Changes to the way people work and services that allow entrepreneurs to create and run a business have seen massive growth demand for logos, brands and corporate identity work.
One of the most common questions we get asked at the beginning of the logo design process is – how much does it cost? And the answer is always the same – it depends.
Understanding Your Requirements
Do you need a logo or a ‘corporate identity’? What’s the difference?
A logo is usually an image, though it could be a combination of words and images. Logos need to be designed to scale up and down, to appear very small and very large and may need to be adapted to appear on a light or dark background or as a single colour.
A logo is an element of your corporate identity or brand. The brand includes things like the typography or fonts that you use, your colour pallet, photographic style and tone of voice.
How much should I pay for Logo Design?
There are 3 levels of pricing for this kind of service. There are many options and there is no reason why a more expensive design is ‘better’ than a cheaper one, but to a degree, you will get what you pay for.
Always consider things like:
- How many revisions are included in the price?
- Is the design unique? Does it violate any existing copyright?
- Can it be used for commercial use? e.g. some fonts need to be purchased.
- Will you get the source files so that you can make changes?
- Do you have the files in a way that allows the logo to scale?
- Does your designer understand local customs and conventions where you do business?
Logo Design on a Budget
Maybe you know what you want and you just need to format your design in a way that you can use it on your website or business cards. There are several online services that use templates and ‘clip-art’ to create logos. These range in price from ‘free’ to $50 or $100.
The downside of these cheap services is that you may end up with a logo that looks like someone else’s. Making changes, even small ones might not be possible and you may need a designer to tweak the logo you download.
A variation of these services uses crowd-sourcing or design competitions. These can cost from $250 to $500. The results depend on how good your brief is.
Logo Design to Stand out from the Crowd
If you are looking for a customised, unique logo that truly represents your business, then you can engage a professional designer. The Gig economy gives you access to designers on platforms like Fiverr and Bark where you can find a wide range of prices and experience.
‘Offshore’ designers have lower living costs, and therefore can charge lower rates, however they may require more management and a clearer brief in order to get the best results. Costs are from $100 to $250.
Freelancers and more experienced local designers can bring their knowledge to the project and help to generate ideas and avoid things that might become problems later. Coming up with different options is more time consuming than tidying up an existing idea.
A junior freelancer or designer will charge between $250 and $750. A senior freelancer or designer will change from $1000 to $5000. A small design or branding agency will charge from $5000 to $30000.
High End, Enterprise Branding
At an enterprise level, branding becomes more complicated. Trademarks and legals come into play. Brand strategy involves understanding different customers and perhaps even brand hierarchies and sub-brands. At this level , the price tag for a branding exercise can be from $50,000 to $1 Million and up…
