What makes a good business logo?
How do I know if the logo I had designed is good?
What are the requirements of a good basic logo design?
Where can I get a logo designed?
Should I make my own logo? Can I design it myself?
How do I know if my logo designer has experience?
What are the signs that my logo is not good or that my logo designer isn’t very experienced?
How much should I spend on a logo design?
How long should a logo design take for my designer?
Are the new AI instant logo design sites any good? Can I use an AI designed logo?
First some examples of solid, professional, clean logos:
And some examples of bad logos:
Can you see the differences?
Good logos:
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Bad logos:
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How do I know if the logo I had designed is good?
I’d suggest that the logo needs to meet your needs to be good. So what are your needs?
Graphically, it should be all of the things noted above in the bullet list.
The logo should represent your company and your brand. Does the logo have the same personality or feeling as your brand? Is your company playful? Is your company conservative? Is your company music-based? Is it fashion centered? Whatever it is, your logo should be a good representation of that.
For instance, if you’re a law firm you shouldn’t have a little character as part of your logo. If you’re a kids brand there should be an element of playfulness. Etc., etc.
The logo should feel timeless (again see the major brand logos above) which means that the design will not feel dated within a few years.
Perhaps the most critical things to watch for are good balance, clean uncluttered design and readability at any size. Less is more. Too many colors, lines, shapes, drawings, details – these are your enemies. Keep it simple and efficient!
What are the requirements of a solid basic logo design?
Again, as the box above states, a solid logo should meet ALL of these criteria:
- Highly readable at any size (sometimes your logo will be shrunk down to quite small sizes and it should still be readily legible)
- Appropriate for your company
- Professional looking
- Balanced
- Limited colors
- Not overly intricate
- Simple in many ways
- Character spacing is refined
- Easy to reproduce in black/white
- Nothing extra in the logo that is wasted or doesn’t need to be there
Where can I get a great logo designed?
There are a number of services like 99Designs.com that offer a flat price for a logo, at the time of this writing that rate was anywhere from $300-$900 based on how many revisions and designs you wanted.
Fiverr.com is a potentially very cheap place to get a logo – there are hundreds of logo designers there. But make sure that they have a seriously good logo portfolio and aren’t doing B or C grade logos. Again, measure their logo work using the “Good Logo” criteria above.
Should I make my own logo? Can I design it myself?
You should not do it yourself. There are things that you won’t see in your logo design that an experienced designer would shudder at. Simply put, don’t trust yourself, or your child, nephew, uncle, friend to create your logo unless they have a lot of experience in this area and can produce a simple clean, effective and efficient logo in the realm of what’s shown in the “good logo examples” graphic above.
How do I know if my logo designer is experienced?
They need to be able to show you a deep portfolio of at least 5 or 10 solid logos that meet all the criteria in the “Good logos” bullet list above.
They shouldn’t need you to show them this list or to have to explain why the logo they’ve created doesn’t stand up to the criteria.
The most dreadful and obvious signs that your logo designer should not be handling your logo are: too many colors or gradients used, too busy, not simple and strong, not legible or easy to read at all sizes.
What are the signs that my logo is not good or that my logo designer isn’t very experienced?
If your logo doesn’t meet all the criteria in the “Good logos” bullet list above, you probably need a new logo and designer.
Does using a pro service like 99Designs or Fiverr or Upwork guarantee that I’ll get a good logo?
No it doesn’t. There are no guarantees. You really need to understand the clean, balanced, legible look of a good logo. There are plenty of hack logo designers out there who don’t realize that their work is not very good, so it’s up to you my friend!
How much should I spend on a logo design?
A good logo design should run you several hundred dollars. As low as $200 and as high as $1500 depending on the experience of the designer. But an average price would be around $400 as of September 2022. This assume using Upwork, Fiverr or 99Designs or similar services.
A good logo design should come with the source art files that the designer used to create the logo. This is normally an Adobe Illustrator file or a PDF. Sometimes it could be an Adobe Photoshop file.
It should also come with some various size logos that you can use for your marketing purposes such as on your website or in your newsletter, or your advertising. Color and black and white versions, in a few sizes, small, medium and large. 72 or 96 DPI Web resolution and also 300 DPI print resolution.
How long should a logo design take for my designer?
A designer might need a few days to get you a first round of comps (visual ideas) to review. You talk to them about whether any are working for you, and if they need to revise or start fresh, etc.
A couple rounds of adjustment and revision might take a couple more days, and a final logo is probably ready a week from the day you started.
This entire process probably takes your designer about 20 hours.
These are rough estimates and can vary wildly based on the project and the designer and your ability to communicate to the designer what you want.
Are the new AI instant logo design sites any good? Can I use an AI designed logo?
They are not the worst, but they are not very good. They do a good job of showing you some options but they do a poor job of custom tailoring your logo to your exact company and industry.