Logo Design Team – A Review

A few months ago I found LogoDesignTeam.com, and when I saw their pricing ($149 for what is essentially unlimited logo design services), I was more than a little skeptical. It seemed like one of those too-good-to-be-true opportunities. However, after months of testing, I’m pleased to say they get a very solid 4 out of 5 stars review.

A review of LogoDesignTeam.com

Typical Logo Design Options

When people decide to pay someone to design a logo for their company or website, the options usually come down to:

1. Pay an established graphic designer thousands of dollars to do a very good job.
2. Pay an up-and-coming designer or freelance hundreds of dollars to do an average job.
3. Choose any one of the $100-$200 logo design offers you find online and hope for the best.

I’ve tried all three options, and I’ve had average results with the first two. Hiring a professional, established designer to create a logo is smart when your company budget can justify it – if you’ve got $1000-$5000 to spend on logo design, this is definitely the route to go. Established logo designers understand more than just logo design – they’ll help you think about all of the different uses of your logo and make sure you end up with the right look. Often times, these professionals will also provide you with a “branding package” that will include brochure design, business card and letterhead designs, etc., which is a nice bonus.

However, if you’re starting a company, a new website or launching a new product – or if you’re just cheap like me – paying thousands of dollars might not be an option.

I’ve worked with up-and-coming designers and freelancers in the past, and while I’ve always been happy with the end result, the process has never been that great…

• When you work with someone who is moonlighting, logo design can take weeks instead of days.
• When the designer doesn’t have a set questionnaire or interview process, you can end up asking for a lot of revisions or concepts that will drain your time and your designer’s patience.
• Sometimes the cost of hiring a part-timer or up-and-comer to design your logo isn’t much less than the cost of hiring an established professional.

While you can definitely hit the jackpot hiring an up-and-comer, I wouldn’t recommend this option unless you need person-to-person interaction in the logo design process and you can’t afford to go with an established pro.

Here’s what I like about Logo Design Team:

1. They have a great price. I’ve used their $149 logo design package on more than a dozen projects, and every logo has come back looking great. Every one of them.

2. They have a great interview process that saves everyone time. As I said above, a lot of the designers I’ve worked with don’t have a good process in place, so I’ve spent a lot of time trying to tell the designer what I wanted…often times failing in my efforts to communicate.

Instead of a long exchange of emails and/or phone calls, LogoDesignTeam just sends an email with about 12 questions, many of which require simple answers. If you take the time to complete their questionnaire, it’s likely one or more of the concepts you get back will be very close to what you’re looking for. This saves time.

3. They send me all the formats I need without asking, including source files. It seems like a lot of professional graphic designers believe their clients aren’t entitled to source files. When I say ‘source files,’ I’m talking about the original PSD file that the designer used to create my design. My guess? Designers are reluctant to surrender source files because that makes it easier for you to hire someone else later. LogoDesignTeam sends me source files every time – without being asked – which means I can do minor edits on my own, and/or I can get another designer involved down the line without having to have the logo re-created from scratch.

4. They’re fast. I’ve gone from idea to final logo in just a few days. In fact, just recently I sent a design request on a Wednesday morning and had a final design Thursday night.

5. The price is just unbeatable. I know I said this before, but the value here is incredible. Not only are they cheap, but they do good work.

Here’s What I Don’t Like About Logo Design Team

1. I have to ask for font info. Few things are more frustrating than trying to figure out what font a designer used in a logo after the fact. What’s worse, when I finally do figure it out (I use WhatTheFont with decent success), the font files can be hard to find. LogoDesignTeam will always tell me what font(s) was used in my logo, and if that font is open source and/or public domain, they’ll send me a copy of the font itself. However, I shouldn’t have to ask for this info.

2. No phone options. Personally I could care less about the fact that I can’t talk to a designer on the phone. However, many of my clients (understandably) don’t feel the same way. If you want to talk to someone on the phone, or if you don’t like doing emails back and forth, you won’t like Logo Design team.

3. Time delays can be weird. It seems like there is about a 12 hour delay between U.S.A. business hours and LogoDesignTeam business hours, which means correspondence can take as much as a day.

4. The really cheap $69 service doesn’t get the same amount of attention as the $149 service. One person I know purchased the $69 logo design service and she had trouble getting LogoDesignTeam to respond to her quickly. Evidently, they place a lower priority on the cheaper work (the $149 service has always been trouble free for me).

5. Their samples aren’t indicative of their design range. I’ve had lots of different kinds of logos designed – from cartoonish-looking to corporate to kitsch – yet the samples on the website are all sort of cartoonish. This isn’t the best representation of their wide range of work.

Summary

If you need a top-of-the-line brand quality logo and you’ve got the money it takes to hire a pro, LogoDesignTeam wouldn’t be my first choice.

If you need to have a personal interaction with your logo designer, or if you’re uncomfortable working completely via email, LogoDesignTeam isn’t for you.

However, if you need a good logo that’s not too expensive, you can’t go wrong with LogoDesignTeam’s $149 package. From websites to new products to start-ups, they’re hard to beat. In fact, LDT is our recommended Denver logo design company.