Logo Design

ballooba

Hey,

Just wondering how much you people charge for logo design? I'm thinking about changing the logo for our company but would have weigh up the merits of doing it against the price.

People are beginning to recognise the Ballooba star as we had original intended. The star is a very strong image ala Heineken and other serious brand names (companies and political).

We would either be looking to improve on the star logo or I have another idea which I may or may not go into here.

What do you think of the present logo?

Be gentle, I designed it myself.

Regards,
Steve.

RicardoSmith

I'd be interested in giving it a go. The current logo isn't very distinctive. Some might even say boring, but lets not hurt your feelings : ) What importance has the star? Since its a student brand, I'd have thought that it would be reflected in the logo somehow/somewhere. I've read the "about us" blurb but if you want to give us some direction on what direction you were thinking of that would be helpful. PM, or email me if you want to chat about it!

ballooba

Well I wan't to keep this an open discussion. I was thinking of an African Tribesman in war paint holding up a pint of Guinness with a big cheesy grin or something. If anyone copies this I'll break their legs and the above concept is intellectual property and copyright of Stephen Hanley 16:00 GMT May 17th 2003.

The designer would have to be able to draw that i guess. I want it to have the same look and feel as the Napster logo kind of but it has to look as good on print as it does on screen.

ballooba

The blurb on the website needs to be redone too. I'm gonna get a copywriter to do that though.

Balubas are a congolese tribe who played a part in the civil war I think. We changed the spelling so that they couldn't sue us. We intend to build the brand name in the future but for the moment ents is the name of the game so an ents themed logo would work well for the moment.

While we are ruthless bastárds like the Balubas but we aren't seeking to make a profit at the moment. Its just a bit of fun so most of the money we make goes back into the company or on a few beers.

RicardoSmith

I'll post some ideas, 2morrow, after the creative juices have been released at the watering hole (see- african theme).

ballooba

I don't want to go into our plans too much but we are having a sizeable marketing campaign in September (how do you market a marketing company ).

One of the ads we will be running will be something along the lines of '0857-200400 thats a magic number' or something like that.

Jesus, just posting here makes me think of the money involved but we'll make it back so thats not a problem.

In the graphic design is it unheard of where graphic designers will submit a proposal (i.e. rough draft0 and the best value for money gets the contract? Or is this just inefficient?

RicardoSmith

Generally you would check out a few companies and basically which ever one you liked best, based on their portfolio (and their pricing obviously) you would go with that.

Since most of the work in logo design is in the ideas and sketches I doubt that any would do any work on it until a contract was signed up. As too many people get you to do all the concept stuff then walk away with your ideas. But then again in the current slump perhaps they are keener then normal to get the work. Some though can insist on some money up front before doing anything.

You can spend anywhere from nothing to millions on logo design depending on the scale of the project. Though since its for students perhaps a student competition to design the logo would be appropriate?

ballooba

Logo Competition would cost same money and I like the African theme so i would be happy to run with that.

Logo competition would be kind of related to academic work and we're not about that. We'd have to wait until next year to do it too which would mean that we would still have the same logo in September which is our big marketing push. I'm not happy with the current logo (I suppose I wouldn't have posted if i was). It works but just.

I wish I could post a scan of a recent poster we had for the Fire and Ice Last : Chance Ball (and if a certain person is reading this as Im sure you are, that name is copyright of Quak promotions and you are in violation of copyright laws). The logo was on the poster, it was a different version and it looked ok beside the SteinTravel.ie logo and better than the Marathon Coaches logo.

havok*

First off, ballooba its not terrible, but it does look very amature. What Program did u make it in btw ?
In the industry either Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand would be used for logo creation. These are both vector baced programs, and as a rule all logos should be in vector format.

When your designing a logo u should be wanting to create something as simple but as intresting as possible. This might sound like a contradiction, basically it's the maximum effect for the minimum amount. In the area of logo design, less is most definatly more.

Forget about background colours for a start, in the image you supplyed you have a red box surrounding the logo. I'm not sure ir your intension was to have this bounding box as part of the logo but gernally it a bad idea to include boarders of such kind. Pick a starting point, say your star for example and play around with it. When you've come up with something thats intresting and aesthetically pleasing, try and simplfy it down.

Originally posted by ballooba

The designer would have to be able to draw that i guess. I want it to have the same look and feel as the Napster logo kind of but it has to look as good on print as it does on screen.

Not true, altho most designers are pretty handy with a pencil, seeing that all finished work is done on computer these days having strong creative skillz is all that's required.

Originally posted by ballooba
.
In the graphic design is it unheard of where graphic designers will submit a proposal (i.e. rough draft0 and the best value for money gets the contract? Or is this just inefficient?

Actully this happens alot. The Company who issues the contract (i.e in this case ballooba) set the financial figure. Companys or freelance designers happy with this figure then vie for the same contract, winner takes all.

On the price issue, I freelance around a fair bit myself. It really depends on your skills and expeirance vs the job. I charge around 250 euro for a logo design (this would be much a higher figure for a design house).

ballooba

I'm investigating the possibility of running a competition. If I can get the prizes for free then we'd save €250. Some good poionts there Havoc. Some I hadn't thought of before. Used Macromedia Fireworks to do the logo.

FinoBlad

http://www.logovisions.co.uk/

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by FinoBlad
http://www.logovisions.co.uk/

Some nice logos there, but some awful ones too....:eek:

ballooba

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
Some nice logos there, but some awful ones too....:eek:

You might call our current logo very boring but some of those are still boring.

Looks like our competition if we have one is going to be for a double set of 2 day tickets to Witnness. That should get NCAD, DLIADT and DIT graphics design students interested. None of them except for DIT are on our mailing list though . I'll have to rely on their mates to forward the emails on to them.

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by ballooba
You might call our current logo very boring but some of those are still boring.

Looks like our competition if we have one is going to be for a double set of 2 day tickets to Witnness. That should get NCAD, DLIADT and DIT graphics design students interested. None of them except for DIT are on our mailing list though . I'll have to rely on their mates to forward the emails on to them.

Agreed.

Good idea.

FinoBlad

Witness tx, now theres a better idea.
Will u be posting the brief here?

ballooba

Thats it pretty much it above. I haven't worked out the details of the competition yet and it's not confirmed though. We might have a second prize but I don't see the point really .

p

Hi,

Just a few comments. Asking a few designers to sketch up a design and pick the best is what's called working to spec. It is unprofessional and to be honest, insulting to a professional(of any kind) If anyone's interesting in reading further here's a good editorial on the subject

Regarding a competition for your logo. That may work out for you. However logo's designed by competition tend to cost the business very little, and as a result, you generally get what you pay for. In addition, things like getting the finished logo in all the right formats is something that you may find too much of a hassle.

A proper logo designer will work with you as a client, they will listen to want you want and slowly build up a logo that is tailor made to you needs.

With a competition you might get something that's okay, or you might get lucky and like it a lot, however if you want to guarantee to get it right, then hire a professional.

Hope that helps you know some of the issues involved,

Regards,

- Kevin

ballooba

Yeah,

Moneys not there at the moment for a professional design. We might just leave it until it is.

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by p
....If anyone's interesting in reading further here's a good editorial on the subject
......- Kevin

Did that link work for anyone else?

havok*

Yeah, works fine for me. Very good article actully.

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by havok*
Yeah, works fine for me. Very good article actully.

Seems to be working now, must have been a problem with it when I tried it. havok - just out of curiosity what did you edit in my last post?

havok*

heh,

Clicked "edit" instead of "quote" without realising it. It was 2:30 in the morning, i'll say no more...

FinoBlad

ballooba, have you noticed that the red in your logo is a different red to your background [or is that deliberate!]