Logo Design

For a while now, I have been thinking about a nice logo for the Bexley Brewing Company.  However, I kept putting it off.  I am not very creative and figured I needed some help, and design firms can be expensive.  Since I am working on a very small budget, I needed to find a low cost option.  

I searched the internet for “logo design” and “free logo design”.  I thought there would be some website that did low cost design or I could find someone who did it in the spare time for a small fee.  The first sites I found offered free logo designs on their website.  They give you a number of images to pick from then you can change the color and add text.  Basically these are pretty much a joke.  If you are able to create something that looks good, you are not able to save the file in a high resolution format without a fee.  In my opinion, what you come up with on these sites is not worth paying for.  So I went on.

I found two web only companies that offered logo design.  The first one (99designs.com) has some great reviews and a offers three different cost options which is nice.  The second one (infinitylogodesign.com) has some mixed reviews, but also offers different cost options.  Infinity design is much less expensive than 99designs, but the mixed reviews were concerning.  Their site also has much less in the way of information on what they provide and fewer examples.  

Being cheap I decided to go with Infinity Logo, and it turned out to be a great experience.  With the package I picked I figured I might get something and would not be out any money if it did not work out.  I have to say I was surprised by the level of service they provide.  They assign a rep even on the plan I picked and he was very responsive to any request or question I had.  They provided the design a day faster than promised, and each revision only took a day or two.  

However, I did see a lot of drawbacks, but most were due to the package I picked.  I could only get
three revisions, and they only provided two samples to work from.  So if I did not like where they started, I was in trouble.  At the end of the day, I got a design that is OK and certainly one that I can use. 

I also found that they keep their cost down by offering a bunch of add ons.  If you want them to assign the copyright to you, it is an extra fee (99designs includes this in their packages).  Also, if you want something where you can get a lot of revisions and initial designs, it will cost you.  Overall it was a much better experience than what I expected.   I think they are trying very hard to improve their reputation, and if you are willing to spend a little money (and not looking for free options) I think they provide a nice service.  

One additional note on the copyright.  What any of these places charge for the copyright is pretty high.  The real cost to copyright and register something is $35, and the government offers an online system to make your filing.  More information can be found on copyright.gov.