Surprise and Delight

Posted by Andre le Roux on 2012-02-01 View Comments

It’s one of the most important concepts in business.

This past Christmas, instead of the normal Christmas stuff, I bought my wife a ring – just to say that I still love her as much as when I married her. She was almost in tears. For a week. It’s now one month later and I still can’t do anything wrong.

It worked because she was surprised and delighted. (I’m usually an unromantic old fart.)

The same applies in graphic design – and in business in general.

No matter how great your work is, if you only deliver what I expect to receive then you are only delivering. You are not making my day, only giving me what I paid for. Hurry up and hand it over. There are millions of people delivering every day. You are replaceable.

Make yourself irreplaceable by promising less and delivering more. Get a “wow” response.

It requires more effort, but that is exactly why it works.

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New Search Feature on Biz-Logo.com

Posted by Andre le Roux on 2012-02-01 View Comments

We should’ve done this sooner!

Biz-Logo.com now has a logo search feature to help you find pre-designed logos for sale.

It’s still very much in beta, but working flawlessly so far. Give it a whirl.

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Multiple Logo Designers

Posted by Andre le Roux on 2012-01-31 View Comments

For $__ you will receive __ concept logo designs by __ logo designers.

But do you need/want multiple logo designers working on your logo?

No. You don’t.

It is a logo design sales gimmick, invented when competition in online logo design started to heat up. It’s one way logo design companies can differentiate themselves – without any benefit to the client, we should add. It just sounds good.

The basic selling point here is that you receive more variety. In logo design however, developing a “style” is a bad thing. One good designer would be expected to offer variety anyway. Experienced logo designers leave no style-fingerprints that can identify the design as theirs. A logo should speak to the client’s customers, not conform to the designer’s tastes or style.

Sites that offer multiple designers working on one project are either misleading clients, using inexperienced designers or they are blindly following a trend.

If everyone is doing it, it must be a good thing, right?

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Note to Self (Focus, dammit)

Posted by Andre le Roux on 2012-01-25 View Comments

Being busy is not the same as being productive. Stop patting yourself on the back when you get all your work done every day.

It’s not the people who work hardest that are successful, but the ones who take a step back, plan, work out how to channel their efforts to achieve optimal results – and then work hard.

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Shouting at Logo Designers

Posted by Andre le Roux on 2012-01-25 View Comments

Bad idea.

Logo designers are creative souls who need to be “in the zone” to do their best work. The best logo designer in the world will deliver mediocre work if she thinks she’s mediocre.

If you don’t have the patience to work through many revisions of your logo or the patience to allow the designer to take her time, delegate the task. That guy on your team who never gets upset. He’s the one. Have him deal with the logo designer. He will get far better results than you will.

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Alternatives versus Substitutes

Posted by Andre le Roux on 2012-01-23 View Comments

Alternatives? Sure.

Substitutes? There aren’t any!

That should be the answer when your prospective client searches for alternatives/substitutes for your service.

An alternative is something that accomplishes more or less the same goal as the thing being replaced.

A substitute on the other hand is “as good as” the thing being replaced.

Big difference.

At Biz-Logo the combination of experience, quality and speed means there are no real substitutes for what we do. Sure there are great alternatives, but you will have to lower your expectations or up your budget.

But as soon as a viable substitute enters the market, a price war ensues. What else is there? Price the other guy to death – and he will of course be doing the same to you.

Much easier to make yourself un-substitute-able again. It’s not that hard.

(Tip: See the previous post.)

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Is My Word Good Enough?

Posted by Andre le Roux on 2012-01-19 View Comments

Today I fired a service provider. I told him I had paid (which I did earlier today). He said he’d start work once the payment reflected in his account. So I cancelled the service. Can’t my word be enough?

After cooling down I realized that the poor guy was probably burned in the past and he’s simple trying to run his business responsibly, but it still pisses me off that we live in a society where someone’s word isn’t good enough. It was not always like this.

Accept people’s word. Assume they’re good people. The vast majority of them won’t disappoint you. The vast majority will notice and appreciate it. What a great way to differentiate yourself from competitors.

 

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SOPA versus Freedom

Posted by Andre le Roux on 2012-01-19 View Comments

Back in August when I said we needed to rethink copyright, I could not imagine something as hideous as SOPA being offered as the solution. I was thinking more in the opposite direction. A freer world, more sharing, more love, fewer lawsuits.

Sure we need controls, but SOPA? Do we need to kill the Internet in order to stop piracy?

Go read this then go do something about it. If you’re outside the US, go here.

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Avoiding the Dangers of Pre-Designed Logos

Posted by Andre le Roux on 2011-12-14 View Comments

With pre-designed logos the main concern is exclusivity.

Is the logo
- resold to multiple clients?
- a rip-off of an existing design?
- clip art?

Companies like 99Designs state clearly that they resell logos. Others may hide it in the fine-print or simply not state it at all.

The solution is to buy from a company that makes it impossible to buy a sold logo. If they mark logos as “sold” on the site, see if it is possible to order that “sold” logo. If it isn’t, contact them and ask to buy it anyway. The response will give you your answer. Honest companies will respond “sorry, we can’t”. Less honest ones will respond “sure, pay here”.

Spotting a rip-off or clip art is not as easy, but the test above will say a lot about their integrity. If they are not willing to resell their logos it means that they are serious about copyright, which means they probably won’t sell rip-offs or clip art either.

Sites that sell exclusive pre-designed logos:

Biz-Logo.com
LetterLogos.com
LogoGround.com

These three sites are my own sites so I can vouch for them, but feel free to test my staff by offering to buy a logo that’s been sold on any of those sites.

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Brandstack Alternatives

Posted by Andre le Roux on 2011-12-08 View Comments

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.

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