Ever wonder how some “designers” can afford to sell logos for $5? Surely they spend hours upon hours concepting, and even more choosing the fonts, colors, etc., right? The image above, What kind of logo do you get for $5, should explain everything.
And that’s what you as a legitimate designer are up against. Some hack who buys a $1 piece of pre-made logo clip-art and sells them (probably to multiple companies) for $5 after what is probably 2-minutes of “design work.” When you look at it that way, you can see how these people actually do make money.
What I find sad is not the fact that someone would pull this type of money-making stunt, but that there are so many companies that fall for it. They willingly accept pre-made clip-art as the visual “face of their company.”
People designing $5 logos aren’t competitors of legitimate designers. People who buy $5 logos would never seek out and hire a true design professional.
I’m actually glad these services are around. The more people encounter these cheap alterntives, the faster they will catch on about “you get what you pay for…” Well thought out branding is important and sometime people love to learn the hardway. The more they use these horrible sites, the faster we’ll get awareness in various industries.
AT LEAST, that’s looking at the glass half-full. 😉
The fact unfortunately is that non designers don’t know good design. Nor do they care to learn.
It’s too bad really because a cheap design might look pretty good. But it is not branding. Branding is a much richer art than just something that looks good.
We’ve all seen the “hidden messages” in logos. That’s what branding and messaging is about. And no cheap design will ever come close to that. 🙂