If you are wondering whether you should hire a designer to design your logo or use a logo builder, here are three things you should consider to help you decide.
What's the difference?
A logo designer is a designer who has experience and is often qualified in some area of graphic design. They often have a key understanding of theories such as typography, colour theory, layout and design principles, along with software knowledge. They work with you to understand your needs, wants, industry and will develop a logo that is unique to you.
A logo builder or logo maker is a piece of software or an application that you can use to generate a basic logo design. They are often simple logos, that are standardised designs anyone can use, and you are often able to customise the name, colour and sometimes the font. You select the design from a range of premade options.
1) Budget
The first thing to consider is your budget. If you are just starting out, there can be a lot of costs involved and spending a few hundred pounds (maybe even thousands) on a logo just isn’t viable. There are benefits to working with a designer, but ultimately if you don’t have the money to afford them, it simply isn’t an option.
Some designers may negotiate to meet your budget, but there are no guarantees. Many have their prices set based off their experience, abilities, and training, so their prices are non-negotiable. If this is the case, a logo builder may be a preferable option. You can design and use some free or prices can start from as low as £11.
So if budget is your biggest consideration, I would definitely recommend looking around for different designers, but maybe a logo builder might be better until you have some more money in your budget.
2) Your Wants and Needs
The next thing to consider is what you want and need. I don’t mean design-wise, I mean for your business. Let’s consider this scenario; you are going to launch your business and need to print packaging, business stationery, uniforms, shop signs, and anything else that might have your logo. You may be able to use a logo created in a builder, but these are all things you will have to pay to have redone if you later decide to have a designer create a logo for you. You may decide it is an expense you are willing to take, but it could also waste your money.
There are also no guarantees that the files you receive from a logo builder will be suitable for all of the uses you require, plus there are a whole host of terms that come along with these logos that restrict your usage. We discuss this more in our blog post here, but this essentially means you will end up needing to hire a designer anyway.
You also need to think long term about what you want for your business. If you have a business plan, you should already have a good idea, if not then you really need to think about what and where you want this business to be in 5 to 10 years time. If your aim is to build a recognisable brand and you want to build your brand from day one, with no intention of developing your logo for the next few years (if ever) then you need to hire a designer.
If, on the other hand, you just want a temporary logo whilst you get up and running and you intend to revisit it later, then absolutely use a logo builder.
3) Timeline and revisions
This is a bit of a two in one point. If you need a logo overnight, a logo builder or maker is ideal for you. It is quick with almost instant results and that is ultimately something a designer can't offer. (Well, we can but the design would be questionable, so we often won't do this).
You can access the builder at any time and also have limited control over the design; whether that is changing the font, the colour, position of the text, or what, you can do it yourself in seconds. This isn't the case with a designer (yes, we know it is frustrating), often we work on multiple projects, which means whilst we are waiting for your feedback we are working on something else and we won't drop that to instantly make your changes. So if time isn't on your side, then consider a logo builder.
There is so much to this topic and there are multiple other factors to consider, but these are the absolute basics to think about when deciding if you want to use a logo designer or a logo builder.