If a picture is worth a thousand words, the same is certainly true of the logo of your business. That one little graphic representation of your company can speak volumes to your customer, and you want to be sure you’re sending the right message. However, hiring an expensive ad agency or design house is cost prohibitive for most small to medium-sized businesses, and working with these agencies takes up a lot of time—time that you could spend running your business.

Fortunately, in recent years the Internet has given rise to the emergence of online logo design services. These services operate entirely over the Internet (with phone support usually available as needed), from the ordering process through to the delivery of your final files, and many provide additional services such as business card and stationery design. A quick Google search reveals a large number of these companies, and they cover a wide range in cost and quality. Choosing the right one for your specific needs can be confusing and time-consuming, but with a little research and the help of this guide, you should be well equipped to make a sound decision.

Benefits of Online Logo Design Services

The biggest benefit to choosing an online service over a traditional design firm is definitely cost. Most traditional design firms charge thousands of dollars for a logo, and more for a complete branding solution for your business. The online services profiled in this guide range in price from $19.99 to $299 for the basic, most popular logo design packages.

Another benefit is turnaround time. You can receive your completed logo files within about a week with most online design services (longer if you take advantage of the unlimited revision policies), and with the self-serve options it’s immediate. Compared with the several weeks or even months it can take a traditional service, the online options allow you to get your brand in front of your customers much more quickly.

Preparation

Before looking for a specific online design service, try to pin down some preliminary information about the type of logo you want. This can be driven by a number of things: your industry, your customer base, your product, the culture of your company or customer base, and more. Should your logo be professional and straightforward with conservative colors, or would a more light-hearted, bright logo appeal to your customers more?

Most online services will ask you to fill out a “creative brief” or “project information form” (Logo Mojo’s) is the most comprehensive and creative, where they will try to gather this type of information from you. Having an idea of what direction you want your logo to go will help you decide on the best company to go with—and will help that company deliver a product you’ll be happy with.

Consider creating a list of 5–10 logos that you like (extra credit if your list includes the reason why you like it—color, design feel, font, etc.). The logos might be famous ones such as the Nike Swoosh or the iconic Apple Computer logo, or simply some examples taken from the logo design company’s own web site. By putting the logo on your list, all you are saying is that you like some aspect of it; it does not mean “make my logo look like this one.” Some online logo design services will explicitly ask you to supply such a list, but even if not, you can volunteer it (almost every logo design company allows you to upload a file or freeform comments, or you could supply your list via email after your order is placed). Every designer would love to get that creative input from you, because it helps them create the right logo for you. All of the companies reviewed by BizSnap stress that they provide 100% custom work and that your logo will be unique (with the exception of the self-service options, see below for more information), but they will be able to learn a lot about your preferences and what you’re looking for by having a sample of what you like.

Online Portfolios

All of the companies we profiled feature a portfolio at their website (and we show a few example logos from each vendor in our Comparison Chart), and some also post case studies. You can learn a great deal about a company from their previous work, such as whether they tend to use the same design technique too much, or seem to excel in designing logos in a certain industry. For instance, in browsing through the portfolios, we found that The Logo Company appears to produce the most logos with manual illustrations, which is valuable to someone looking for a less technical, more organic feel. So it’s a good idea to spend some time browsing through portfolios to see if a particular service’s designs appeal to you more than others.

Self-Service Options

Two of the companies profiled in this guide (VistaPrint and LogoYes) offer web-based, self-service design tools where you sit in the designer’s chair. You don’t need to have any technical skills to use these online “wizards,” but keep in mind that the design choices are your own, and if you “don’t have a creative bone in your body” (as many claim), you might want to enlist the help of some friends and colleagues to give you advice on your designs. LogoYes’ self-service option offers a more robust choice of icons and design control for an extra $50, and refreshes its graphic database daily.

Additional Things to Consider

In comparing various online logo design companies, here are some service features you’ll want to consider.

Turnaround Time

As mentioned before, with most services you’ll have your finished logo files within a week or less. However, if you’re really in a hurry, three of the companies in our comparison offer 24-hour rush service (Logo Design Guru, Logo Design Pros, and Logo Mojo) for an extra fee ($100 to $175).

Price

Excluding the Self-Service options (see description above), the prices range from $149 to $299 for comparable packages across the companies we profiled. While price does not always indicate level of quality, if cost is of great issue to you, then The Logo Company and Logo Design Team may be where you’d like to start your search, each offering packages for $149 that include comparable services. Additionally, Logo Design Guru offers a package for $99, although it includes many fewer options than the packages we compared across the board.

Finally, the Self-Service products are the least expensive options available at $19.99 (VistaPrint) and $69 (LogoYes).

Regarding price, we would remind you of our previous comment that all of the online logo design services discussed in BizSnap are significantly less expensive than the average traditional design firm, and represent good value for the service provided. When you consider the importance of your company’s brand, and the fact that you likely will be using your business logo for years to come, getting that logo right outweighs the relatively modest cost of any of the services in this guide.

Satisfaction Guarantee

In the case of the online design companies we profiled, the term “Satisfaction Guaranteed” does not necessarily mean you will be given your money back, as some might assume. It means that you can request an unlimited number of revisions to the design concept that you’ve chosen until you are satisfied. However, several of the companies do specify that in addition to this offer, if you are still not satisfied, you can get a refund.

Number of Logo Concepts

On one hand, receiving a large number of initial design concepts up front gives you a wide range of choices, and indicates the amount of effort the company is willing to invest in your project. On the other hand, quantity does not always equal quality, and it might not be a good idea to judge a company solely on the large number of initial concepts provided.

Number of Designers

Having multiple designers work on your logo provides a wider variety of logos to choose from, since each designer will approach your project from a different perspective and set of skills. Some designers will just not be a match for your style; it doesn’t mean that they are bad designers, they just aren’t right for you. Having more designers working for you increases the chance of having at least one of them match your design preferences, and produce an initial design concept with which you can move forward.