Hire a logo designer

What do Coco Chanel and a medieval farmer have in common? A logo. Yes, a logo is what 13th-century business owners used to put on their cattle. The same way Coco Chanel used interlaced letters of her name on a perfume bottle. Farmers could differentiate their products from those of competitors by using logos. Chanel got a symbol that brought her timelessness and fame. If you’re a modern business owner, you know a logo must include all these aspects to create a legacy. This brings up huge challenges: “How can you find a logo designer that understands visual storytelling and your brand’s story and can leverage them into a longstanding legacy?” “Who is the best logo designer between two great candidates?” and more. If you struggle with such issues, this article will be your solution. Black and white cow facing right with a Chanel logo on its side against a peach gradient background. ## Why are logos so important? Michael Bierut, who designed the logo for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, said: “Logos work the same way as religious symbols. There’s nothing inherent in shapes, but it’s what these shapes represent in the minds of the people who are looking at them.” In other words, a logo isn’t just a nice picture you put on your website. It’s a powerful symbol that embodies your business and its principles. And here are the three ways a logo can enhance these principles: ### 1. Recognition Now, let’s see how it works in real life. What do you think when you hear the word Adidas? Do you think of three black stripes on white sneakers? Or imagine a celebrity athlete running in these sneakers or jumping to score a winning point? Maybe you think of a storefront with many different Adidas sneakers for sale. Whichever way it works for you, your associations with a brand are visual. When you see the three stripes, you immediately associate them with the brand and, therefore, with the visual imagery you think of when you think of the brand. Email Audience conducted research in 2019 that states an image is processed from 6 to 600 times faster than a word. Thus, processing a single image takes 13-150 milliseconds compared to 3.75-7.5 seconds per sentence. In other words, you’ll quickly recognize a brand through imagery rather than by fully reading the name. This also works for brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. ### 2. Competitiveness When a new company is created, it doesn’t mean just another business. From an entrepreneur’s point of view, it’s one more rival in the competition for people’s attention. For a consumer, however, it means one more point in the long list of options. So how can a person choose your company if there’s already plenty of such? Of course, we must think of services and value propositions, but a memorable logo is another crucial aspect. A distinct logo will make your company stand out in the market. For instance, if you choose an easily recognizable logo color and stay consistent with your image on various platforms, you can improve your brand recognition by up to 80%. ### 3. Loyalty A logo is as much about loyalty as it is about affiliating with a brand and its principles. For instance, why do some people put Apple stickers on devices of other brands? Because they want to be part of something bigger than this brand stands for. The same goes for Starbucks. When someone chooses a plastic cup with a green mermaid, they don’t just do it for the coffee inside. The same drink is sold in almost any other coffee place on that street. What people buy alongside Starbucks coffee is the image it carries. Are they a dynamic trailblazer who enjoys the good moments of life and a nice cup of coffee to accompany them? The perceived value a great logo can bring to a company is almost impossible to measure. ## How much does it cost to make a beautiful logo? You must have heard of cheap logos that brought brands worldwide fame and expensive logos that caused significant backlash. For instance, the Nike logo cost $35 and has been on the market since 1971. This simple yet elegant design has turned Nike into a genuinely iconic brand recognized worldwide. On the other hand, there are cases like British Petroleum’s rebranding. In 2000, the oil company changed its green shield logo to one resembling the sun. The new logo cost $211,000,000 and tried to suggest the company’s more eco-friendly approach. However, the public didn’t support this decision as they linked British Petroleum with oil spills. This, in turn, carries the opposite message this brand attempted to share. The question is: “What is the real price for a logo?” In reality, a professional logo designer charges way less than $211,000,000. However, there is no universal price for logo design on the market, as the range of prices varies drastically. Why? Because numerous criteria impact the price. They include the designer’s experience, skills, country of residence, and type of customer request. Considering these points, a logo design might cost from $5 to $5,000 and beyond. The same principle applies to designers who charge hourly or name the price for the whole project. For instance, a logo costs from €4.52 to €6,800 on Fiverr. At the same time, on Upwork, designers charge one hour to create a logo, which is from $5 to $150 per hour. Why such a wide range? Depending on your price, you might get just an illustration or a whole package. For €4.52, you may get 2 high-resolution logo concepts with their transparent variant. Depending on the designer, the delivery date might be in a day or a few weeks. The number of revisions is usually limited to 1. However, you can find better bargains, such as those below. However, €4,070 might get you five high-resolution concepts, a transparent logo, a stationery design, a social media kit, and a vector file. A vector file is needed when the logo size changes. Such a format allows it to be enlarged infinite times without losing the quality. Moreover, a logo designer might include your brand’s typography, strategy, icons, and patterns in their package. On the other hand, you might look for a logo designer on Upwork. Unlike Fiverr, this website’s interface doesn’t include a segment that lists what the designer offers for a particular price. All the information you can find is listed in the designer’s description box. The designers that charge more usually include a detailed scope of their services. Although, it’s still not as precise as at Fiverr. More information can be clarified in private conversations with the designer, meaning you must spend more time on that. Besides, as more details appear, the price might increase, too. In other words, hiring a logo designer is like looking for a particular needle in a pile of needles. A lot of money can get you as good a design as less money would. Or the other way around. So what should you do then? Pay a lot to try and avoid risk, or try your luck for a lower price? There’s another option for those who don’t want to play this risky game. You can choose a flat-rate service, like Awesomic. We vet designers and professionals to a high-quality standard, match them according to skill level and industry expertise, deliver updates every business day, and offer unlimited revisions. ## Am I paying this much for just a picture? Awesomic believes that a logo is more of an asset than a picture. A logo can boost your income or destroy your company’s brand. A logo designer may create a logo that you love but your customers are repulsed by. So, what should you do in this case? Of course, change the logo. If it doesn’t bring value to your company and even damages its profits, it’s not worth the risk. Chris Do, the CEO and founder of The Futur, agrees with Awesomic’s belief. In the “Money Talk” workshop, he said, “When you buy a logo design, you don’t pay for pixels. What you acquire with this picture is the value it brings.” That’s why business owners shouldn’t hire a logo designer only based on the price and style of their work. You need to be sure that this person will create a logo that will add value to your company. If saving money is your priority, opting for an unqualified logo designer might lead to spending hundreds of thousands more on future costs and customer acquisition efforts. In 2010, Gap decided to change its logo, which it had been using for over 20 years. The estimated cost of the new logo was in the range of $100,000,000. However, the new logo was used for only 6 days as it received enormous backlash in the media. The brand had no choice but to go back to its previous logo, which is used to this day. What’s the moral of this story? Value. A logo must bring positive value to your company. Therefore, the price or speed of creating a logo isn’t an exact measure of assessing its quality. The main thing is how accurately the logo reflects your brand’s concept and values. An excellent example of this is Facebook’s rebranding into Meta. As its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, suggested, this action was needed as Facebook’s identity changed. The values of a social media network changed, and, as a result, it affected its logo. As Facebook became a metaverse company that covers numerous platforms and purposes, it needed a new logo to reflect its new values. Now, its symbol lives in motion and 3D, creating a continuous loop resembling the infinity sign. This symbolizes the infinite horizons in the company’s metaverse. Facebook’s, or Meta’s, recent changes are a dramatic example of how a logo is the essence of a company’s brand. It plays a much more important role than just a picture—it represents what is included in it. Behind the eye-catching image, you’ll find a whole world of brand visual storytelling con...