The cost of a great logo design isn’t cheap. Well, it shouldn’t be anyway.
If you pay less than £1000 for someone to design your logo then you have to consider or explore the possibility
that they may not be as good as you’ve been led to believe.
Can your designer prove they can deliver? Do they have great customer reviews and an awesome portoflio? How much time are you having to spend with them and how long are they keeping you waiting for the finished design?
Can you or your business really afford that time?
Why is your chosen logo designer charging so little? Or, do you
still believe anything above £10 and below £1000 is still expensive for a logo designer?
There is no reason at all, if you are serious about your product or business to think or even expect to pay £10 for a logo;
or less than £2500 (the price of a small second hand car perhaps) for a brand identity for your business.
Let me just mention, before I continue, there is a difference between a logo design and a full brand
identity or even a branding experience. To create a real and defined brand is the starting point for all your future marketing touchpoints and communications.
Getting your brand image right with a clear vision from the beginning will allow you to kickstart your business and excel growth in the future. If you’d like to know more about branding then please read our
branding article or if you're considering a company rebrand, our rebranding article.
I’m glad I cleared that up. I’ll continue :)
Well, I have some harsh news for you. If you pay less than £1000 for a logo design then you probably won't receive a great result.
“Why not?” I hear you ask. Well, the business owner and branding expert in me would say, “because £1000 would not
allow enough time to research, explore, sketch, conceptualise, develop, fine-tune and present to you that killer knockout logo design solution.”
The designer in me would say, “the end result will, most likely, be a bad design. A bad design would suggest to your
audience that you don’t value the image of your business. Therefore, why would a customer see value in your service or product.”
The more you pay for something, generally speaking, the more successful it will be. This is not always true, granted. However…
A higher investment for your logo designs equals more time to analyse, research, strategise and develop a solution that is right and works
first time. Experience also plays a big part, knowing what does or doesn’t, has or hasn’t, worked in the past
goes a long way to achieving a successful logo design. But, with experience, comes a price.
It takes years of experience to be able to achieve the right logo and brand for a company first time.
A logo that is well balanced, memorable and unique. It is these things that make a logo truly great
and to do this requires time. Time equals cost and if you’re serious about your business image then allow your
designer more time to do a great job.
If you choose not to invest that little bit more for a graphic designer or agency with proven experience, you will
find yourself too involved in the logo design process, impacting upon your own valuable time when ultimately
your time is best served running your business.
Start your logo design project
Surely time spent focused on your day to day business is far more important?
If you do find yourself too involved with the logo design process, what usually happens and this is experience
talking, is that you will impart your thoughts and ideas, dictating to your logo designer what your business
logo should look like.
You’ll forget the reason why you contracted the logo designer in the first place, because
he or she who may have limited experience, will not know how to challenge you or offer alternative opinions and views.
Please don’t misunderstand my point here, you may be right or wrong with your ideas, the point is though that
the designer should challenge your thoughts, for it is the target audience who ultimately matter when it comes
to your logo or brand.
If your feedback is based on personal preference rather than what is right for your target
audience, then you’ll be heading completely down the wrong road.
It is exactly this approach that separates inexperienced logo designers from the experienced, those who charge that bit more for their skills.
A great logo or brand designer will listen to your brief and expectations and ask you the right questions
to understand your business, audience and vision.
You’re our customer and we want you to be happy, but ultimately,
we are the experts and your target audience is what’s going to earn you revenue and grow your business.
Us logo designers may choose to ignore your ideas, all for the greater good of producing a successful logo design, but
remain focussed on the business, it’s vision and the target audience. Or, we may agree with your ideas through collaboration,
either way, trust the designer or agency you commission to make your business look great.
Less than £1000 for a logo design, are you sure?
Please allow me to recap.
A logo designer who charges a price of £1000 or less for a logo design will more than likely do as you suggest
and churn out something which meets your expectations, yes, but at what cost? Your time most likely, lack of
future flexibility perhaps and certainly a solution that isn’t worthy of your business or audience.
Can that designer get to an end solution, and the right solution as quickly as an experienced and proven graphic designer or design
agency can?
Let me paint a picture for you.
You have a vision for a new dream home. You instruct an architect to design that home for you because that
architect has proven experience and a portfolio that you were drawn to in the first place prior to commissioning.
You’re investing a lot of money, let’s be honest, a home is not cheap. You brief your architect but you don’t
tell the architect what to do or how to do his/her job during the process, do you?
Yes, you may have some back-and-forth exchanges here and there and share some ideas, but the likelihood is
that the architect took your brief and turned it upside down and into a design that you quite frankly couldn’t
have imagined yourself.
The architect would have considered many things from light, access, materials, shape and form as well as
budget to give you an amazing finished design.
You didn’t have to spend hours and days sitting with that
architect telling them what to do. You trusted them and allowed them to get on with their job, their profession,
and what happened? Your amazing dream home was realised.
Good analogy hey?!
There is little difference between a house design and a logo design.
In relation to your business a logo design should be a significant investment and an investment that you commision an expert graphic designer or design
agency to produce because it’s your dream logo.
A logo that should stand the test of time, be functional and
most importantly, give the right impression about you and your business.
A logo design for the future
The finished logo design should be future proof, easily transferable to whichever touchpoints it appears upon:
website, clothing, printed materials, advertising and social media are some touchpoint examples. Effectively,
touchpoints are where your logo meets the eyes of your customers.
For this reason, what you should pay for your logo shouldn’t be based upon an initial value or price, but more
about how you value your time within your business.
How much time have you NOT spent with that designer to get
the result, the perfect logo, that will ultimately allow your business to generate revenue.
Think about it for a moment. Without a great logo or brand, you don’t have a business and so please ask yourself,
how much is a logo worth to your business?
Anyway…
Aside from the above which is all very important, if a logo design is priced at £1000 or less then it is more than
likely NOT going to be unique. It probably consists of stock library graphics that anybody can purchase for £20
and the typography will more than likely be substandard.
Now, typography is a whole new topic area which I don’t want to get into now, but let me show you the importance of carefully designed typography in logo design.
Read more about the importance of typography in logo design
So how much should a logo design really cost?
By now you’re probably getting a little frustrated because I still haven’t told you how much a great logo design
should cost you! I’m sorry about that but it really isn’t that straightforward.
There are no hard and fast rules with the pricing of a logo design. What I can tell you though are your options,
the types of people who will design your logo and how much they’re likely to charge:
Your friend’s or their children
Free-£20
You have a friend, who knows a friend whose child uses photoshop at school. They can design your logo and it’ll
cost you £20 or some school vouchers. Maybe it’ll be free. Seriously, is this what you want for you business?
Untrained and self taught doodler
£20-£150
You have an employee, or your partner dabbles in a bit of photoshop, illustrator or dare I say it, Corel Draw.
Sure, they can design you something but you’ll more than likely need a professional to turn it into a usable
and credible logo mark. Maybe 1 days salary if they’re an employee or a dinner date if they’re your partner!
University intern or graduate designer
£150-£300
You entertain the idea of using a Student or graduate. Great, at least you’re thinking of utilising fresh talent
and no doubt they’ll explore many designs whilst learning their trade and boosting their unproven portfolio.
Freelance Designer
£300-£800
You explore the local Freelance designer Facebook page within your area. Searching for someone who wants to
(maybe reluctantly due to low budget) do your project and who has what seems a good amount of experience and
visually stunning portfolio. A portfolio that you like the look of but have no idea why!
Expert Freelance designer with proven success
£800+
There are great freelance designers out there that have proven track records. They have simply chosen to go
down the freelance path rather than start their own agency. They’re successful and charge £800+ for a logo
design and possibly even £1500+ for a brand identity.
So, why would you not want to consider a freelance designer with proven success? Well, do they have the
capacity to do a great job? Do they have a team around them to bounce ideas off? Do they have insurance or
secure backup to mitigate against the risk of things going wrong? Do they have legitimate software, libraries
and assets.
I’m not saying that they don’t, but these things cost money and some choose to ignore playing by the rules.
So who’s the alternative and why?
A branding and web agency like us, 5and3
who charge £1000+ for a bespoke, cross-media logo design.
Let me tell you why. We place our logo design prices in the region of £1000-£2400. This is because
no project is the same and some are more complicated than others, importantly though, we want to do the best work possible
and to give you a logo design that you're proud of first time.
Start your logo or branding project today
This said, all our logo design projects follow the same processes:
Our logo design process
Understanding
A client brief and full understanding of the business and brand is first and foremost.
Research
Customer and competitor research is carried out.
Sketching
Ideas and initial sketches are drawn, focusing upon iconography (icon mark) and/or typography (fonts)
Concept design
Initial sketches are then taken onto the computer and conceptualised in Adobe illustrator.
Typography and font choices, formats and colour palettes are determined.
Concept submission
Team chosen concepts are then submitted to the client.
Client iterations
The client has their opportunity to choose a concept and to make comments and suggestions. We may or may not
agree with the feedback.
Design development
Design team make changes based on their own designs and/or client feedback. Sometimes following submission of
a concept our designers have additional ideas and will work these up.
Development submission
The developed design(s) are submitted for client approval.
Further client iterations
There maybe some final tweaks based on target audience, client or designer feedback.
Final design deliverables
The final design is realised and approved by you and our creative team.
Organise and create logo assets
Various versions and formats of your logo for use in many online and offline applications will be created
and supplied. You’ll receive both vector and pixel based file formats such as .eps .psd .Jpg and even .svg
for use on websites.
Copyright
Upon receipt of final payment, copyright of chosen and supplied logo assets are transferred to the client.
Logo Guidelines
Logo guidelines maybe be included within the initial investment, however, they are not always. Usually, companies who
invest in a full brand identity will have what are called, ‘brand identity guidelines’ produced. Find out
more about branding and identity guidelines here.
So, there you have it. A few options for commissioning someone to design your logo, the face of your company,
that will help take your business into the future.
£1000 for a professional logo design is too much
Let me guess, you’re still not convinced why you have to pay over £1000 for a professional logo design?
Perhaps I can help sway your decision. Let me explain why the best logo designs aren’t cheap.
Start your logo or branding project today