Logo design is incredibly important for a business’ growth. It's the common thread among business owners from any scale, small to large, mom-and-pop to corporate. Every business in the world needs to become visible to attract customers. A logo design is literally the first thing they’ll see and associate with your company. A single glance can decide whether or not they take interest, make an order, visit the store, or engage with your company.
Logo services are the foundation of a brand’s identity. “Branding” stands for anything that a prospective customer associates with your company when they hear or see its name.
If you’re in the Fitness industry and you’re carrying professional Rogue weight plates and olympic equipment, they’ll associate you with high-end competitive lifting. If you’re a coffee shop and you’re using Starbucks beans openly in front of your customers, rather than artisanal and bespoke roasters like Intelligentsia or Grounds for Change, you’re not going to be associated with quality coffee.
Now consider what your company looks like on its own, apart from its surroundings. All of your customer outreach, all of your advertising, all of your word-of-mouth referrals can start and stop at a poor-looking logo. If it gives an ick, or if people are indifferent to it, you’ve failed to excite or interest them, and you lose them in the marketing process.
Conversely, if you hire a design agency or freelancer and receive a well-thought-out, high-quality logo design (with a full suite of typography, color guides, and everything else you’d need), the effort shows: you’ll stand out from your competition, and the repeat customers you gain will take pride in representing you. You’re effectively building customer recognition and loyalty at the same time!
Logos are creative marketing. They’re an intentional, constructed identity that has its root in being creative and artistic. So, naturally, the price can vary wildly.
A logo design at its lowest pricing is a gamble, and will come from three places: Beginner design software (Canva), race-to-the-bottom markets (Fiverr), or from amateur designers who lowball their prices for work. Sites like Fiverr are fast-moving and don’t take the time to learn about your business. Canva is a great tool for quick design work, but all of your logos are going to be templates, so you’re at high risk of looking exactly the same as another business that uses Canva.
Amateur designers don’t have the grit and experience to understand your business, your “visual competition”, and where you can stand out, but you may find a diamond in the rough, and get lucky with a really talented beginner. These logos can range anywhere from 0 to 500 dollars roughly.
There are medium tier ($600-1500) and higher tier ($3000 to $10,000 or greater) pricing options after this. A great rule of thumb is that the amount of money you put into your logo design is proportional to the value you’ll receive.
Of course if any business had an infinite budget we’d pay for a Nike-level brand experience. You have to balance what your budget will allow, and you will receive a person of proportional experience level. These are people who will take the time to fully understand your business and its context in the market. These are tried and tested designers who know how to distinguish you from anyone else on earth.
These tiers of pricing are where you’ll find the solution, without the gamble, to attract your ideal customers and accelerate your marketing systems.
Just do it. Three words. It’s likely that you envisioned a swoosh.
Nike is a reminder that creativity is at the root of logo design, and this work is really dependent on the talent of the person involved. Sometimes that talent is guaranteed by an agency, and sometimes it’s scouted out.
This logomark is so successful at its job that it has become the pillar every company compares itself to, and has global recognition. They took a gamble: Carolyn Davidson designed that logo for $35 while at university. She later received shares in the company for her work. The infamous client feedback to the swoosh:
“I don’t love it, but maybe it’ll grow on me.”
Their swoosh was a strong foundation, and they stayed ahead of the game by associating their brand with progressive movements, actively involving themselves in the culture that they provided shoes and clothing too. A Nike advertisement is still miles ahead of most promotional material, because of the premium they place on good design work.
The right questions, and the right answers. A good designer will have the patience to listen to your story, and be ready to translate that story into a strong visual element. They’ll also be asking you creative but important questions to drive that conversation in a constructive direction. Some of these are pragmatic:
And other questions can be abstract:
I want you to walk away with a few real, gritty facts about making this kind of push for your business. I run a design agency, and I want you as a reader and prospective client of designer work to know these facts of life that I’ve discovered:
Rumeau Design Co.
-Chris Rumeau
