While many people speak out against crowd sourcing logos there are even some major corporations that are now turning to crowd sourcing for their logo needs. Logo crowd sourcing can certainly save money as well as give business experts access to a greater amount of logo designs for their advertising budget. With many new crowd sourcing websites cropping up every day for logo design and more, even popular logos today are becoming crowdsourced. Over the last five years crowd sourcing has entered into almost every industry from writing, fundraising, stock photography and now logo design.

As well as being used by some of the world’s biggest corporations, governments, celebrities, artists and more are using crowd sourcing to get the support and creativity that they need to grow. Even back as far as 2012, 100 brands reported using some form of crowd sourcing to improve their marketing effort.

Here are some of the top 6 logos that you simply won’t believe were crowd sourced.

Truly from Coca cola:

The truly campaign started in the year 2012 and Coca-Cola outsource their entire marketing campaign across a mix of different freelance crowd source sites. Coke decided to crowdsource branding ideas for the entire campaign and received 3600 different submissions through crowd sourcing websites. As well as receiving lots of different logo ideas, marketing campaigns and videos Coke had to choose from thousands of submissions for a logo before they ended up selecting this one. The truly logo reflects the past Coke branding with its own classic attitude. This is the type of logo that you might expect a Madison Avenue ad agency to produce but it was simply crowd sourced from an amateur designer website. It just goes to show that there are some talented designers and submissions available on crowd sourcing sites. It also opens up the opportunity for designers to work with major corporations to get their name out there as well.

Obama:

Working on a design for the American public that’s built by the American public seems like a pretty good political move doesn’t it? That’s exactly what Obama did for the 2012 campaign where he crowd sourced a poster design for his campaign. The idea was to create a branded image promoting jobs in America. The and poster design was magnificent but Obama made a fatal flaw when it came to the crowd sourcing contest. Instead of outlining a budget he suggested that the prize would be just having the poster used. This is a mistake that commonly backfires and the Obama campaign didn’t have quite as many submissions as some other major corporations have received from their crowd funding effort. It’s important to offer some type of incentive if you are planning on crowd sourcing a design. Designers need to be paid and rewarded for their work.

Madrid 2020:

Following the London Olympics where the logo had an estimated value of around $600,000 to produce, Madrid decided that it might be a good time to start saving money on the cost of their logo design. Madrid set aside a budget that was just 1% of the 2012 budget for the London Olympics. Looking at the design they didn’t do too badly. The only controversy surrounding the winner is that the logo design kind of makes 2020 look closer to 20020. A lot of thought and process goes into designing any Olympic logo and this will actually be one of the very first crowd sourced designs to make its way onto an Olympic bid which is revolutionary for crowdsourcing as a whole.

Occupy 2012:

The occupy movement was all about putting power back into the hands of the 99% and that’s exactly why it was so poetic that they decided to crowd source their logo design. The occupy Wall Street movement website set a crowd sourcing campaign in the year 2012 and received almost 8000 designs eventually settling on a relatively simple design that was carried through for their entire website. The occupy movement logo still stands to this day and it was produced for an extremely modest fee as well. Crowdsourcing for social movements like this one just makes sense and will most likely be continued into the future.

Designer Awards:

The designer awards is a yearly awards presentation show that showcases graphic designers from around the world. Opening up their logo design process to professionals and amateurs was a controversial decision but it was a great idea because he didn’t showcase favoritism to any one of the particular award winners. There were thousands of entries for the designer awards logo and they eventually settled on a monochromatic, modern design.

Rolling beans:

Rolling beans is a national coffee shop chain that seeks competition with Starbucks and other major coffee shops across the US. When they chose to produce their logo via crowd sourced designs it was a controversial decision. The end product looks great and has made its way onto all of their branding and packaging.

While it can be hard to believe that these designs were crowd sourced rather than produced by professional design firms, this is a trend that will continue to grow for the future.

Check out the most unusual places to find inspiration here! 

The post 6 popular logos you won’t believe were crowd sourced: appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.

A new industry trend that is taking the design world by storm is developing logos using a special crowd sourcing technique. Managing a project like a logo development process can be extremely difficult and not many small businesses can actually afford the higher a full design agency.

Agencies handle a number of different creation tasks when it comes to a typical logo design. They can perform research into your target market, looking to trends for your industry select the right color palette for your needs, identify images that stand in line with your corporate culture and select the right typeface/ design elements that will make up your logo. Paying for all these elements from the perspective of an entrepreneur or small business can seem like an unobtainable process.

Crowd sourced logo design is a new tool that many are using in logo creation because a large group or community can work to produce designs and ideas in the same way that a design firm would but in a much faster way.

The way that a traditional crowd sourcing campaign works is you outline your budget and roughly what you need from a perspective logo design. After paying your retainer into a crowd sourcing platform you will be given a number of different options from a series of designers online as well as a limited number of revisions on the logos that you like. Often, you could be presented with 10 to 15 different ideas and you will then be tasked to pick the designer or contributor that is the closest to finding your brand identity.

While crowd sourcing can be a cheaper and faster option than designing a logo with the help of a graphic design firm, it does have a few problems that can make many industry professionals squirm.

Pros:

• You can stay on budget: The average advertising agency may charge you thousands of dollars to produce a quality logo that works for your target market and showcases your brand culture. Most of these advertising agencies also require you to submit a retainer or around a third of the total money owing to secure your project. Crowdsourcing allows you to get results for a budget that you are comfortable with.
• You can have many options: you may not have a clear vision of what your logo should look like but on some sites you could find yourself getting 10’s of options for your budget or even hundreds of options just by posting a request online. Having more options can be useful for improving your train of thought on your logo and for finding something that you really like. Crowd sourced logo design can almost always offer you mockups from multiple design firms without having to risk any extra retainer or capital.
• Building a brand buzz: Just by posting your request online you can get prospective customers excited about your brand as well as have an opportunity for some free public relations by opening up your logo design. In order to get the most feedback and designs possible you can share your campaign to build up the buzz surrounding your product/ brand.
• Pushing the edge of design: many design firms often play it safe so that they can please the vast majority of clients and maintain business relations. Rather than showcasing some edgy designs many of the top design firms often play it safe. Opening up your logo design to a larger crowd could help you find some new and creative designs that push the limits of modern logos in your industry.

Cons:

• No guarantee of experience: When you crowd sourced designs on most websites anyone can submit logo ideas. This means that you can get submissions from those that have marketing backgrounds and graphic design backgrounds and those that don’t. In some cases this means that you have zero guarantee that they have done any kind of market research or that they haven’t use some type of online template to produce the design. When working with an agency you only get access to designers who have education and who have produced successful results with expanding brands.
• Overwhelming choices: Most designers will present you with a few options based off of what is trending in your current market and what they feel reflects your corporate culture. With hundreds of potential designs to sort through and choose from you often won’t be saving any time with crowd sourced designs.
• Fees: Your budget isn’t utilized to the maximum amount with crowd sourced designs. Often they take a considerable percentage of 10 to 20% just for allowing you to post your campaign online.
• Work in advertising: In order to attract the best designers to your project you need to do a bit of legwork and actually advertise your crowd sourced logo design campaign. This can cut into your marketing budget as well as your time as a business owner.
• A big risk: When you stake your advertising budget and the future of your brand on a crowd sourced design you have a far greater chance of failure. Although a crowd funded design can offer you a better chance that a professional logo for a small budget, a crowd sourced logo often comes with far greater risks when widely used to expand your brand recognition.

Keep these pros and cons in mind if you are considering a crowd sourced logo design

Check out these top logos that were crowd sourced!

The post Is It Ever a Good Idea to Crowd Source a Logo Design? appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.

Having a logo that can actually transcends time is somewhat of an impossibility. While there are a number of logos that have a classic look and have been around for decades, it’s important to note that it’s tough to match the trends of tomorrow through prediction. Designing a logo using modern trends in design isn’t going to make it trendy for a new generation and will encourage at least some form of rebranding. Most logos usually remain modern for around a decade but some of the classic elements of the logo will make it through the rebranding effort to showcase your history. While no one logo design should be expected to carry you through 50 years of business, any logo should be able to get you through at least 10 years in the design industry.

Logos are art and some of the best art can transcend time. When we look back at classic painters we marvel at their talent and their skill. Looking back at classic logos there are many designers who would like to emulate the same style as well. Creating a logo that transcends time means creating something iconic and simple enough that it can be changed and rebranded multiple times into recognizable formats.

There is no way to predictably future proof a design but there are some patterns that you can follow to model the success of other logos that have had success over a long haul. It is however important to remember some of these top tips:

Very few design elements remain popular over time:

Design is consistently changing especially in logo design. A logo design that transcends time is increasingly difficult because of this factor. As programs in technology change different forms of design are drawn to the forefront of art. In the past designs had to be almost entirely hand-drawn and measured out on drafting tables, today we can bring in complex textures and computer graphics as well as utilize various scripts for scalability and customizability. As computer software continues to change we might see a trend pushing toward animated graphics custom 3d textures and more. For any promotions that include your logo and branding you should strongly remember that graphics on your packaging on your website and more should be placed in the background where as your logo and branding should always come to the forefront. This creates a consistency over time and ensures that you can include modern design elements alongside your classic logo.

Typography makes major changes as well:

While the base image or symbol that represents your logo may not change much over time, you can make drastic changes in typography to update your design. Popular type sets seem to materialize every 5 to 10 years and many of the top scripts used in logo design today are very different from that used in the 80s and 90s. If you want a modern brand you should consider regularly changing your typeset and small elements of your logo to reflect the design changes of the time. Creating a meaningful brand means creating a logo and brand that resonates with the current generation and typography can be a powerful tool for matching your logo up with the times.

Many logos don’t stand the test of time but are still functional:

Many of the oldest logos really haven’t been updated but it’s there classic look that helps them to instill trust in us. When we look at Coca-Cola and Nike for example we see that both of these companies have only done minimal changes to their logo and branding over time but it’s the background images and small design elements that have changed in order to modernize the brand. Some other classic logo designs having been so successful in this effort however:

Capitol one: Capitol one to get outdated logo and recently added a solution the year 2008. While One follow the rule of adding small design elements to keep their logo resonating with a new generation, it was too little too late and a little bit cliché as well. Capital one never really had an iconic brand that was future proof but a small design element like this one really doesn’t help the logo resonate any better with a new generation.  The capitol one Swoosh branding is a great example of how a brand can fail at creating a logo that transcends time.

Pepsi: Pepsi regularly spends money to redesign their can and their logo. While the ball symbol in red white and blue has represented Pepsi for many years, the most recent element of rebranding has almost destroyed what was a symbol capable of transcending time. The Pepsi logo is redone at least once a decade and the company changes it drastically every time. Rather than sticking with a product that works very well as an iconic logo, the company prefers a rapid and modern redesign to stay on trend and it doesn’t always work. This is not a logo that transcends time.

If you are trying to design a logo that transcends time remember that it’s an extremely difficult process. If you keep some of these top blunders and tips in mind however, you never far better chance at accomplishing this lofty goal.

Check out these classic logos for some inspiration on creating timeless logo designs. 

The post Can You Design a Logo That Transcends Time? appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.

When it comes to getting a professional logo design you should strongly consider hiring on a professional to handle every aspect of the design process. A professional logo designer will be able to not only create a better logo design for your needs but they can produce more actionable results when it comes to reading the markets as well. Working with a professional logo designer can be a bit of a process but it can prevent costly fixes and with the market research that a design agency or graphic designer can complete for you, your company can have a much greater reach with your logo.

There is definitely a major difference when it comes to a user generated logo, a logo that you purchase from $25 for freelancing site and a professional graphic design logo that may have cost hundreds of dollars. The best graphic designers with experience have access to high grade software licenses, years of experience and they know the questions to ask about your products and your corporate culture to produce a highly striking logo that will convey a message about your company. Professional logo designers know how to come up with creative solutions and iconic logos that can be future proofed.

While a cheaper logo can help to fill an immediate need, a logo completed by professional is something that you could be displaying with your company for 10 or more years. A professional graphic designer or design agency will do the research on your competition, your industry and develop multiple revisions of the same logo design until it’s absolutely perfect.

Here are five of the top reasons that you should consider hiring a professional to do your logo design:

Cost savings:

A graphic designer can be one of the most cost-effective ways that you can produce a logo design because they can complete many of the things in-house or they have industry contacts that can produce all of your marketing material. A designer will also be sure to output the graphic design files for your logo in a format that highly compatible with printers, for the web and for marketing campaigns. The cost of having to redesign your logo if these files are never presented can be great. Hiring a professional graphic designer also provides you with cost savings because you can use your logo for a much longer period. Instead of having a short-term logo that’s only good for a year or two, you can have a logo that’s ready to stand behind your business for 10 years. The cost of a professional graphic designer doesn’t seem too bad considering they would be producing a product that could last a decade or more. Spreading out the cost of a graphic designer or design agency over 10 years can make the cost of professional logo design extremely reasonable.

Time savings:

As a business owner or manager, it can be very difficult to have time available for a professional logo design. With a graphic designer producing a professional logo with the help of their industry-leading software, it’s possible to save time through the design process and more. Not only will you get the output files in a highly scalable and compatible format but you can often receive mockups and marketing material with your logo on it that might take you hours to create without a proper logo design.

Forging your own path:

A professional graphic designer can help you to forge your own path in your industry. A template logo or simple logo won’t get you noticed and it certainly won’t get you business. By following current trends in design and setting yourself apart from the competition your brand can soar. Raising your business and your logo above the competition is best done with the help of a professional.

Consistency:

A graphic designer will be able to produce consistent branding across your company. By going to the effort of hiring a designer you also get to take advantage of all of their experience. Your professional logo design will have consistent font sizes, type settings, color combinations, and images. It’s this type of consistency that really adds the professionalism of your brand and helps to keep your logo one consistent image. If this consistency as well that really helps to improve your brand recognition and to embed the image of your brand in people’s minds.

Getting results:

Companies hire graphic designers because they want to get results. There are many businesses that have a rough idea of what they want their materials and marketing to look like but they don’t have the expertise to produce these professional images. A designer’s job is to listen to your concerns and preferences and then to produce your vision. This is exactly what they have talent in. A graphic designer can help you get results by being able to start your business off on the right foot with the correct marketing materials.

As you can see, a professional graphic designer is indispensable for logo design.

Check out some of the legends of logo design here!

The post Why You Should Hire a Professional To Do Your Logo Design? appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.