“Fiverr – has anyone used it before for logo design? I want to give it a try.”

I see this question posted in business groups on Facebook all the time and never reply because it feels so self serving but after seeing people’s bad experiences and definitely having an opinion on the subject we figured it was time to post our thoughts on companies such as Fiverr. We were going to title this ‘THE PROS AND CONS OF USING FIVERR FOR LOGO DESIGN’ but other than cheap and fast we don’t see any pros to going this route. If you don’t know what we are talking about, Fiverr is the worlds largest $5 online marketplace. If you need freelance services, Fiverr says they are they place for you. These types of places are ones where you pay significantly reduced amounts to get a logo quick and cheap. The question should be why would you want a logo quick and cheap? How is the quality going to be on this quick and cheap product… what do you think? For $100 it’s got to be good, right?

Here are a few points to consider when deciding if Fiverr is really the place to have your logo designed (or copy writing, or design, or a website, but that is entirely another ball of wax for next time):

You get what you pay for. From the process likely followed behind the scenes, corners are cut due to the inexpensive cost as well as the disconnect between the owner and the maker means that likely the end product will be missing something. Personality, research, meaning, soul, connection. Potentially missing a lot of things technically as well.

Process matters. There is a reason that really great results very often come from a great process. Research, creative brief, an understanding of the business, sketching, mood boards, style guides, and limited options are all important to the process. Then on to finalized, fine-tuning and perfecting of the files for production.

Your logo is your property, or at least it is in our world. Your logo is your property, created just for you, and should belong to you, full files, source files and everything should be in a tidy folder on your desktop or on the cloud. The cost for giving you the full files should be built into the cost of the logo development and shouldn’t be optional. Fiverr often gives you the option to get those files for an additional cost, in our opinion, it shouldn’t be optional but mandatory, always.

How do you know that same logo won’t be used for another company? Answer: you don’t. We have seen it happen where similar businesses both used Fiverr and they found out they had the same logo as a competitor, just altered slightly and in a different colour. What is the point of that?

Your logo is the face of your company. Don’t underestimate how much a first impression matters and most times that impression comes in the form of a logo. Putting your best foot forward is important, it shows care and attention to detail.

Work with someone who cares. Does a stranger you meet on the internet really know you and your business? Would you leave your kids with some random person online? Your business is your baby, don’t treat it any differently than you would a loved one. Further more, how much do you really think they care when your project is only $100 so they need to take on dozens, hundreds of other logos at a time to pay the bills. How creative and original do you think that work will be in that case too?

Too many options and too many revisions. Experienced designers know that showing more options to clients doesn’t equal better work. As the expert, it is our job to work through all of the options, limitless possibilities and show the best possible ones based on the creative brief and research. It needs to have a strong rationale behind it and cover all the requirements that make up a great logo and brand.

It should be very straight forward explaining why a company like Fiverr for logo design is a bad idea, but the cheap cost seems to be too tempting to resist for some. We implore you to think about how much blood, sweat and tears you have put into your business and if that is the case, then why would you want to just throw the honour of designing a logo for you to a stranger that doesn’t know or care about your business in anyway?

Find a team who gets you and can help you through the ups and downs of branding and logo development. Meet them face to face and ask them about their process and how they are going to solve your greatest riddle. Your brand is how people feel about you when you are not in the room and your logo is one part of that feeling.

What do you want it to say about you?

Share your thoughts with us. What is the most important thing to you when it comes to branding?