WHY QUALITY BRAND & LOGO DESIGN IS WORTH THE INVESTMENT.

If you had to guess, what would you imagine a good logo costs? $200? Maybe $500? Your coffee budget for the year? Do “The Price is Right” rules apply here?

When your business is starting out, even a couple hundred dollars feels like a huge chunk of dough. You’re counting each penny. Logos and visual branding vary in price widely, depending on what you’re getting and who you’re hiring, and it's likely you haven’t worked with a graphic artist before. So you find a nice designer-lady, ask her for a quote, get that project proposal back and…

I know, right? Hiring a professional starts around $1,000 and can go up to $50,000 and beyond. If you’re a small business just starting out, I would recommend you budget for at least $1,500-$5,000 toward your brand investment– and that’s before hiring a copywriter or web developer. So what makes logo design so freakin' expensive?

She’s small but mighty.

Let’s assume you’re new to the world of brand design. When you think of a logo, you probably think of a cute little picture that you need to have for your business cards and social media. Why would you need to pay so much for a bit of clip-art? At this point, the return on investment is the forest you can’t see for the trees.

Let me tell ya, your logo does a lot more lifting than you’d think. This custom mark is the centerpiece of your brand, and your brand dictates the way the outside world feels when they interact with your organization. Your brand is what communicates the personality of your business to your audience, your colleagues, and your employees. Your brand defines how people visually and emotionally associate with your business. That cute little mark? She has a really big job to do. She’s the gift that keeps on giving. It’s time to start looking at your brand strategy as an investment in your business rather than an item you pull off the shelf and put into your shopping cart.

Here’s the TLDR on what a solid, quality brand can do for your business:

Better communicate your vision and values
Exude your true personality
Connect meaningfully to your target audience and clients
Create memorability through consistency
Instill trust and promote loyalty
Carve a niche in your industry
Prove the value of your services
Put your competition on the ropes
And so much more

Creating a quality, authentic brand takes a lot of wooing.

“It costs what? For THAT? That’s just the business name written out in a fancy-pants font! How long could that possibly take?” Surprise! A lot of heart and soul went into making that seemingly simple logo.

In order for your logo to truly reflect your business, we need to get more acquainted with your organization and its ethos. We'll spend the first 2-4 weeks on a discovery process. Consider this the first date between me and your business. You’ll fill out a personalized questionnaire, we’ll spend some time thinking about your “why,” and analyzing your competitors. From there, we’ll develop a strategy and mood board that will act as the compass for the duration of the project. During this stage, we’ll learn about your business, customers, goals, and aesthetics. Having this guidepost will give us a place to reference as we begin to translate your brand personality into a visual identity.

From here many hours will be spent contemplating, meditating, drinking coffee, sketching, thinking again, drinking more coffee, illustrating, and digitizing the first round of logo designs. Even the creation of a simple wordmark includes searching for and purchasing fonts, manipulating the type, and perhaps drawing additional iconography. All this work +revisions will lead us to a custom piece of art that truly embodies your business and that will foster an authentic connection between your organization and your target audience.

Your logo isn’t a lone wolf.

So let’s say you have this little beauty finished and ready to slap on all your social media. Wait...what colors should she be? Should I pair her with Helvetica or Comic Sans?! Crud, she doesn’t fit nicely into that tiny little circle on Instagram!

When you’re starting a business you know that you need a logo, but you may not have considered how that mark is going to play in the sandbox with the rest of your brand. Your investment in your visual identity is more than just a logo design. A well-developed brand toolkit includes many different graphics. These days most brands make use of one or two alternate logos, font selections, color palette, patterns, and icons. These elements need to be applied across a wide range of materials such as business cards, hangtags, t-shirts, packaging, signage, websites, interior decor, social media, email templates…you get the idea.

Before you get overwhelmed, remember that your business doesn’t need every possible design element from day one. This is an investment, which means it’s okay to start small and let your brand grow at its natural pace. By hiring a professional designer, you’re setting yourself up with a good foundation and a great relationship; someone who is just as devoted to the cultivation of your brand as you are.

Access to expertise.

Never underestimate the breadth of experience that a professional designer brings to the table. This person has spent years cultivating an understanding of design theory and practice. They have a deep knowledge of semiotics, popular culture trends, color theory, aesthetics, and visual history. A great designer has an awareness of the existing catalog of logos, both historical and current. They know how to translate words and feelings into a visual language, and they do this all in close collaboration with you, the client.

When you hire a professional, you get more than a Dropbox folder of PDFs and PNGs. You’re acquiring a teammate that speaks the language of visual interpretation and can help guide you in all things design and production. Going through a bout of business-owner decision fatigue and can’t figure out what color your swag should be? Good news! Color is our love language. We have all the design know-how you need right up in this noggin, so you can go about worrying about other business-y type things and leave the visual decision-making to us.

When a logo costs less than a latte.

"The collaborative nature of a client-designer relationship sees many successful projects turn into long-term professional connections — even friendships. It’s a procedure built upon a foundation of meaningful communication, in which a designer is likely to care about your enterprise as much as you.”
Geoffrey Bunting, Fiverr: it’s bad, guys — it’s bad

There are many services out there that promise to give you a quality logo on the cheap. These sites will have you shaking your fist at me and crying “Nice try, Becky! I can get a logo for $5 over at ScummyLogos.com!" While these discount prices can be alluring, they will end up costing your business more in the long run. Here are some of the downfalls of working with a quick-and-dirty or crowdsourced logo service:

Your designer is most likely inexperienced and focused on a fast turnaround. The process here is transactional and automated, which is in direct opposition to the intimate and involved process of creating quality design work. These freelancers are working for very little money and rewarded for a cheap and quick final product.
There is zero strategy behind these designs. Remember what I said earlier about that generic little piece of clipart? That’s what you can expect here. While these services can churn out decent-looking designs on occasion, the design process will not include a deep-dive into your organization’s brand personality or audience needs.
You only get a logo. See above for “This is great! What do I do now?” A logo in a vacuum leaves you with all the guesswork when it comes to applying that mark across your materials and collateral.
These services have been known for directly ripping off the artwork of other, professional design studios. Now not only have you been scammed into believing you have an original logo, but you’re also risking legal trouble when using someone else’s (potentially trademarked) logo.
Many of these services are unethical. Google it.
You won’t have access to a design bestie who’s well-versed in all things branding. The relationship between designer and client is built on good communication. A great designer will be invested in you, your business, and your dreams. We want to know what makes you get up every day and take on the challenge of entrepreneurship, and we want to walk beside you as you take every step toward success.

Like anything else in life, you get what you pay for. The thing about professionalism? Professionals need to make a decent wage to live on. When you’re working with someone who’s being underpaid, they are less likely to take your requests seriously. They have to take on more jobs to make a living…and this all but guarantees they aren’t spending much time on your business.

A great logo is worth ALL of the lattes and then some.

Hey listen, I know how tight things can be when you’re just starting out. I’m a business owner too. Sometimes you just need a quick and dirty design to get things rolling, and that’s alright! If that’s the case, you might want to use a cheaper logo with the intent of upgrading when you have the means to do so. Just understand that if you're spending the few dollars you have on a sub-par design, you may find yourself stuck with a logo that isn’t going to work for your brand in the long run.

Remember, your logo is a custom piece of art created specifically for your business that will be used in perpetuity. It will be transferred many times over across all of your collateral and digital touchpoints. Consider the amount of visibility this little lady gets, and how much heavy lifting she's doing for your company. A great logo can stand the test of time. Treat her right, and she can help keep your business bountiful for a decade or more. This upfront, long-term investment feels much more comfortable when you consider how much use you’ll get out of the final product.

When you’re truly and whole-heartedly committed to your business, you understand the need to showcase to your investors and audience that your product or service is worth their money. A good logo should be worth yours.

Excuse me, your logo has something in its teeth.