Arek Dvornechcuck
Branding Expert
I'm a strategist and designer based in New York who help brands grow by crafting distinctive brand identities, backed by strategy. Need help with your project?—Get in touch
I'm a strategist and designer based in New York who help brands grow by crafting distinctive brand identities, backed by strategy. Need help with your project?—Get in touch
Ever wonder how much should a custom logo design cost?
Or why one is dramatically more expensive than another? In this article and I will focus on how much a logo design can actually cost you.
What does logo design really cost, and why prices vary drastically?
Depending on who you chose to work with and how big your business is, will determine your logo design cost.
My intention is to give you a logo design cost breakdown, before you hire for you project.
Whether you plan on hiring designer or design agency, there are pros and cons of hiring each.
My goal, in this article, is to give you an overview of what's available on the market and how much designing a logo for you business can cost you in 2018.
Designing a logo is a creative service and therefore a custom logo design doesn't come with a price tag.
A logo can cost you only $5 of Fiverr or hundreds of thousands of dollars if you choose to work with top branding agencies.
Of course the quality of your logo will reflect the price — It's like Walmart vs. Gucci.
There are many different logo design service providers - that's why the price range for your logo may vary greatly.
Why there is such a discrepancy in pricing of a custom logo?— just to give you an example:
A google search for “professional logo design” will yield results offering logo for as little as $5
Which is a clear abuse of the word "professional", because for $5 you can't really do anything good even if you live in India.
Why is that logo design cost as much as million of dollars or as little as couple hundred bucks?
Logo design is like painting. It can be worth millions or close to nothing.
There are many factors when it comes to pricing a logo.
There's a lot of risk associated, because logo is the most exposed visual element of your business.
You logo is in the center of all your business' communications, it's so simple and small yet it has to hold everything.
The process of logo design is not a quick 5 minute job therefore a professional logo will take more time and of course cost you more.
When it comes to your brand, I'm sure you don't want to spend too much paying for just a logo.
After all, how hard it can be?It's just a small image or a word set in a chosen typeface.
So you asked Google to find out what's the average logo design price.
Perhaps you even asked: what's the low-end versus high-end price for a custom logo?
So that way you can get a sense of how much does it cost.You need some sort of a logo design price sheet in order to find the best fit.
Perhaps you noticed that professional designers and design studios usually don't have any packages that you can shop on their website.
Something like "logo design package price" simply does not exist.If it does, then I bet you deal with amateurs or some brokerages like Fiverr or 99designs.
On the other hand, a simple google search for "logo design cost" will yield results like:
One should expect a standard logo design cost approximately $200
Which is a bunch of BS.Most freelance designers charge form $100/h up if you live in the U.S.
According to this misleading article - the design of your logo would take only 2h.
Of course, you can get "some logo" in 2h or less, but quite frankly I doubt it would be any good.
Defining an average price of logo design is not as simple as you might think.
Neither a custom logo design is as cheap as the Google's first page results shows you.
A logo needs to be simple, but the process of logo design is certainly not.
In fact, the logo design process demands a combination of investigation, strategic thinking, design excellence, and project management skills.
It requires an extraordinary amount of patience, an obsession with getting it right, and an ability to synthesize vast amounts of information.
It's an iterative process and demands an extensive research and exploration phase prior actual design.
Therefore there's nothing like an average logo design price or logo design cost calculator.
And if you ever find one, it only means they treat design as commodity, which is fundamentally wrong because according to logo design principles, logo needs to be timeless and unique.
Every brand is different and unique, therefore graphic design cost estimate calculator can ever make any sense.
Whoever is going to work on your custom logo, needs to interview you first.
Find out about your business, research you competition, devise a problem and find a solution. It takes time.
Design agencies spend long months to design your company logo.
Therefore only after the design brief was created, the interview was done, and the scope of work estimated, you can get a proposal.
You see, logo and branding design will cost you potentially more than just a logo.
You logo will touch many different things like: website, business cards or social media.
But scope of work is just one of the factors when it comes to putting together a logo design proposal.
Who design your logo will tell you also how much you need to spend.Here are options you can choose from when it comes to designing your logo:
Logo Maker is the cheapest option you can go for.
However, they only offer limited, generic icons and font options.
Very quick turnaround time though.
Of course you can hire a few interns straight out of school who can charge you a couple hundred bucks, but you might get frustrated with subpar work or missed deadlines.
Whatever you do, stay away from logo design contests like 99designs, it won't do you any good.
Designers on 99designs won't have time and resources to deliver quality work
A senior graphic designer should deliver quality designs and won’t break the bank either.
Expect to spend anywhere from $1,000 - $10,000 on custom logo design.
Make sure to find an expert in the field, in this case - brand identity expert.
Small Agency When you commission a logo design project you end up with… a logo!
But if you’re willing and able to pay more, you can get more. Working with a design agency also means a price tag that’s $10,000+
A professional branding agency is another option for getting your logo designed, and this often includes a top-to-bottom branding package for the cost (not only logo design package).
How much would a logo design cost hiring top notch branding agency?
Design agencies often conduct market research and competitor analysis to figure out how your brand can stand out in a good way.
Branding agencies employ creative teams that will approach your project from all angles, ensuring the work that is backed up with business data.
This usually is a good option for established clients as well, who need comprehensive branding.
Whether you are a startup or an existing company that needs a quality logo design, hiring a freelance expert is the perhaps the best option for you.
Why? because you are getting a high-end logo for a fraction of the agency price.
A brand identity designer will provide you with great work for a fraction of the price charged by an agency.
A brand identity expert, like myself, can provide you with agency standard designs, especially if he/she used to work for one.
Therefore, hiring a freelance expert in the field is the best quality vs. price option.So which designer should you hire?
Things to know before searching for a logo designer.
Why does this matter? Experts in the field of logo and brand identity design will leverage this experience for your business.
They will simply address the challenges you bring to them with effective solutions.A
nd will help you define those deign problems and guide you through the process.
We can basically group factors into two categories:
Here's a breakdown of six main factors that affect the final price.
Now, since you know what affects the price given by a designer, you should also understand what makes a good logo.
This understanding will allow you to decide on what level of designer do you really need.
You might be surprised by how much these logos actually cost.
However, consider it more as interesting facts rather than a reference by any means.
The Nike "Swoosh" is perhaps one of the most well-known "cheap" logos - costing the sports brand just $35 when a graphic design student, Carolyn Davidson, was commissioned back in 1971.
One of the founders said: "I don't love it… but I think it will grow on me."
In 2001, oil giant BP commissioned creative agency Landor Associates, advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather and the PR consultants Ogilvy PR to replace their "Green Shield" logo with the current helios symbol and create a surrounding identity and campaign.
The redesign cost BP $4,6mln. The launch? A mere $211 million...
When it comes to the rebranding of an established company the final price is usually a fraction of the total rebranding launch cost.
BP paid $1mln to the branding agency, but they spent a crushing $211 billion on the launch which is a small percentage of the total cost.
The execution of a logo concept itself can cost you close to nothing.
What you pay for is the brand strategy, discovery phase and creative thinking that precedes the creation of a successful logo.It's all the toil and hard work of a designer or a team of designers that gather together to solve a design problem for your business.
Need a custom logo for you business? Maybe even more than just a logo?
Fill out my questionnaire and I will follow up with a proposal — Get my quote
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