Am I Being Charged Too Much?

$200 is a lot of money!! even matthew rochow charges only $100 for custom mascot!!

it takes a day for him to get one mascot ready!!

I am a designer as well, I know what a logo means and how difficult it is to market them. For I had to reduce my prices considerably because of people here on Dp are selling logos for $1 which is not feasible for my to do!!

Hence I stopped doing logos in DP and moved on!! Dp is polluted with people selling lies. Not just DP but the internet on the whole it would be better if you go to a design company near you and order a logo offline.That is the best way to get quality.

Dont ever trust people on DP if you want a logo go the contest section of DP atleast there you will have a chance to get a decent design.

 

That's a bit of a big generalization isn't it? I don't think that's fair at all.

I've worked with some great people via DP (buying & selling) so to make such a sweeping statement is completely wrong.

 

lol, your nuts.. designers who make this a living professionally like myself would charge depending on how technical it is, between $100 - UP. Trust me, you think it may be cheaper, but to the person putting in the hours work for you, its definately worth it.. 200$ is relatively cheap, i know people who made 1000$ on a simple logo lol.

 

There seem to be a lot of folks around here that will do a logo for dirt cheap, I just looked at a thread with 7.00 logos in it, with my mouth open -- I'm fairly new here on DP, unfortunately I'm a victim of the economic collapse, so I'm looking for work myself, but I can't compete with these ridiculously low prices, unless I just want to try it out for fun like my first and last foray into forum posting -- now where O where do I spend my 4.50c...?

From your description of what you were asking for you are probably paying too much - if you're being fair, not cheap which seems to be the theme -- I would put something like that at a budget between 50.00 - 100.00(professional logo design company starts at 300.00) -- I've hired several artist for design work over the internet, with excellent results -- and I could have worked with you, where I would review portfolios, interview and hire your artist -- translate your ideas into a concept for the artist -- work through several drafts with that artist -- and I would have done that for 100.00(including logo) -- and it would probably take a week to two weeks, not an hour --

All in all, usually an artist presents his/her portfolio, and you choose judging by style and talent(the better they are, the price goes up and you can see the difference in quality) -- many artist will want to design a logo and force it on you, making you set your mind on one idea -- generally this is bad business practice in my opinion, so be careful about accepting the first thing that encapsulates your idea-

 

Imo it's a little to expensive. I think hes basing on the fact that you don't know the market.

 

I'd say the main issue here is that it only took him an hour to do, he initiated the contact, he never agreed a price beforehand (or even waited to hear if you wanted a logo), he has no portfolio and is clearly just trying to coerce you into giving him a rediculous fee for little-to-no work.

You have no obligation to purchase anything from him, he went ahead and did the work off his own back with no approval from you, you never stated that you would pay him any money for anything he did... there is no contract of any kind in this case. If you like the logo enough to pay $200 for it, then pay it. If you really like the logo but don't want to pay that (you shouldn't) you can try and get him to take less. Otherwise the only option is to tell him you don't want the logo.

Think about hourly rates for a minute. If the logo took him an hour to complete, he is asking for $200 per hour as a completely unknown designer with no portfolio (and hence probably no experience). This is simply rediculous. A professional designer with a strong portfolio, a design degree and industry experience would likely not charge such a rate.

The logo he provided with no vector image file cannot be resized for other purposes or printed at 300dpi with maximum quality for business cards, letterheads, etc. If you were to go to a professional design house for a logotype project, the process would involve them getting to know you and your company, what you are about, what your company stands for, what image you want it to portray, who your customers are, and much more. They would then spend time creating many concepts to find what works the best for your particular company, they may take the best few and create vector roughs from them so that you can select your favorite, and they would then proceed to take the logotype to completion. Even if it was a text-only logo, a professional designer with knowledge of typography and hand-lettering could create a completely unique logotype where the particular word or words of your company name have been molded into a unified whole and perfectly represents your company. You would be provided with the vector version of the logo both in full colour and probably also in a plain black so that it could used in the widest variety of purposes.

The point of all this is that usually, you get what you pay for. A professional branding company or logo designer who specialises in this field and knows the trade inside and out can charge what they like, often as much as $1-2k. A smaller and more general design firm or individual may charge $200-600.

My advice? If you want the logo, tell him that $200 is far too much for an hour's work and ask him to take less. Also ask for vector source files if possible so that you can create images at any size from it. If there are no vector source files (i.e. he made it in photoshop) you will probably need to get a vector version created later on at an additional cost to yourself so that you can use it elsewhere, this means the price should go down even further.

I hope this helped in some way, and just keep in mind that unless you agree to have work done and to pay a certain amount for it, you are under no obligation to accept anything.

 

I've been reading this thread and I wanted to comment -

In MY opinion, $200 is way too much for a simple text-only logo. I purchase headers and logos all the time from the contest forum and DP...and occasionally from designers directly. Typically I pay $50 for a decent header or logo, though I have paid slightly more and slightly less. The talent on DP is amazing, but a small-time web designer like me can't afford 200 per graphic. I'd be broke in no time.

Don't get me wrong, I see nothing wrong with paying a decent buck for an amazing logo . It can increase your profit margins immensely, but for a simple logo with no graphics or anything... it just doesn't sound right.

If the guy sends you a logo before you agree on the price and before you give him the OK, it seems to me he's jumping the gun. I'd offer him less for it. If he accepts, then you have a good logo at a fair price. If not, just tell him you won't use the logo and go elsewhere.

 

DP is getting bad publicity... on other forums and blogs which I have come across. People are saying that they can get a logo for as low as $5 here.

People who need logos or any other graphics material should mention in their text that they will hire people only after going thru their portfolio and should finalize the pricing etc.

 

I have had nothing but good experiences with the logo designers on DP. Their prices are fair and their work is exceptional.