A business is almost always a labor of love for its owner and founded on a strong belief in its product or service. But how do you get people to know you’re out there, why you’re better than your competitors, and to remember you? First, you need a name and a visual to represent your business—you need a brand identity, including a logo.
While everyone agrees branding and logos are necessary, there is less agreement on their value. With limited budgets, spending on branding tends to be reduced. But since companies still need logos, they’ll often use online services that advertise logos at a really low price, such as 99Designs and Fiverr. As a professional designer, I’m not a big fan of these services, but not for the reason you may think. Sure, they compete with our agency in some respects, but what truly concerns me is that people end up with something that doesn’t accomplish their goals. To explain, I’ll take you through the following:
- What logos and branding do
- What you’re getting for that cheap price through online logo providers
- Why it’s worth investing in your business’ brand and how that correlates with success
The True Purpose of Logos and Brand Identities
A logo should quickly visualize what a company does and instill the appropriate feelings in those who view it. A logo should stand out from competitors in the industry, be simple, memorable, and work in all situations where it will be used, whether print, digital, large, small, embroidered, etc. It is the first thing customers see and the primary thing they remember since it’s often repeated throughout their experience with a company.
A brand identity is the whole of your company’s ethos, translated through color, typography, pattern, photography styles, illustration, writing, tone of voice and beyond. The logo is like the tip of the iceberg; it’s the first thing they see, but the bulk of their interactions with your business occur on a personal level or on your website, app, packaging, printed materials, etc. That’s where your brand lives. A strong, cohesive brand will elevate your customer’s perceptions of your company, make you easier to remember and stay top of mind, and help you forge a genuine connection with your audience.
For our purposes, I’m going to focus most on logos going forward. However, the bulk of interactions with your company take place outside of the logo, so your overall brand is crucial!
Why does this matter? Focusing on design correlates with business growth. A study by the Design Management Institute found companies focused on design outperformed other companies on the S&P 500 by over 200% three years in a row.1 The UK Design Council found that rapidly growing companies were more than six times as likely to prioritize design than static companies. They also found companies that prioritized design averaged a 225% return on their investment.2
Naturally, this begs the question—if we know it’s a good idea to invest in these areas, why don’t we always do it? The answer is complicated, but likely boils down to some mixture of these three reasons:
- Small budgets force difficult decisions.
- Design also has many intangible benefits, which are easier to ignore or discount in their importance.
- Effectively tracking quantifiable metrics around design are hard to implement and maintain.
In short, when push comes to shove, design budgets are reduced in lieu of clearer revenue generators. But they shouldn’t be.
Cheap Logo Design Services: A Hollow Promise
This brings us to cheaper options. Low-priced designers on online logo providers paint a rosy picture of what you’ll get regarding logo design—a good-looking logo at a cheap price. Note: not everyone charges $5. There are “Pro Services” that feature quality, original work, though the price is more on par with working with an agency. What we’re concerned with is people charging cheap prices like $5-100. You may have noticed I’ve used the word “cheap” several times instead of “affordable.” That’s because what you’ll usually get fits these definitions:
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“inexpensive because of inferior quality,”
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“of little worth because achieved in a discreditable way requiring little effort.”
- Logos appear to be commonly appropriated or repurposed from other sources. Designers need to make a living doing our thing, and logos take time to design. So, if someone is charging very little, they need to “produce” many logos very quickly. Instead of creating a new logo, they’ll often hunt online for ones they can copy, minimally tweak, or find existing stock or free art to repurpose. The result is your logo is not original or unique. Best case, you look generic and don’t stand out from your competitors. Worst case, you could get hit with a lawsuit if the owner of an appropriated logo finds out.
Again, to be clear, there are legitimate designers that use these logo websites. However, I’ve observed this issue multiple times with design work in this price range. Others have reached the same conclusion. - They’re poor quality. Great logos are crafted with heavy attention to detail. Since people charging so little have no time, you often end up with something sloppy and poorly done. Is that what you want people’s first impression of your company to be?
- They seldom truly represent your company. When Voom Creative designs a logo (and, by extension, a brand), we do a lot of research. We dig into your company, values, goals for the future, what sets you apart from your competition, and then look closely at that competition and the industry landscape. We take all this information into account so we can properly distill that into a visual system.
When you pay just a few dollars on logo sites, they’ll read the basic info sent over. Anything more than that takes too long. It will miss all the nuance of what your company stands for.
I once worked with a client in the clothing industry. They had a logo designed on one of the popular logo websites for $20. I saw why right after looking at it. Whoever “made” it took parts of the J.Crew and Armani logos and combined them, right down to the typeface for the company name. That appropriation made it appear professional, but the feel was completely wrong. The logo made them look like a luxury clothing brand when they produced accessible clothing with a modern flair for gender-fluid individuals. Potential customers would see the logo and likely price themselves out before they even saw their merchandise, costing them customers precisely when they needed them most.
So, why not just start with a cheap logo and then change it once you have more money? Here a few reasons why this is problematic:
- It’s always more expensive to change a logo later on in the life of a company. At that point, you likely have your logo on many things: your business cards, letterhead, apparel, signage, packaging, and more. Now all of that needs to change, and that costs way more money down the road.
- You’re throwing away any brand equity you once had and starting over. A logo starts as a sort of vessel imbued with meaning over time by your customers. It builds up strength with time and recognition, contributing to a lot of what’s known as brand equity. That’s lost without a lot of consumer education on the switch.
- Starting a business is always a challenge, and there are no guarantees of success. Why not give yourself the best chance of thriving from the start?
Call the Professionals: Invest in Yourself
As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Making an effective logo requires research into your company, industry, competitors, followed by ideation, sketching, creating digital concepts, refining them, and editing based on client feedback. From experience, we know what it takes to produce something unique, original and that achieves your goals effectively. And if it isn’t effective, what’s the point of having it in the first place?
The reality is that paying a professional to design your logo and brand identity isn’t a cost: it’s an investment in yourself and your business. And as I’ve noted, it correlates with success and growth. If you devote the resources for it, investing in design builds a strong foundation on which to build your business. You believe in your business, and it deserves a logo and brand that make it shine.
And before you assume you can’t afford it, talk to a design firm or agency and learn more about the process, costs, and benefits. There are plenty of ways to work with various budgets, such as adjusting process variables (timeline, number of concepts, rounds of edits, etc.), trading services, or even paying with equity in your business. In any event, your business is worth having the conversation; Voom Creative is always available!
- 2015 DMI Value of Design https://www.dmi.org/page/2015DVIandOTW
- The Value of Design Factfinder https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/resources/report/factfinder-value-design