount of time and effort as creating a
detailed motorcycle?

The confusion doesn’t stop there. Some logo designers charge
additional costs for extra colors, extra modifications and extra
preliminary designs. You have to get your calculator out just to
figure the final cost of your logo. Do you really know what you
are paying for?

How much is a logo design really worth? Ask Coca-Cola, Polo,
Nike, The Hard Rock Cafe, Hallmark or any other company that
relies on their logo as their number one spokesman. Not every
company is as large as these but every company should have a
logo that is easy to identify and stands for the integrity of
that business.

A logo design is more valuable to a company than a single spot
illustration. An illustration is normally used once or used for
a limited campaign, whereas a logo is used for years and is
placed on business cards, letterheads, envelopes, web sites,
vehicles, buildings and products. Do you see the difference in
value to a company? A logo has more value than just the hours
spent on creating it. It becomes the companies identity.

With that said, shouldn’t a logo be worth more than just the
time involved in creating it? 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?

My conclusion is that a logo is much more valuable to a company
than a standard illustration so the price should reflect the
added value. 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. As a designer,
you should get signed approval for each modification showing
that the client was in agreement at the time.

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. It only
takes the click of a mouse to add an extra color. In today’s
world there is very little need for color separations so there
should be no need for a designer to charge by the color.

Preliminary Designs – A few choices is good, to many choices is
overkill. A logo designer should be able to decide for you the
correct amount of preliminary designs it will require to create
your perfect logo. Be leary of eight, ten and more initial
designs. How much time could actually be spent on each design?
If you don’t like your first two or three designs you can easily
request two or three more.

If you are on a committe or a board, I assure you that you do
not want to present ten logos to ten different people. You may
never get down to a winning design.

On the other hand, if you need an additional presentation of
logos due to a complete change in direction on the companies
part, there should be an extra fee. 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. It is Pricing and Ethical
Guidelines, published by the Graphic Artists Guild. 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. Amateur
logo designers charge much less to get their feet wet, but
slowly increase their rates as they gain experience and
creativity.

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? The worst part of paying for a
cheap logo is finding out that you were not sent the correct
file formats for printing and web. 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. Vector art allows
you to reduce or enlarge a design to ANY size without losing
detail or clarity.

For home use and some print jobs you will need TIFF and BMP
files. These are pixel files and should have a DPI (dots per
inch) of at least 300 dpi. 600-1200 dpi is best for professional
printing. These type of files lose their detail when enlarged
but can be reduced.

The last file types you will need would be JPEG and GIF. These
are pixel files and are used for web design. They should be in a
RGB 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. A GIF file should be transparent if you do not
want a white box around it when displayed on your page.

Be sure and ask your logo designer about your logo colors. Ask
them for the Pantone PMS color numbers for each color. You will
need this information each time your logo is printed. This
insures that you get the exact same colors with every printer
that you use.

Will you get your files over the Internet or will you receive a
CD? Try to get a CD, it is much easier to take that to your
local printer. 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.
Since a logo is a companies identity you will need to own all
rights to get a trademark. Ask for this in writing if you have
any doubts.

Ask for the background on the logo designer you choose, you
should at the very least know their name. Do they have a degree?
How long have they designed logos? Is this their profession or a
hobby? Where is there portfolio? Can you contact their other
clients? Can you speak to them directly? With the amount of
software available today and the invention of the Internet, any
sixteen year old kid can start his own logo design company.

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. The prices and
information I have explained here only pertain to the work of
graphic designers, not advertising agencies. 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

About the Author

Curtis D. Tucker is one of the leading cartoon logo designers
online today. His company, The Curtoons Cartoon Company,
specializes in helping individuals and small businesses create
fantastic looking cartoon logos and characters. The Curtoons
cartoon portfolio contains over 200 cartoon designs and can be
seen at http://www.curtoons.com. Curtis can be reached 7 days a
week at 580.977.9947.

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