Calling Digital Artists in BMW area

Onikage

Hello, we are a small business and looking for help with logo design as none of us have experience and little or no budget...

Nah, just kidding. I'm trying to put together a budget for a project and one of the things we need is an identity. The criteria are:

• Identity will consist of Logo + Title + Colour Scheme
• Artist must be in Border-Midlands-West area
• Prices and portfolio must be publicly viewable

Can anyone recommend or suggest? If mods are agreeable, I don't mind you suggesting yourself as long as you can fill the criteria. Bear in mind the project won't be kicking off til June '09 at the earliest, so take your time in answering.

Pixelcraft

not from the area myself, but no one will be able to give you a costing on identity with that few details. You'll need to supply a lot more information.

Onikage

Such as? I am not familiar with this area.

Pixelcraft

you'll need to create a brief. Some designers will have a questionnaire for you to complete, you need to be clear about your goals and have some idea of a budget yourself, as depending on scope your project could be from €500 to €50,000

Onikage

That doesn't sound very customer friendly... I just need some designers with upfront costs and deliverables so that I can check it myself and MOST IMPORTANTLY that a third party can come along later and verify it independantly. The reason being that public money is involved. Sorry if this conflicts with some artistic ideals about remuneration, but that's the way it has to be. Not my decision!

Still, I do appreciate the input.

Pixelcraft

well good luck to you then. You are not buying a tangible product. Every design job is different and needs to be scoped accordingly. You're not going to find any professional work on those terms. Anything less, and a designer is doing the customer a disservice.

Baggio...

Onikage wrote: »

That doesn't sound very customer friendly... I just need some designers with upfront costs and deliverables so that I can check it myself and MOST IMPORTANTLY that a third party can come along later and verify it independantly. The reason being that public money is involved. Sorry if this conflicts with some artistic ideals about remuneration, but that's the way it has to be. Not my decision!

It's very hard to put a cost on something without details. Generally though, you could be looking at being charged 40-70 euro and hour (Some designers charge even more). You could probably get a deal for the whole project. But usually people will charge by the hour when details are sketchy.

You can definitely get cheaper rates alright... but the quality will probably drop. I guess it depends on the quality of the work your after.

If you shop around a bit you'll probably get a decent designer who will give you a good rate.

mick.fr

Pixelcraft wrote: »

well good luck to you then. You are not buying a tangible product. Every design job is different and needs to be scoped accordingly. You're not going to find any professional work on those terms. Anything less, and a designer is doing the customer a disservice.

While I agree OP needs to provide a bit more details, publicaly or not, that is certainly not a reason to talk to a potential customer like that.

Basically you said it could cost him anything between 500 and 50000 euro and then you just slap him in the face by telling him he will never find anyone in this country anyway?

Are you for real?

1. That is pretty immature for a professional like you, well I suppose you are one.
2. That is certainly not customer's friendly.
3. That is pretty suicidal since your name and company are made widely public in a forum.

Anyway, I think you certainly do not deserve his business, and probably not any business at all with such an attitude.

Being in this kind of business (And any other) means helping customers out by giving them the best possible advice and solution.

Pixelcraft

I'm giving him an opinion on what a design company needs to cost a job, he's telling me it's not customer friendly, It is as friendly as it can be. There cannot be upfront costs without an upfront brief, I told him a vague answer to a vague question. I have helped you in the past, but I'm guessing you didn't like the last answer I gave you on a previous post hence this personal attack. Imo it's not me with the attitude but the op with a quote 'Sorry if this conflicts with some artistic ideals about remuneration'

Baggio...

mick.fr wrote: »

While I agree OP needs to provide a bit more details, publicaly or not, that is certainly not a reason to talk to a potential customer like that.

Absolutely...

To be fair, Onikage has come on here seeing if he can throw some work our way (paid work too! ). He's stated that he's not too sure how things work. Which is no reason to be quite so obtuse.

I'd have to agree with mick.fr here... It's not exactly been a very friendly response, to some poor guy who's looking to get the best value for his buck.

Pixelcraft

maybe it came off harsher than I'd meant to, if so I apologise. It was the 'artistic ideals' comment that I found rude however, after initially trying to help.

Either way, the client has to know what they want (or atleast a direction) for a designer to estimate and produce the work for them.

mick.fr

Pixelcraft wrote: »

maybe it came off harsher than I'd meant to, if so I apologise. It was the 'artistic ideals' comment that I found rude however, after initially trying to help.

Either way, the client has to know what they want (or atleast a direction) for a designer to estimate and produce the work for them.

Ok
My remark had stricly nothing personal, don't even know you.

p

Yea, to the original poster. The only designers who will post up their prices publically will be bad ones. If you want to get quotes then the best thing is to draw up a brief and then send it out.

Sadly however, a lot of companies run a mile from the tendering process because it adds a lot of hassle and cost to the job.

Here's some people I have bookmarked that look pretty good:
http://www.cartonlevert.ie/
http://logopond.com/members/profile/10018
http://www.mannadesign.net/
http://www.spoiltchild.com/design.htm

Onikage

Pixelcraft wrote: »

maybe it came off harsher than I'd meant to, if so I apologise. It was the 'artistic ideals' comment that I found rude however, after initially trying to help.

Either way, the client has to know what they want (or atleast a direction) for a designer to estimate and produce the work for them.

Don't know what I can say to that except I didn't come here with the express intention of offending anyone.

I have seen sites like this, this and this. This is why I thought the information I supplied was sufficient. These sites are not the most beautiful things I've ever seen, the phrase that springs to mind is "workman-like", but I and the people I've talked to are actually under the impression that the majority of designers post their prices online. The ones who don't are either at the top of the game or are trying to rip you off. As I say, that's just the impression outsiders like me can get. Not fact.

Can anyone tell me exactly what a brief should contain? An example would help.

Thanks to everyone who's tried to point me in the right direction. keep the links coming

Pixelcraft

Don't want to get into a slagging match with other companies, so I'm not going to comment on the processes they use, but I have a questionnaire on my site, feel free to use it as a guide.

p

Onikage wrote: »

I have seen sites like this, this and this. This is why I thought the information I supplied was sufficient. These sites are not the most beautiful things I've ever seen, the phrase that springs to mind is "workman-like", but I and the people I've talked to are actually under the impression that the majority of designers post their prices online. The ones who don't are either at the top of the game or are trying to rip you off. As I say, that's just the impression outsiders like me can get. Not fact.

Can anyone tell me exactly what a brief should contain? An example would help.

Onikage - I assure you that there's plenty of people who produce high quality work at decent prices, but don't publish them publically.

I just took a look at questions PixelCraft mentioned (which looks surprisingly similar to what I use myself) and answering those questions would give anyone a pretty good design brief, but honestly, if you find a good company, they will go through all that stuff with you.

My recommendation is to find an established freelancer. A graphic designer who's a few years experience and is working on their own are harder to find, but generally offer very good value. I'd say on average you could get really high quality design for half the price of a design studio because they have lower overheads.

Good luck with the search!

Pixelcraft

I'd second p's points. Also, is there a particular reason you need a local designer? It seems counter productive, most people will travel to you for such a job.

Onikage

Pixelcraft wrote: »

Also, is there a particular reason you need a local designer? It seems counter productive, most people will travel to you for such a job.

Policy. I guess the intention is to promote local business but sometimes it is completely counter-productive.