Is A Free Logo Design Worth The Cost?
July 25, 2008 – 10:22 am
The service says it is free, but is it? Most of the free logo design websites out there are trying to entice you to purchase products from them or pay an additional fee to provide a better logo than the “free” one. That brings up the first question: If my “free” logo would suffice for what I need, then why would I want to pay for an upgrade? Simply put; you get what you pay for! When you don’t pay a dime, what you get isn’t worth a penny. Free is not always best.
It’s important to understand the significance of receiving a good logo. The logo you choose will represent you and your company for years to come. It’s an extension of your company name and you will most likely stick with it for the life of your company. As a small business this may or may not be important to you and you think “free” is a good price point to base your reputation on. As a large business you probably already have an understanding of the logo process and therefore will pay the fee it requires to secure a professional logo which is unique and that will carry you through the years and that is easily brandable. Either way, you want the best for your company.
Free logo design services are also very limited. Sure, they may be able to give you a fancy text with a Web 2.0 look and feel or something creative like flames inside the text with a name like “Flame Blowers, Inc.”. But, when it comes to graphics they rarely meet the standard and almost never exceed it. A lot of those service use clip art that they designed and re-use for many clients (including your competitors) or they use royalty free clip art that is used by everyone across the web. Chances are that you will end up with the same graphic as many other companies out there and this takes away your uniqueness. A logo should represent you and not be able to be applied to any company but yours, because you and your company should stand out and have its own identity.
Ok, so you have chosen to get a “free” logo design online. You download the file; open it up and…nothing. Your computer doesn’t recognize the format. You don’t have the program required to open the file. So now you have to take it to someone to convert it over to a file type you can use. Even then, if the file is too small then the quality will not be great or even useable. Either way, now you have to pay an experienced designer to fix your “free” logo design if you want to use it in any professional/business application.
There is one positive to the “free” online logo design: It’s FREE! But there are many downsides to it as well. It is important that you weigh the differences when deciding on how you want to represent your company and begin branding your image. Some of the downsides may not be apparent at first, but will come into play later as you grow and discover there are other logos just like yours. Just keep in mind, in the end - you get what you pay for.
Logobids.com Logo Design. This is a design made by a mediocre design company like Logo Works.
Logobids.com Logo. This is a design done by a local firm. This is the first round.
2 Responses to “Is A Free Logo Design Worth The Cost?”
I have some of these offers of free graphics for some of my sites and I actually got a new header graphic but on the condition of two links back to them on my home page.
The graphic for that particular site is not of the best quality but it was a little better than the one I had already so I used it. I will be replacing it when I have time but for now it will do.
By Abs on Jul 29, 2008
If you care about your brand at all, you would never use a free logo.
By Richard Reeve on Aug 6, 2008