I recently had lunch with an old friend. During the conversation he begin to talk about a new business he was starting. He was excited about the process of establishing his business and the process he and his team had to undertake to get started.

The conversation soon turned to the cost associated with starting a new business– business license, certifications, office space and more. All total he had, very willing invested over $20,000.

After hearing all he had done I asked, “Do you have a budget for marketing or a logo design?” Of course, like most business owners he had not and wanted to know how much a logo design would cost?

It’s subjective… like how much does it cost to build a new house? Or how long is the string? Where are you in your business and brand journey? Are you just starting out, making decisions, changes, and revisions? Or are you solidly established and in need of a complete logo redesign or brand update? The answers to these questions will help you decide on a budget, and select from the logo design options below.

You could run a contest, ask a friend or relative, or contact a local school with a design department and propose a class project. I don’t recommend any of these, but I know it happens, and sometimes people get decent results. But more often than not, the quality of the results is reflected by the price. This type of request is often called spec work, where logo design submissions are requested with no guarantee of compensation. Most professional graphic designers refuse to do spec work. Can you blame them?

Read the full story here

How Much Should I Spend on a Logo Design?

So what’s the answer to “How Much To Spend On A Logo Design?” The budget should be in line with the industry you are in or entering and the image you want for your company and only you can determine that.

My advice, seek help from a graphic design professional. One with a proven track record and work with them to create the desired image for your company. Set a budget, a reasonable budget, for your industry and expectations. You may even want to look for any logo design you like and reach out to them to see if you can determine what their budget was.

The bottom-line, set a budget that you can be comfortable with, work with the best possible resource for that budget and be comfortable with that. And keep in mind, as your business grows or the industry changes you can always have it redesigned.

With few constants we find ourselves dependent on simple things that give us a sense of stability. Even though the average person is exposed to upwards of 5,000 brand messages per day, the consistency of those brands give us a sense of normalcy. So when that changes too, we don’t like it.

Last week Google unveiled its redesigned, mobile-friendly logo, which updates the font from a crisp, sharply defined san serif wordmark, to a blockier, rounded sans-serif. Despite its cutesy introductory animation on Google’s homepage, the new logo made me uneasy. On some days it’s my one constant, and while that sad fact should probably unsettle me more than the subtle logo alteration, Googles move threw me nonetheless.

Despite its cutesy introductory animation on Google’s homepage, the new logo made me uneasy. Both at work and outside it, I’m dependent on Google’s search-engine. On some days it’s my one constant, and while that sad fact should probably unsettle me more than the subtle logo alteration, Google’s move threw me nonetheless. I wasn’t alone. “I hate it,” my friend announced over Gchat. “It looks like the scribbling of a child.”

An informal Ad Age poll showed that most readers were also against the shift, and the reaction on social media – which, to be fair, tilts toward negative reviews – was decidedly underwhelmed.

Check out the full story here…

Ahh, change. It’s often a four letter word (Actually it’s six letters, but work with me). Unless someone is a seasoned designer, experienced marketer or advertising pro chances are they won’t be able to express exactly why they do or don’t like a new logo design. They just know how they feel when they see it. More correctly stated, “When they don’t see the logo they have become accustomed to seeing.”

Need a New Logo or Logo Redesign?

If you are looking to have a new logo created – or perhaps just want to update your existing logo – consider working with someone who specializes in logo design or logo redesigns. They will be able to help you avoid many of the pitfalls that come with branding or re-branding your company or product.

However, even working with someone to create a professional logo design is not a guarantee that everyone will immediately like the new design. They may even write articles or blogs about just how much they and their friends “Hate it!”

But don’t worry, with one more ingredient, “Time”, change will begin to shift in your direction as your logo begins to be accepted as the norm and starts working in your favor.

Branding is critically important to any product and company. We know this instinctively – either as advertising and marketing professionals – or as consumers in the marketplace. Done well, effective branding creates true corporate value and an emotional connection that can be worth billions.

Names Those Brands…In 60 Seconds

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Via adweek.com

“Even if you change the most important thing of every brand—the name—if all other elements are strong enough—color, typography—you will still be able to recognize the brand in a second,” Inetdesign partner Martin Rickmann tells AdFreak.

That’s because the clip uses famous logos to explain the importance of branding. Sort of. The colors, dimensions and basic design elements of the corporate marks are unchanged, but the company names have been replaced by words from the video’s story. For example, “design” is rendered in the fashion of Disney’s monochrome logo, “future” follows Facebook’s blocky minimalist model, and perhaps best of all, “loud and clear” glows against a starry background, like an affirmation from a Jedi knight setting off on some celestial crusade. (And there are many more to sample.)

Even though this video cleverly shows the power of a well-recognized brand, every one of these have undergone a logo redesign over the years.

Redesigning a logo successfully is a delicate balance of honoring the brand equity and consumer recognition that has already been achieved – and then strategically and visually transitioning the brand identity to a new place in the hearts and minds of the consumer.