Hiring a
professional and compatible logo designer is imperative for the success of the
creation of the logo that you have in mind.
Thus, before hiring one there are at least 5 most helpful tips that you
should be aware of:
1. Ability to Deliver
The main role of a
logo is to market your brand. Therefore,
your logo designer should be able to understand your specifications up to
little details. He should not deviate
from your general intention, unless you’ve encouraged him to do so. This is vital as you don’t want to waste time
circling around an idea that has no definite direction or even worse, plan of
action. For instance, when you want a
logo that carries a professional outlook, but with a hint of humour in it, the
designer should be able to come up with a precise design that will make your
brand stand up to its claim.
Many designers tend
to be suggestive, and this is one aspect that you should be careful about. It’s not that being creative isn’t a good
thing. It’s just that sometimes, these
designers are actually trying to direct your focus to something that they’re
good at – but not at the exact output that you’re looking for. In other words, they want to make the job
easier for them by persuading you to follow their lead. Don’t get influenced rather easily – it’s
good to study their suggestions a bit, and only agree with them if you’re happy
with how the outcome would become.
2. Request to Look at Their Business Website
A full-time,
professional logo designer should regard their work as something serious. Therefore, they should have a professional
looking website that can explain their credentials in details. There are some clues you can look for in the
website that may suggest their level of professionalism. For instance, have a look at the overall
layout of their website. Are all the
contents, i.e. written materials, graphics and advertisement units properly
arranged, sloppy-looking, all messed up or just okay? We all have our website layout preferences,
but in general you can actually decide within seconds if a website hasn’t been
created with professionalism in mind.
You can also look
at the logo used in the website to determine whether a particular logo designer
is a good fit for your project. Do a
little investigation on the logo – is it original or simply bought from a
‘buy-and-sell-logo’ website? If you know
for sure that the logo wasn’t the original creation of the designer, this alone
can make you ponder whether to proceed with hiring or to run and never look
back.
3. Portfolio is the Lifeline of a Logo Designer
No matter how small
your project would be, never underestimate the importance of looking at the
portfolio before hiring a designer.
Based on the portfolio, you’ll be able to know his work history - his
achievements (whether average, excellent or poor), the number of clients he had
worked with in the past, client testimonials (whether good or bad or average),
the complexity level of the jobs that he preferred to accept, and many
more.
A portfolio also
provides a good way for you to learn the credentials of a logo designer
especially when you know little to nothing with regards to logo design. By having access to the portfolio, you’ll get
to see the types of logos that have been created by the designer, and from
there it will be easy for you to decide whether it’s still worth it to spend
time, effort and money on that particular designer.
4. The Types of Questions Asked
Before a logo
designer can start designing for you, he must know enough regarding your
brand. To meet this purpose, he must ask
enough questions that will allow him to come up with the most precise
design. If the person doesn’t ask any
questions, there are two possibilities – it’s either he is too genius and
extremely experienced up to the point that he could deliver satisfactory
outputs via guess work, or he is a total scam.
The latter is more likely the scenario in most cases, so it’s imperative
that you be careful when a designer seems to know too much already without
having to ask.
When a designer is
asking questions, you need not provide him with everything that he needs to
know, though. What it means here is that
you should have a sense of discretion on what should stay private and
confidential and what could be shared with your designer. For instance, if he asks for your banking
information for whatever reasons at all, remember that a person who could have
thought about asking such a question should be questioned of his work ethics
and sense of honesty.
5. Cost Matters, But It Is Not Your Primary Aim
When Hiring a Logo Designer
As a client,
certainly you would want to get your project completed within the least
possible cost. At the same time you
would not want to compromise on quality.
However, cost should not be your number one concern if it involves
hiring a professional logo designer. A
professional will make sure that all your specifications are met accordingly,
and in most cases they would go all out to even exceed your original
expectations. Thus, your money spent on
such a satisfactory outcome would be worth every cent of it. Additionally, since creating a logo involves
a lot of creative elements, it’s quite impossible for you to fix one hour as
the deadline of the project and expect to receive a flawless output.
At the same time,
the purpose of the logo and the complexity involved should be taken into consideration
when it comes to cost. A simple logo that is going to be used for a casual
purpose would normally cost less than a corporate logo that serves the purpose
of representing the image of a multinational company.
Conclusion
If you have found a
logo designer who could fill up all the five elements mentioned above, you’ve
found a true gem in this industry. You
can now proceed to the next step which is to conduct a thorough interview to
ensure that both you and the designer could meet eye to eye in transforming
your visualization into reality.