There are thousands of logo designers on the Internet who are vying for your business. Maybe more. This is both a good thing and bad thing. The good thing is, there are plenty of people out there that want your business. There are also plenty of capable designers that can design an effective logo for you. The problem is whom do you choose?
You could just take a shot in the dark and choose the service that seems to have the best portfolio. Sounds logical enough. The problem with this is that sometimes what you see in those portfolios is not always what you get. The designer who created those logos may have quit the company and now they have a new designer that does the logos. I have created this article to serve as a buyers guide for Logo Design Services. I will give you some pointers on finding the right logo designer for your business, as well as warn you about some of the pitfalls involved in the process. I will also attempt to demystify some of the terminology often used in the field of Graphic Design and Logo Design specifically. You will need 2 pieces of software to accomplish the tasks I set out for you here. Microsoft Word (word processor) and Excel (spreadsheet).
Logo Limbo
You could theoretically stay in what I call Logo Limbo forever when searching for designers on the Internet. Like I said, there are thousands of individuals and companies alike that are promoting their websites and logo design services. You could do a search on google.com for logo design and rummage through the endless pages of results for an eternity if you wanted to. Not only are there tons of logo designers on the web as we speak, new ones seem to pop up daily. Running my own logo design business, I can attest to this fact. Logo Design is definitely a competitive industry.
The first thing you will probably be tempted to do is hit the first two or three websites that pop up in your search results. Keep in mind that in most search engines these days, those first 2 or 3 websites that pop up in the results are usually paid sponsors. They pay for those sponsor positions on the top of the regular search results for particular keywords such as Logo Design. So, that being said, these first few are not necessarily the best or most relevant in your logo design quest. Go ahead and check them out, however don't limit yourself to the top search engine pages. You may have to dig a bit deeper to find a designer that has the style and skill set you are looking for.
My advice is to find 4 or 5 sites that have portfolios that stand out and have prices and packages that seem within your budget. It would be a good idea to take a look at their logo and the design of their site. Chances are if their logo and website are ugly, your logo will be too. Check the prices and features of each package carefully. For each site you deem worthy, copy this information into your word document. Make sure you note the Name and URL of each site next to their Logo Packages. Make other notes along with this information, such as logos you particularly liked in their portfolio, each sites refund policy and any other terms of service you can find on the site plus any other information that you deem relevant to your final decision. Pay attention to how many concepts and revisions they offer in each of their logo design packages. This is also a relevant factor in your final decision.
In part 2 learn how to analyze each company and make your final decision.
