Logos are funny things. Every company offering a service or a product, from window cleaner to a massive, multi-national, has a logo or some form of marque or logotype to represent them and what they do. A logo on an advert, on the side of a piece of packaging or the side of a van stands for what the individual or company does and the values it represents 24 hours a day, whether parked outside someone’s house (in the scenario of a plumber or electrician on call) or sitting on someone’s bathroom shelf. So, we agree that they are important part of having and running a business ? And yet, people’s willingness to invest in creating a good logo or identity to represent their fantastic service or product ranges from £0 to tens – hundreds of thousands of pounds!

Of course, there are budget restrictions and there are companies that will produce unlimited revisions and concepts for tiny fees, in the hope that this option will attract more work/turnover. But surely, the time and effort in producing these ‘multi’ concepts must surely eat up any profit that the ‘design’ company makes and no doubt the quality of the first concepts must wane after several stages of tweaking and ‘can we just…’ requests from a badly-handled client?

Good designers’ prices will always be higher than ‘logo factories’ or clip-art-based designers who just create something with a swoosh or a trendy, internet ‘glossy’ button look. Good logo designers will listen and question the client to make sure they understand the in’s and out’s of what the identity needs to represent, BEFORE quoting and definitely before putting pen to paper or mouse to mat. (The times I get asked the ‘how much for a logo’-question! Every logo project is different and so every fee is different. I don’t agree with fixed rates as sometimes a logo may be simpler and thus warrant a lower fee… and you wouldn’t want to pay more than you need to would you?!)

If the service you provide offers great quality benefits to the end user, having invested in the staffing, tools, transport, premises, office equipment, printing, time and effort, surely design should be regarded as equally valuable part of your company?

If budgets are tight, then talk to your designer about possibly spreading the payments over weeks or months.

Apart from working with talented design graduates, you really do get what you pay for with logo design and a good portfolio of proven logo design work is critical when Googling for possible companies to work with.

So, when you next need a new logo or perhaps a change of direction or tidy up of your current logo, don’t shop by price alone. Let the portfolio and character of the designer play more of a part in your decision before clicking away.

Always interested in hearing what other designers or visitors to my site think, so do let me know.