I need a logo! I’ve been running my own web design outlet store for a bit now and I’m getting to the point where I need a logo. I know what I want, but I don’t have the artistic skills to do it. Unfortunately, I also don’t have the money to pay for it, either.
Sooo … if anybody wants to help out a brother in need, drop me a line or a PM. It would be muchly appreciated.
(Note: This post has been approved by the SDMB PTB that said LOL WTF AOK … or something like that.)
You have no money? I know some graphic designers. They make a living off this kind of thing. You sure you’re not willing to pay something for the value you’re asking for?
Go on, pull the other one.
Yeah, sure… I’m a starving artist and I love giving my art away for free - just for the glorification of having it be seen and admired. Because that is what we artists do, you know. It is great eating ramen just so I can see my artwork admired and wished someone was willing to pay me for my endeavors.
Wow. Even the logo design contest riffraff offer some money.
It’s not uncommon for designers to do pro-bono work, but in these cases, they typically get some kind of non-monetary reward out of it, like helping a cause they believe in, doing a tit-for-tat barter agreement, or doing something so design-cool with no rules that it doesn’t feel like work.
While I expect you view “already knowing what you want” a helpful quality, kind of like “hey it’s already half-done, it will take you ten minutes,” it also puts the designer in the role of “computer jockey” removing the fun part of the job, which is to come up with ideas that might lead to a portfolio piece. Also “I know what I want” is also a red flag to designers because this is a telltale sign of a client who will send stuff back for revisions until they are satisfied. Open-ended revisions are the bane of our existence.
My advice: If times are tight and you can’t afford to pay, consider (1) what you can return of value and offer some kind of barter, and (2) be flexible with the design mandates “It must look like this” and revisions “it’s not right yet”; and you’ll have a better chance at takers.
My sister-in-law has started a social media company. She found a service where you put your graphic design need up for bid and folks globally pitch ideas - you pick one to work with and work out terms from there. She ended up using some fella in Pakistan - did a great job and I think she feels she got off with a bargain…
I used that company – it is called 99Designs.com. One of my logos was created by a guy in Bali for about $200.
Exactly this. I’m a little taken aback that you didn’t even offer to do some web work in return. “I know what I want” is the part that caused me not to offer to help.
That said, lots of luck.
Note to self: Graphic designer is one of the most defensive occupations in existence.
Euty didn’t say he was looking for a professional. He also didn’t say he was opposed to providing some web work in return instead of cash money. Cut the guy some slack - I doubt he meant any offense by asking for some help from a board population that has shown great generosity in the past.
Munch, I appreciate the second portion of your post.
But the name-calling is uncalled for. If the overwhelming percentage of the responses suggest defensiveness, it may be because — though I can only speak to my own experiences, here — designers have had to learn the hard way to be wary of assignments that exhibit certain telltale warning flags, of which Eutychus’ displayed more than one.
For some reason, only certain professions are subject to expectations that free work can be obtained. I’ve often needed the services of a plumber, for example, immediately, and could not survive without it. It has never occurred to me to ask a professional to do the work for free. But creative professionals somehow don’t get that degree of professional courtesy. Some portion of the population seems to feel no shame in asking for creative work to be done for nothing in return.
I wouldn’t say I was namecalling - I didn’t call anyone a jackass or anything. But you do have to admit Euty was quickly met with quite a bit of passive aggressive hostility and derision for a not uncommon type of post, and it wasn’t until later that a “hey, how about a barter” was mentioned.
I don’t doubt it. People (like myself) who have absolutely no creative juices at all have a hard time wrapping their head around the concept of “doodling for a living” (sorry - no offense meant here). It’s even more perplexing to try to understand that seemingly turn it on and off as you get contracts. “Here’s $100, please be creative now.” That’s just kind of foreign to my brain. It just doesn’t seem like…work.
I think a large part of it is that I have absolutely no idea of how much work IS involved, and thus, how much something like that costs. With plumbing, you know about how long a job is going to take and thus how much it’s going to cost. A logo? No idea. If I hadn’t worked at an organization that went through a rebranding phase, I wouldn’t believe you if you told me.
When I watch a plumber work, it seems to have no rational relationship to the bill I’m presented. But, hey, I can’t do it myself, so who am I to complain? Why should that be any different from creative work?
Very good point. And you guys have the luxury of using completely made up words in the billing summary. “‘Karmic lubricant’? What in the hell is ‘karmic lubricant’?!? And $75 for ‘creative atmosphere enhancer’?”
“Uh, it’s rum. And the atmosphere enhancer were a bunch of new albums I got off of iTunes.”
I like Euty a lot, and that remains unchanged; I can’t really imagine feeling hostile towards him in any way.
However, I can’t help but express incredulity when someone states that they are operating a for-profit web design venture and soliciting for people to volunteer graphic design labour for something as integral as branding.
I spent the last half of the nineties and the beginning of this decade doing web and graphic design, most of which was logo design and branding for tiny start-ups. Logo design is the most “work” like of the sort of design work I was doing, IMO - everything else was so routine that it was hardly design - more mark-up and mill-work. A logo really needs to be distinctive and convey something about the company, and in my experience a client who “knows what he wants” will actually be the most work - because it’s vanishingly rare that this can be communicated in an intelligent way by someone who is not a designer --you’ll end up going back to the drawing board several times and the chances of the finished design substantially resembling the original specifications is remote. This is because the client is not a designer, and when you try to work within the parameters that they provide the result will necessarily be disappointing.
The client that knows what he wants will say “The company colours are forest green and sky blue, and the logo should be a line drawing of a horse’s head (but at a gallop!) superimposed over the company name: MOVEX. Oh, and ‘MOVEX’ should be sort of embossed, or 3D looking, like it’s carved from marble. There, you’re halfway finished already – don’t you wish everyone knew what they wanted, like me?”
A client that doesn’t have a clue what they want is a breeze to work with, in comparison. “Tell me a little about what you want to convey.” “Blah blah blah” “Okay, how about this?” “Not quite.” “This, then?” “Oooh, that’s nice.”
You’ve never actually hired anyone to do graphic design, have you?
It’s a joke, son.
A joke usually has some basis in reality, though. Invoices for design work are just as concise and clear as those for any other skilled labour.
Hmm, upon further consideration, maybe we designers are a trifle defensive.