How To Score The Perfect Logo W/O Breaking The Bank

1 Choose Your Colors

Sites like ColorLovers have hundreds of palettes to choose from and refer your designers to. If you already know exactly the colors you want to use, grab the html or “hex” code from a color chart- I happen to like the one at Html-Color-Codes.info. Need a quick guide to some complimentary hues for your primary color choice? Try the simple one at DhtmlGoodies.com.

2 Consider The Elements

Brainstorm elements and symbols that relate to your business. Logo elements for a clothing designer might include: a needle and thread, measuring tape, dress pattern, or model. The logo for an Fair Trade Ethiopian coffee might include: farm workers, coffee plants, or a bit of the Ethiopian flag. You get it.
For further inspiration, check out Creattica or Logopond.

3 Find A Good Designer…Or 50

At Crowdspring.com, business owners can post projects with a specific budget and timeline for designers to compete for with custom designs. Projects can range from your company logo to promo t-shirts, posters, packaging, even Powerpoints. Get Crowdspring guarantees 25 custom designs to choose from or your money back. Minimum bids supposedly start at $200, but Crowdspring charges a 15% project fee for $200 is actually $230. They also encourage you to bid at around $300 to get a greater number of designs to choose from, apparently $200 projects pull an average of 43 designs, and $300 jobs pull around 94. Regardless, it’s a very inexpensive way to start your branding process with an impressive pool of talent: over 43,000 creatives in over 150 countries.

GeniusRocket is another incredible resource for videos, web design, graphic design, and “ideation” (branding work including taglines and company names.)

Now, Ready, Set, LOGO! (We just couldn’t help ourselves there.)