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How to Get a Logo on the Cheap

Submitted by on Tuesday, 28 October 20089 Comments

A logo is one of the more important things for any small business or startup.  While for some, a logo seems like a difficult and potentially expensive task, the reality is that you can create a great logo for any budget.

A great logo is really important – it is one of the first impressions that people will have of your business and it will be on EVERYTHING that you produce – your website, storefront, business cards, marketing materials, etc.  I’ll post another article on how to create a killer logo.

Free

Caution – creating a logo for free might not be the best choice.  A logo is one of the key defining characteristics of your organization, so this is probably a good place to spend some money.  That being said, if you can’t afford a logo, here are some free options that will get you something:

LogoEase – Totally free logo designer.  They have an easy to use interface where you can choose your images/icons, colors and fonts.  Create a logo and download it.  All for free.  No catch.

LogoDesignEngine – Totally free (you don’t even have to sign up) but the interface is clunky and the images to choose from aren’t great.

Free Logo Maker – Works similar to the other guys – pick your images and your font and customize with their online tool.  You do get the logo for free, but if you want an ai file you have to pay 40 bucks.

LogoMaker – OK, this isn’t really free…. you can design your own logo using their tools – they have fonts, graphics, etc in an easy to use interface.  You can even save it and try it on the web for free.  If you like what you’ve created you can buy it for $49.

LogoYes – Works the same as the other guys – but if you want your logo it will cost you – $69.

Cheap

If you are a small business and cash strapped, the cheap category is the place for you.  There are potentially LOTS of different suppliers in this category, so please chime-in on the comments if there are any that you recommend that I may have missed.

E-lance – Elance is a great resource for small or cash-strapped businesses.  Essentially, you can post a “job” ie. “I need a logo!!” and service providers will bid on your job.  What makes e-lance great is that each provider has a profile on the site – you can see their work, how many jobs they have done and whether or not they did a good job.

GotLogos – They’ll create your logo for only $25.  This will only get you a basic gif – you have to pay extra to get larger files (300 dpi) and color variations.  But, for a basic logo it isn’t a bad starting point.

50 Dollar Logo – Like the name says, $50 for a logo 🙂  You get 6 samples/concepts and unlimited revisions and redraws (wow).  For a little extra they’ll also design your business cards and letterhead.  Overall, pretty good value.

The Logo Company – For $125 you’ll get 5 samples/concepts and they give you the file in 3 sizes plus the vector (Got Logos charges extra for this).  They do revisions on your choice of concept (they don’t say how many you get) and they offer a 100% money back guarantee!

Logo Design Pros – Packages here start at $195 and they offer a 100% money back guarantee “Get all your money-back if you do not like the logos we Logo design Prosdesign for you. No questions asked and no waiting for the refund!”  The bad news? $195 will only get you 4 samples.

Logoworks – You can get a logo on logo works for $299. They have a cool system that they use upfront to get a feel for what you are looking for in a logo (ie. colors you like/don’t like, use of animals/icons, etc).  You pay $99 to get started – if you don’t like any of the initial 10 concepts you can stop the process.  But if you do like something you can pay an extra $200 for revisions and ownership of the logo.

Logo Mojo – Also costs $295 to get started.  The advantage?  You have 4 “sr. designers” working on your logo, 20 initial concpets and unlimited revisions (wow).  Not bad for the price.

Expensive

You want expensive?  Hire a designer.  Depending on how long it takes, how many revisions you have and how good/quick the designer is, this can actually be fairly cost effective.  For example, if you find someone at $50/hour who can knock out a logo for you in 2 hours, you’ll only pay $100.  If you have a comprehensive branding strategy, lots of decision-makers and want to see everything in 5 different options it could take you weeks.

The main advantage of hiring a designer is that you have more control and can have better communication.  The online sites all have ways that they try to understand what you are looking for with various forms, color choices, questions, etc.  Being able to have a live, descriptive conversation with a human being about what you want can get you better results both on the initial design and the revisions.

Have you tried any of these services?  What did you think?  Anything else you recommend?  Share your tips and experiences in the comments.

9 Comments »

  • Online Meeting said:

    The Logo Company only employs talented logo design artists with many years of experience. Online Meeting

  • Erik Wallace said:

    I think using “good” to describe these logos is a stretch. You can create/design a “passable” logo for not much money using an online tool. However, good logos take some design skills and talent. Am I biased because I’m a designer? I most certainly am, however I’m smart enough to know that my background in web design doesn’t translate to designing logos. From the few attempts I have made, good logo design is very time consuming and challenging. The standard I hold logos to is that they should say something about your business and more importantly set you apart. Some of these web services can produce logos for a fair price, but they won’t stand out against your competitiors using clipart.

  • admin (author) said:

    Hi Erik

    Thanks for sharing your perspective. I think that you raise a good point – a logo is extremely important and to build something good takes time and effort (large companies spend millions on it). I agree that using a professional and investing time and effort will get you the best result. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.

    – Krista

  • Michael said:

    I paid 50 Dollar Logo, and actually got a few revisions from them. Then, they stopped making the requested changes and just started sending any ol’ thing they felt like. Next, they stopped answering emails. When I requested a refund per their 100% money-back guarantee, I was told it would take 21 days. A month later, in response to my email asking about the status of my refund, I was told they would get back to me. Instead, they continue to flatly ignore my emails, have never gotten back to me, and now are also blowing me off on their online chat option. I had been referred to this service by a satisfied customer, but now all I can think is SCAM! Please do not refer people to this business, which has happily taken my $50 but not been able to produce a satisfactory logo for me, and now has scammed me out of my refund.

  • admin (author) said:

    Michael

    Thanks for sharing your experience. I think that the reality is that you get what you pay for. If you are only paying $50 you probably won’t get the best customer service and most original or well thought out logo design. While there are cheap options they probably won’t get you the best results.

    Personally, I learned some basic photoshop and illustrator skills and often start with a new font and buy some graphics from sites like istock.

    One other thought – in many cases your font/text and color scheme can serve as a logo for online uses – think of google, yahoo, etc.

  • geir ellefsen said:

    Cheap logos are great for small stuff, but for a semi-serious company I wouldn’t go for the 50 bucks company.

  • mark said:

    50 Dollar logo is a SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Please don’t use it. I am waiting for a refund for over 4 months. It is a SCAM!!!!

  • Just a guy said:

    Hired 50 Dollar Logo to design a logo and a business card for me. I paid them $79 and started receiving terrible logos. I didn’t like any of them. You could tell that they were just cutting and pasting from some really bad gallery. Finally I picked a logo, even though I really didn’t care for it and they sent me the logo in several formats. All of the logos were extremely low resolution. I couldn’t use any of the formats for anything. I tried to use the logo for letterhead, faxes, emails, etc, and the quality was so poor that the logo wasn’t even readable. I had several tech support people look at it (not 50 dollar logo) and they said that the logo was too low res. I contacted 50 dollar logo and they tried to fix it, but could not. THEY SENT ME THREE EMAILS that said they will give me my money back, and they never did. Their design work is crap, they are extremely low tech and low res, and they are crooks.

  • davidbdale said:

    No offense intended, but how naive do you have to be to expect individual attention and custom revisions for $50? I don’t condone the failure to refund money under any circumstances, of course. If anybody could actually deliver quality unique logos for $50, he’d be talented enough to charge hundreds more.