The choice of a good logo designer is imperative to ensure that your business stands the very best opportunity to stand out in the market place. A bad designer will cause you lots of time-wasting and could well also damage your reputation. The logical progression in order to find a good logo designer is firstly, to examine the first ten websites you find on Google, visit forums appropriate to the graphics profession, and then contact the best of these firms.
It should not be necessary to expand your search more than around 10-15 websites but you must examine these sites with a critical eye when you look at them. The first page you will want to see will be the testimonials site; – are there a lot of appropriate testimonials? Maybe arrange to telephone or contact these companies that have provided testimonials once you have contacted the company to ask some valid questions. You may want to particularly ask them whether they felt that the company had understood accurately what the assignment entailed that they had been asked to do. You will want to examine the design of the website – is there logical progression and is there an opportunity to examine some of the portfolios online of the designers to see how some of these logos look like online. (You must remember that logos will need to be seen in several different formats including online). You may also want to look on the website for any mention of legal certification or belonging to professional organizations.
After you have chosen a few companies from the websites that you have seen you would be wise to move onto the forums that are relevant to graphic design. You will need to search these for the companies that you are interested in and examine the comments they have received from businesses and also the nature of the communication that the company makes to their customer- are the responses appropriate and timely? Did the customer appear to be satisfied after the query had been answered? Was the company you are interested in, in general recognition on the site amongst the other graphic designers? Did it appear to have a good reputation?
Only at this stage, once you have processed from the websites to the forums can you then progress to actual contact to the company in question. You will want to obtain information regarding the testimonials that you will have seen on the websites which the companies should be able to provide for your perusal. How quickly do they pick up the telephone? Is the telephone actually picked up or do you just get put through to an answering machine? Is the response to your call professional or sloppy? If you do not get an immediate response is it long before they return your call, if indeed they do? Do they respond to your call in a knowledgeable fashion or do they appear to not really know what they are talking about? You will also need to know at this point what kind of guarantee they can offer you – logo designers who are confident in their abilities will be quite happy to provide you with a satisfactory guarantee of their work.
Finally, you may wish to visit the companies that you have final listed and speak to the graphic designers – get an opportunity to see the individual portfolios bearing in mind that the logo design needs to be seen in several formats- so far, you will most probably only have seen it online. Within the portfolios, you will want to see the variety of variables that can make or break a good logo. Do the designs match the organizations that you recognize or do you sense they are a little off the mark?
As you come to narrow your search down to the final company you need to ensure that their commitment to you will be within your time-frame. You want to ensure they get a good job done but also in a timely fashion and as such this will need to be written into the agreement.
Happy designer hunting!
