Logos are expensive?

This is a real area of confusion. How much should I pay for my logo to be designed? What's the answer? Is there one?

Let's do a quick comparison. The London 2012 logo famously (or infamously) cost £400,000, BP spent a small, actually, a very large fortune on their new logo, whereas Start-ups that have ballooned like Twitter and Facebook have relatively cheap logos. In the case of Twitter the bird was originally taken from a stock site so the logo probably cost between £10-20!

So, what do we learn from this? Probably that there is no official 'menu' for logo design costs. It's worth investing until you're happy and it reflects what you do in the right way. In the case of London 2012 and BP there was no way that they could be anything but 100% sure as so much rides on their identity. So, it doesn't necessarily pay to invest vast sums in a logo but if you invest a small sum and get it wrong, it can be game over. Although the London 2012 logo was met with quite a lot of pessimism (typically British) it appeared absolutely everywhere in the build up to and during those amazing two weeks in the Summer. Imagine if it was naff and instantly forgettable, all that extra revenue through souvenirs, kit, food, drink, clothes, pretty much everything, would have been greatly reduced. Add to that the fact the Olympics has such a tiny shelf life and in some ways, £400,000 seems like a good deal!

The advice would therefore be, make sure you know what you need your logo to do and reflect and also, make sure you are completely happy with the final proof. If this is difficult, get a professional to help. This initial time and investment will save going in the wrong direction and ending up with something naff.

www.fraser-king.co.uk