A logo is the front of any business, look around in your daily life, and you will see logos, from McDonald’s to Apple. A logo is the first thing that people see when they ask about your business and your services, so it should talk a lot about you.
A professionally designed logo by a graphic designer will be a step in the right direction; your logo should be fresh, unique, and attractive, and, most importantly, modern and durable.
A logo must also be memorable; when you think of famous brands, you instantly think of their logo, so it is very important that you get it right.
When you are in the process of having your logo designed by a graphic designer, it is most important that you provide clear and concise feedback during the creative process, and it is worth listening to your designer; he knows best and has years of experience.
There are many different design companies, all with different price ranges. The price of your logo has a huge effect on the quality of the logo; I really don’t think Nike paid someone 50 pounds to design their logo, so you have to keep that in mind when choosing. Research all the companies that will design within your budget, take a look at their portfolios, take a look at their customer feedback, and, most importantly, try to get a feel for the company; you only know inside when you can’t trust them.
So in the second question, how much should your logo cost?
This is highly dependent on your budget but is warned; some graphic designers will charge huge amounts of money for a logo design that you could have paid less for with another designer.
Usually, logo designs can range from 50 to 500 pounds and up, but if you are a startup looking for an attractive logo to start your business, I recommend setting your budget to 80- 150 pounds, whatever. The thing under 80 pounds and you’ll see a fairly cheap and unprofessionally designed logo.
So we’ve pointed out that an attractive professionally designed logo is very important to your company’s image, and that budget has a very high factor in how the final logo will turn out, but if you stick to that budget of 80-150, you should get a professional but inexpensive logo design.
A big obstacle for many designers is the belief that what you charge is related to your value as a person. Incorrect!
First of all, it’s not about you. A prospect or customer will often ask, “How much do you charge for a website?” or” How much do you charge to fill in the blank?” as if they were buying a can of tomatoes.
You are not selling your time
Time flies when you are doing your creative work, especially on projects that you really enjoy. Some designers don’t realize that much more time has passed than they initially allowed. They dare not divide the number of hours by their hourly rate, only to find that they are earning little more than minimum wage. That is a rude awakening. And it is one more reason to control your time.
Many designers set prices by the hour and for the wrong reasons.
First, it’s easy to price your services by the hour. It’s clean, neat, and doesn’t require a lot of math. But it is not for your benefit, especially in the long run.
This is because the faster you are and the better you get, the more money you make. A logo may take you five hours today when, two years ago, it might take twenty Improvements, sometimes much better, over time.
Furthermore, the design is a creative process. Not only is there no rule about how long it should take, but there is also a certain amount of inspiration involved. You probably don’t know how long it will take for your best ideas to arrive. They may come right away, or it may take a while. Should you be paid based on the time, it takes for your ideas to materialize? Is this how you should determine how much money you make?
What you sell is peace of mind. Not many customers understand design, so they don’t know what they’re buying, and they know they don’t.
What you sell is your brain, your attention, and your creative imagination applied to a specific customer problem, and that has value. It is not an objective value; in fact, it is highly subjective, making it difficult to quantify. That is why it is easier to charge for hours.
That value, its price, is based on several factors, including geographic location, timing, what the market will hold, the urgency of your potential customers need, the aggravating factor (or lack thereof), and what it’s worth. For you to do it or your desperation level (hopefully low to nonexistent), just to name a few.
Your responsibility in estimating each job is to determine what that value is for each project. Once you’ve made that determination, through a series of steps that we’ll explore in this chapter, you will present it to the potential customer for feedback. Then, through conversation, you either come to terms with the value of their services, or you don’t. It’s that easy.
The value of your work
Your work has no intrinsic value. Its value is based on perceptions. The perceived value of any project comes from the proper positioning of your services through your marketing and sales process. You have to understand your customer well to know what they will find valuable. Perhaps what matters most to you is how well the project runs. Or that you meet all the deadlines. Or deliver quality that exceeds your expectations. Is your client looking for quality, ease, time savings, and a lack of stress? Once you know what is important to each of your clients, you can position yourself to provide exactly that. And they will pay for it.
Value comes with service, not design. The design has become a commodity. They can get it anywhere. They can do it themselves.
