New Business Logo Design

I know there are tons of various business logo design web sites out there that for a fee will get some designs for review and ultimately purchase rights for using the design in a business. Some run in bounty/contest mode- competing designers going after the work, others are set up with a structured fee basis where they ask for a set price and will provide a round of design samples and maybe a few changes or revisions.

Anyone work with a particular site that they found reputable and had good results with (I know a bit of the success rate is the fee you are willing to pay and the number of designers that take some time to submit "quality" work.) Any that failed and cost someone some money for little to show for the effort that should be avoided. (Maybe discuss off list if you do not want to reveal the failure publicly.)

This reminds me of the birth of the Angry Whelk.

google image search?

I used http://logotournament.com/ many years ago. I got great designs and really had a couple real good ones that were hard to choose from. Know that the more up front information you give and feedback on every example will help other see your vision. The more time you put into it in feedback, the more and higher quality designs you get.

You can see on their site other tournaments, submissions, feedback etc so you can see how it works. There are a ton of these sites now and I don't know which is the best. At the time the one I went to seemed to be the best. The minimum was $275 and I think I offered $350? The more you pay the more people will want to spend time.

Kicker is you pay up front so if you don't do your due diligence you may pay for crap. So it is in your best interest to give feedback timely and as much as you can muster. At the end of the design time you get a layered vector file so you can manipulate it if you want.

OR play with a free trial of Adobe Illustrator and make one yourself. It's easier than you'd think.

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Originally Posted by AustinFromSA

OR play with a free trial of Adobe Illustrator and make one yourself. It's easier than you'd think.

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It is easy if you have the right artistic ability or just want something cookie cutter looking of some squiggly curve and block text, but you will not pick up the layering, shading and gradients that will reproduce and print easily on your first try at Illustrator. Clipart search sticking it in a box and putting some text with a name in a fancy font maybe.

Systemoverblow- I have come a cross some sites that require 1/2 or a good deposit, so they know you are serious, but only a few that offer "contest" type bidding that require 100% up front. Will check it out.

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Originally Posted by AustinFromSA

OR play with a free trial of Adobe Illustrator and make one yourself. It's easier than you'd think.

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I know Illustrator. I am an "artist" for a living and I couldn't have come up with the 2 designs I had to finally choose from. Just because you can technically do something doesn't mean you have the creative to make something great.

^^ This (was supposed to land beneath RShea's last post). Logos, webdesign, photo editing, etc has always amazed me. Not because it is technically difficult to do, but because of the creativity that it takes which I do not posess. I can look at a page/logo/etc and tell if it looks good/bad/whatever. But put a blank sheet of paper in front of me and ask me to mock up a logo, web page, etc and I'll just crumple up the paper and throw it in the garbage. The way I've always (tried) to explain it to people is that my brain works logically, but not creatively.

Sorry, OP. No suggestions.

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Originally Posted by jfost

google image search?

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Yea that would work - if you know what you want, have the time to go look at the thousands that it will return and that whatever catches your fancy is not copyrighted or protected. Legal issues Google does not have to worry about because they are just taking you to some web site. Could end up a legal nightmare and cost a small fortune if it was not some license agreement. And that just gets the image for a logo- no company name in a suitable design for reproduction, etc.

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Originally Posted by RShea

Systemoverblow- I have come a cross some sites that require 1/2 or a good deposit, so they know you are serious, but only a few that offer "contest" type bidding that require 100% up front. Will check it out.

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It may have changed. It was kind of a new idea back then so who knows now... But I found that once someone got to a cool idea, others would bounce a similar but different design based on your feedback from the good one. Again, it is more about how willing you are to give great ideas, what you do/don't like and the constant stream of feedback. If you post a contest with your preliminary idea and don't do anything else you are going to get crap. Obviously explain the industry, who you're catering to, colors, vibe, examples of others you like and don't like etc.

http://img1.findthebest.com/sites/de...led_Eggs_2.jpg

you mean you can't use this one for "Milton's Office Supplies"???

There are probably a dozen graphic artists in your town who would personally sit down with you and speak with you about what direction you wanted the business to go and the logo to achieve. Then show you three thumbnails, take the best choice and refine for the budget you are open to.

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Originally Posted by jfost

you mean you can't use this one for "Milton's Office Supplies"???

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Maybe just rotate it on it's side and claim it is the number 3 (but then the link to M for Milton gets lost.) :rolleyes2