I’ve had a few potential clients in the past express surprise at how much I charge for branding design – and I’m very middle of the road when it comes to cost (not to quality of course!!!)
“You want how much for a logo??? I just want a few squiggles on a page that I can whop on to my website and business cards, why on earth does it cost that much?” But branding is not just a logo, and a logo is not just a few squiggles on a page, at least one with any thought and power behind isn’t. Good design takes time and – it’s a curious phenomenon – but my time as a designer takes money (it is what makes the world go round after all – and this girl’s got to eat!)
There are cheap options out there – so if your scope as a new business doesn’t require thought through and consistent branding – and your budget is tight – then I’d send you to the Fiverrs or the logojoys or the logogenies of the world. That sounds patronising and I don’t mean it to be – there are some businesses for whom the concept of ‘brand’ isn’t important – the cafe on the corner of your road that’s been there for fifteen years, the plumber with a solid track record and a rack of regular customers, the hairdresser who does your nan’s perm and has never had to bother with advertising as she is such GOOD chat that the old dears flock from far and beyond for their Thursday wash and blowdry… You get my point. Your need and desire for proper branding is hugely dependent on your ambition for where your company will go. My suggestion is if you want it to really grow and inspire and attract you need the brand that you’re putting out there to be something special. Branding should be thought through, developed and designed in a way that fits you and your business perfectly – not jumbled together by a computer algorithm that inelegantly plops a a pair of scissors next to ‘Kimmy’s Kutz’ in an italic scrawl. I can spot cheap branding a country mile off – and that doesn’t inspire me to use the services it represents – it makes me think cheap, unprofessional and unambitious – and if I have no other knowledge or experience of the company I would quickly walk on by.
You can buy cheap logos in a few different ways through the big bad web. The cheapest are the logo generators – computer programmes that ask you a few question about colour, font and iconography and then deliver you something brilliantly generic… Then you have the bid sites – where you put a brief out and loads of designers from all corners of the world design you something and you pick and pay for your favourite… To me this stinks on so many levels. First off, is it ethical that all the other people who created designs don’t get paid in this weird hunger games stylely logo-off?… And secondly – under threat of not getting paid – how much time and effort is any designer really going to put into a design that they will probably never get paid for? What you’re left with is a selection of mediocrity. Do you really want your new baby (company) to be represented by mediocrity? Then you have fiverr or some other slightly more pricy side of cheap sites where you’re looking at anything up to £100 – £150 for a design… They’ll design you a logo sure, and they may even ask you some questions about you and your company – but it will still result in something generic, and borrowed from or reminiscent of other designs in your industry. Again – this could suit you – if so great – save some money.
Then you have the graphic designers you earn their daily crust from this lark (meeeeeeeee). They won’t just design you a logo – they’ll design you a brand – and one that will grow with you and your business. A brand is a logo, yes, but it’s also a feel, a mood, a tone of voice, a language that expresses everything about you and your company and projects it out to the universe in a kick ass consistent way. We arrive at this though loads of talk and discussion, through really getting to know you and your company and what you uniquely offer to your market. You’ll get logos and brand identifiers in multiple formats and multiple orientations for every conceivable use, you’ll get guides for consistent use of font and colour, you’ll get a brand bible that will tell you and future partners and advertisers just how you like to be represented… All that results in a consistent bespoke image and brand that tells potential clients that you’re serious and ambitious and professional. In my humble opinion (and I might be biased) that is worth you investing in my time (or any other kick ass designer out there!) A brand is worth investing in – take the budget shortcuts elsewhere and plough money into starting your business in the best possible way!
And if I haven’t convinced you – maybe Ryan Gosling will:
If you’d like to talk to me about your brand – hit the chat button squirrelled away in the bottom right corner or get in touch.
