Why logo design actually cost money

Often callers inquire about new company logo design. Unfortunately the quote they are given frequently appear to be way outside their budgets. We wondered why. Our prices are quite reasonable compared to the effort it takes to design a logo. Well, there seems to be a recent influx of cheap logo design in the market, and there are clients who expect to pay next to nothing for their logo. So why shouldn’t a logo design cost $5? Or even $100? What’s wrong with that? It seems, there’s a disconnect between what designers know and what clients think they know when it comes to the reality of professional logo design. That contributes to the question, “Why is logo design not cheap?”. In this article, we will discuss the reasons why.

The reason so much time goes into logo design is because designers have to do things like meet with the client, create a design brief, create a proposal, research about the company, its competition, prospective customers, brainstorm, generate ideas, seek inspiration, sketch, do roughs, create the actual logo ideas, apply principles of aesthetics learnt at the college, choose a suitable typeface and colour palette, refine them, show them to the client, get feedback, go back and do revisions, finalise the logo design, prepare the digital distribution files etc. No matter how passionate designers are about their work, at the end of the day, it’s still a lot of work.

Most logo designers committed four years of their lives to learn the trade. When a designer is done with school, they enter the job market with a $40,000 student loan which they have to pay back within his service life somehow. In most professions, earning a degree entitles a professional to higher earnings. The up to date knowledge and skills as a college graduate adds value and worth to work. Graphics logo designers are not different.

Designers have to keep themselves up to date with the current technology and software. Unfortunately, those don’t come cheap. Business owners must pass these types of expense on to client in every business. If designers charge their client less than what it takes for them to stay afloat financially, they’d go out of business. One of the reasons why a logo design is not cheap is because the software requires to make them is not cheap. Design software is usually around $2,500, and upgrades are about $500 annually. If the project needs any specialised font, add the licencing fees associated with it as well. Fortunately, the more business owners hire professional designers, the more of these overhead costs can be spread out among the clients which contributes to reduced prices.

The longer you engage yourself in doing something, the more of an expert you become. Experience adds value to services we provide. Experience matters and any designer with several years of experience deserves compensation for it. Would you hire an employee who has no experience in a critical position like public relations just because his or her salary expectation is low?

Designers often hear this sentence from their clients – “My 5 year old son can do that!” Seriously? May be you’d like it as a cute design but it would be as random as winning a jackpot. It won’t have any lasting power that strengthen your brand. Those cheap “designers” you see on Kijiji probably just design something off the top of their head without knowing anything about your business, your target group, or your competition. Or they might steal a logo from the net that’s already out there, and you’ll be liable for copyright infringement. Or they could just use some cheap clip art, which might look alright in business cards but not scale-able enough to be used in a large banner as your business grow in the future.

A typical single logo design takes anywhere from 5-10 hours. This is one of the reasons why a good logo cannot possibly cost less than $200 dollars. Just ask yourself, how you’d feel if someone offered you $30 for 10 hours of hard work with all of your college degree, experience, skills and expensive software you had to buy? Provided the minimum wage is $14, If someone is selling you a logo for $30, how much time do you think they spent on it? So, if you’re getting a logo for less than $300, your designer is probably skimping on the due process of creating a standard logo.

A good first impression is important in the business world. Why risk having someone take one look at your logo and cringe? Don’t let your business identity be one of the those cringe-worthy logos out there in the market! If you take pride in your business and are willing to make that initial investment, It is guaranteed that your business will be a success. It’s still possible to have an amazing logo and a horrible product or service that nobody wants. But at least you can eliminate one cause for that.

You can’t have a business card, company website or the brand color without first having a logo. The logo is the foundation of everything else your company does visually. It is the cornerstone of your branding and identity. You really can’t do anything without registering a well defined logo first. You must prepare a cohesive branding strategy before you start your business venture and logo often becomes the center piece of that plan. Every single successful business out there like McDonald’s, Apple, Samsung uses effective branding to their advantage. Widespread familiarity of their logos and their brand colors is one of those advantages.

Don’t settle for a cheap logo now, and plan to buy a better logo a few years down the line if business becomes successful. That’s a suicidal idea, because what an entrepreneur actually tries to build as a new business, is the brand. If you change your logo every few years, then you completely defy the purpose of building a strong brand. Everything that people began to identify with your business via logo will be lost and you’ll essentially return to square one and start over. Besides, what if your tacky cheap logo prevents your company from even taking off in the first place? Re-branding has a huge risk associated with it. It might fail miserably like how Gap tried to change their logo few years back. There’s no alternative for just doing it right the first time. In the end you’ll not only save money, time and stress, but also retain the brand loyalty of your clients.

To design a good logo, designer need to know everything about your business and your prospective client demographics, plus your mission, vision and values for the company, where you see yourself in 5 years, etc. That takes time, commitment, energy, and effort. So it’s not just a logo design or just delivering a commodity. It’s an ongoing relationship that grows as your company grows.

After considering all of the points above, do you think logo design should be cheap? Why is it so hard for the business owners to recognize the value of a good design which also part of their business value?