How to outsource logo design

Where can you get a quality logo designed quickly, easily and cheaply?

Most first time buyers will start and end their search on Google, but as this article explains, there are smarter ways to get the best logo for your budget.

Keep reading and you'll learn how to get a logo done without pain. You'll also find out how your needs should guide your approach, and what you should ultimately expect to be paying.

Before we start it's also worth mentioning that there is a new site on the way made for people just like you. It's called Logo Design Shopper, and it's coming soon. But waiting aside, how can you get a custom logo made now?

Where to start?

Broadly speaking, there are three ways to go about outsourcing your logo design:

(A) Find a designer yourself
(B) Buy a package deal on an outsourcing marketplace
(C) Post your project for bidding on an outsourcing marketplace

Choosing between these options is easy. Simply ask yourself the following question: What's more important to me - having my logo designed quickly, easily, or cheaply?


Fastest option: (A) Find a designer yourself

Try Googling "logo design" and you'll get millions of results (as of writing, 474 million, to be precise).

Between the search results and the sponsored links, you'll have a wide selection to choose from.

While you could spend the rest of your life running through every search result and directory, I would suggest that you ought to be able to find some provider that fits your budget and tastes (see "What should it cost?" below) in five minutes or less.

That said, I would certainly recommend ditching Google for a more specific directory of providers For more relevant lists of options, both online classifieds (like Craigslist.org) or directories within outsourcing marketplaces (like Guru.com and eLance.com) have long (long) lists of designers who want your business.

I prefer those sites over search engine results for two reasons. Firstly, classifieds and directories list all the people you need together in one place, whereas a search engine will also return sites related to logo design, but not necessarily offering creative services. Secondly, they often include examples of each designer's work, helping you flick through potential providers even faster.

Things to look out for if finding a designer yourself:
- that the provider is offering a fixed rate to deliver the whole logo
- that the provider has positive feedback from other buyers
- that the fixed rate includes revisions (and ideally an unlimited number)
- money back satisfaction guarantees are usually a sign of a professional, quality-oriented provider
- that the provider's English skills are going to be sufficient for communicating design feedback

Key links:
- Craigslist.org (NB: you'll probably want to change location, as the default site is set to San Francisco)
- eLance.com logo designers directory
- Guru.com logo designer directory


Easiest option: (B) Buy a package deal on an outsourcing marketplace

To make the whole logo creation process as easy on yourself as possible, you'll want to check out fixed-price logo packages from an outsourcing marketplace like Guru.com or eLance.

Guru.com offers logo package deals on Guru.com for all kinds of budgets and including providers with all kinds of capabilities and experience. Among them you'll certainly find established providers that have client-friendly processes which help you give them guidance on what you are looking for in your logo. A good provider might have a questionnaire for you to fill out, specifying what styles you like, what the logo needs to represent and so on. Once you have selected a provider from the list, you'll then communicate directly with them to complete the work.

eLance's package deals work differently, in that eLance offers fixed price packages and works with you directly to create your logo. Your business relationship here is with eLance, while eLance effectively manages multiple logo providers in the background to come up with a range of logo proposals. The advantage of the "managed service" approach is the luxury of having more variety in the logo concepts you will be choosing from.

To summarise the differences:

eLance's logo design packages
- Fixed price
- You're likely to get more variation to choose from in the initial concepts because they're using multiple designers
- Prices for logo creation start at $295

Guru.com's logo package deals
- A lot of providers to choose from, so you can select a package/price/set of qualities that suits your needs
- Prices run from logo design at $30 to complete corporate identity at $1,500

Cheapest option: (C) Post your project for bidding on an outsourcing marketplace

To get a logo done as cheaply as possible, your best bet is posting your project on an outsourcing marketplace like eLance or Guru.com.

A posted logo design project can expect to get bids ranging from the $300 mark down to as little as $30.

Be warned, the quality is going to vary a lot, and you will need to sort through the bids to pick a winner.

Posting on eLance or Guru.com is quite simple, both requiring free registration beforehand.

It's worth noting that Guru.com makes the posting process slightly easier with it's "Project Description Helper". This helper is like a little wizard function that asks you questions about what you want and then puts your answers into an easy-to-read project description.

When posting the project you should think about how you want to pay the provider. Both Guru.com and eLance offer standard payment services (where you control when you pay your provider) and payment by escrow.

Escrow requires you to prepay the agreed project cost into an escrow account (managed by the outsourcing marketplace) before the provider starts working. This money is released to the provider once you authorise that the work has been done to the agreed terms.

Escrow is primarily intended to protect providers from buyers who have the work done and then refuse to pay, but it also protects buyers. If your work is not done adequately and a dispute arises with the provider, you have access to arbitration services that help to resolve the project issues and determine how the money is to be released from the escrow account.

Things to look out for in posting logo design for bids:
- that you've been specific about what you want in your project description
- that you've been honest about the budget you have available
- that the provider is offering a fixed rate to deliver the whole logo
- that the provider has positive feedback from other buyers
- that the fixed rate includes revisions (and ideally an unlimited number)
- money back satisfactions guarantees are usually a sign of a professional, quality-oriented provider
- that the provider's English skills are going to be sufficient for communicating design feedback

How much should outsourced logo design cost?

Logos can come as cheap as about $30, but round that price you'll get lots of people using Word Art (honest).

As mentioned above, logo packages on Guru.com range from $30 to over a thousand dollars.

My advice is that you generally get what you pay for, and regardless of how much cheaper you would expect developing-world designers to be, marketplaces like Guru and eLance have the effect of normalising prices somewhat. An Indian designer whose work is as good as a Western designer is still going to charge you as much as he/she thinks he/she can get.

For $100 to $200 you ought to be able to get a perfectly nice and serviceable logo. For anything above or below that range, adjust your expectations respectively.

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