You got it all figured out You’ve googled it, read it on wikipedia, saw all the youtube videos and your ready to rock out with your cockout dot com. But there is one thing missing, you just can’t figure out a “small part” of designing your logo or building your site or creating your content strategy etc etc etc. So why not hire an expert at this point? It can’t hurt that much since you’ve done ALL the work already, right? … This so far is the good part.
The bad part is as follows You call up that designer and tell them your situation. They still quote you the original high price. You feel cheated, so cheated you even want to go back to school so you can do it yourself. Better yet, call up your 2nd cousin who is going to school for airspace software development. That can’t be too different from web designing. Especially since you know what you want … no need to tell you how this will end up.
Now the ugly You finally get that one desperate, semi-ok, recommended on the cheap designer who is willing to be your pinky while you are the brain. You give them detail instructions on how you want your logo to look, site to function, even brand strategy to say. All summed up on the back of a napkin while you were out with the boys at the bar last night.
So your designer is armed with your scribbles. And low and behold, you get scribbles back. You can’t understand it! You told the designer exactly what you wanted. You give it another try and another. Ten revisions later, your designer quits saying “they might not be the right person to implement your vision” and hands you a bill 10 times more then what was originally quoted. Now you one jaded mofo, a very very ugly jaded and dumped mofo.
Before this type of faith is bestowed upon you, I recommend the following. Don’t stop believing in what you want but do stop believing you can do it yourself. Because if you could, you would not be reading this far … NOW before you click away, do the following. Even if you get a new designer or do it yourself, start the process with looking at your competition. Yes everyone has competition and even if you truly feel that you would do a better job then your competitor, list what you do and don’t like and how to make it better. Second, go on google images and search for images that represent the color, adjectives, attitude, vibe, mood and shapes of your brand. Think of it like art class and you are doing a collage (mood board). This will help you or a designer reference your vision.
And if you still DIY it utilize all the current online sites like logo.com, blogger.com, tumblr.com, constantcontact.com, bigcartel.com and etsy.com. They all offer a multitude of self customization. Yes there are limits to self customization as well as the embarrassment of someone else having the same look as you but there is a price to everything in life.
When you do finally want to pay the $ of getting a custom logo, website or brand strategy, gather all your notes, competitor list and mood boards. Start with consultations and the designer that is right for you will be like love at first site. They will offer solutions and guidance to all your research. As well as show you past examples of similar projects. As with dating, you will have to go thru a few frogs before finding your true prince.