LOGO DESIGN

Logo Design Online vs. Traditional Ad Agency

Q: I need to design a logo for my new company, but I’m not sure if I should hire an ad agency or do it with an online logo design company. What are the differences?

A: Advertising agencies, the traditional source for logo development, approach the process of logo development from a viewpoint that is different from that of an online logo service. With ad agencies, the logo is comparable to a side dish served as part of a comprehensive advertising campaign meal. With an online logo design service, logo development is the entrée.

This is because the ad agency model is based on repeat business, i.e. large advertising campaigns. For that reason, doing a one-time logo project for a small business is not generally something most ad agencies are interested in doing.

However, for companies that will embark on advertising campaigns that will require media buying and campaign analysis and a more comprehensive approach, ad agencies are a good fit. They can take a company from start to finish in the process – from logo and tagline development to making tweaks to the actual advertising campaign as results begin to come in.

Ad agencies also usually assign an account manager to service each client and act as a go-between from the client to the designer working on his or her project. For the account service and design work during the logo development stage, it is not uncommon to see charges from about $2,000 - $10,000.

Technological advances that made the Internet possible are also the reasons why online logo companies, like LogoWorks.com, come to the task of logo development from a different perspective than ad agencies.

All of the critical information so necessary to communicating a company’s image is gathered from the client at the initiation of the design process. The client fills out an in-depth online questionnaire which will let the graphic artists know exactly what applications will be used for the logo, e.g. business cards, building signage, work trucks, website. LogoWorks was the first company to assign multiple designers to each project because it creates more variety for the customer, so depending on the package that is purchased each client has between two and five designers working on each project.

Via the questionnaire, the client shares with the designers just who his or her customers are. He describes the image he wants to project with his logo, lists his color preferences and, in addition to detailing items he wants to see in his logo, he also spells out what he doesn’t want to see. Thus, every artist who participates in the design has a wealth of information available to him. The customer reaps the benefit of logo designs from different talented individuals, not different variations from a single brain, and because the model serves the small business, prices for logo development range from $265 to $549.