Two things happen when you care.
1. You enjoy work.
2. Your clients love you.
In a world filled to the brim with mediocre designers offering mediocre client service, try really caring about your clients and their particular needs. Consistently over-deliver. It will make you happier and richer.
(It’s not something you can fake.)
It is relatively easy to talk about logos, to look at logos, to evaluate logos and to criticize. Creating logos is harder. It takes more time, skill, blood and sweat than any other logo-related activity. That’s why there is money in logo design once you decide to put your back into it.
Edit:
Re-reading this after posting, I realized that I’m not making my point clear. A designer asked me for a job the other day. I’m not hiring, so I directed her to places online where designers can sell logos and I advised her to upload 10 good logos a day for the next 6 months. Every day. That will take her to about 1,800 logos for sale. By then she will be making more money from logo sales than the best salary I could offer her. The only question is: Can you create and upload 10 good logos a day, every day, for 6 months?
Stop looking for work, logo designer. There is plenty for those willing to really work.
With Brandstack gone (but possibly coming back), the alternatives are:
LogoGround
Exclusive logos
High quality
Pays 85% to the designer.
99Designs
Non-exclusive logos
High quality
Pays 30 – 50% to the designer, last time I checked.
LogoTurn
Exclusive logos
High quality
Pays ?% to the designer. Designers can’t sign up. It is by invitation only.
StockLogos
Exclusive logos
Average quality (in my subjective opinion)
Pays 75% to the designer.
And the winner is: LogoGround!
There are many others, but these are the four that I think are worth mentioning.
The only drawback of selling @ LogoGround is that about 9 out of 10 uploaded logos are declined. The focus is very much on quality. If you’re not an experienced designer, you might find StockLogos a less frustrating option.
Disclosure: As the founder of LogoGround I’m probably not 100% objective. Although, if it wasn’t my site, I’d still choose it based on the higher commission payout.
When I was a kid, staying home on Friday the 13th seemed like a pretty rational thing to me. Lots of folks were doing it. I’m no longer superstitious and I think that nowadays fewer people contemplate suicide when they accidentally break a mirror.
But in logo design we have to contend with superstition. This news report is a little old, but worth taking note of.
A couple of days ago I reported that Brandstack was closing up shop. Well, not anymore. The announcement on the site was changed to a “we’re back!” message. Very few details are available, apart from the fact that the site was acquired.
“Brandstack has agreed to be acquired. The purchasing company is excited about the opportunity to carry forward the ideals that once made Brandstack great. We’re not ready to release all the details, but feel this is going to be a win-win opportunity for all parties involved, especially the designers and customers of Brandstack.”
They are promising to “take care of” designers owed money by Brandstack.
“The goal of the acquisition is for all designers with outstanding payments owed to them to be 100% paid by the end of December. Yay!”
I really hope that it goes through and that the mismanagement of the site is at an end. Selling pre-designed logos is a good concept, proven by sites like Biz-Logo (that’s been selling pre-designed logos since 2004). Brandstack will be facing stiffer competition this time around, with sites like LogoGround offering better terms to designers. Sloppy management just won’t cut it anymore.
I wish them the best.
I was looking through the (great) logos that designers started uploading on LogoGround and I caught myself being intimidated by my own project. LogoGround is not a huge hit yet, but it’s climbing steadily. So far it’s a growth that my team and I can manage, but what if it really lifted off. What if others started seeing LogoGround like I see it?
Sun Tzu says it best: “Management of many is the same as management of few. It is a matter of organization.”
When success strikes, don’t run. Add good people and give them enough rope to do what they do best. Sorted. Nothing really changed. The team is just bigger. If managing it all becomes too much, add a good manager too.
The trick is to not chicken out beforehand. You’ve taken the risk, you’ve done the work. When your project starts to grow wings, open the cage and let it fly.
If you don’t you’ll just be one of those old-timers who tells anyone who will listen that he almost had a hit.
It’s unfortunate. BrandStack.com offered an innovative and good service. Logo designers could sell their pre-designed logos, just like on LogoGround, but with the twist added that they could also invent company names to go with the logo and bundle the logo with a domain name.
BrandStack owner Wes Wilson published a statement citing credit card fraud as the reason for the closure.
All the best Wes. Thanks for BrandStack. I wish it worked.
Don’t be so touchy. Complaints qualify as feedback, just more spirited. More valuable as well, because complaints are like giant signposts pointing to the areas of your business where there is room for improvement. It surprises me how often designers will attempt to strike back when anyone has the nerve to complain. Even when the client is wrong, a complaint indicates that we need to communicate/educate better to avoid misunderstandings.
By the way, we all have clients who complain all the time. Those may be ignored.
No really, where?
Where is the order page? Should I contact you to place an order? If I want to buy right now, will you make me wait until you’ve read my email and prepared a quote?
I realize that web and graphic designers like to see the design spec first, then quote, but that way of doing business is quickly going out of fashion. People accessing your web site are different from people walking into your shop. They have different expectations and are far less likely to be patient.
I made the change to our money-back guarantee that I ranted about last time. Now the Biz-Logo service is not quite as great as it used to be.
Dishonesty really pisses me off.
Because a small(ish) percentage of people see a money-back guarantee as a loophole, businesses can’t offer great money-back guarantees. I like having a great money-back guarantee. I like giving honest people their money back, FFS. It means that the vast majority of people that don’t ask for their money back are truly delighted with our work. It’s a pat on the back each time we wrap up a design.
Now Biz-Logo is just another logo design company with a “pretty good” money-back guarantee. At least we can still aim for “great” in our designs.
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