How Much Should I Pay For a Small Business Logo and Card Design?

How much do you think this cost?

"How much should my business logos, branding, and designs cost? Artists are a dime a dozen, right? It can't be that much."

This is one of the most common questions ever in the business world, especially now that start ups are coming along left and right, and is probably one of the most frustrating parts of being a designer due to misconceptions about the design world. Thankfully, I found a post that answers this question in the most straightforward way I've ever seen, and breaks it down to real monetary amounts.

The initial question:

I want to pay someone to design a logo for a company. How much should I expect to pay for something of quality?

Reply from reddit user /u/jessefletcher of www.jessefletchercreative.com

Your price request seems to have stirred up people a bit and the info may be confusing. The thing with logo design is that it is very dependent on the client and scope, and people not really knowing either of these about you makes it difficult to estimate. Here is what I would expect in terms of pricing:

$50-$300
Junk for the most part, the logo will be generic, quick and typically a knockoff of something that already exists, you will find students and overseas competitors in this bracket

$300-$1000
This will get you something solid that reflects your company to some extent but it will but just a logo, it may have some proper fonts to go with it, some Pantone colors and that's it. You will find freelancers and print shops in this bracket.

$1000-$5000
This will be your meat and potatoes, proper resource should be done at this level, looking into competitors, brand usage and guidelines should be generated. This will reflect your company and the "feel" that you want, and may include some other elements like business card designs. You will find freelancers and design firms in this bracket

$5000-$20,0000
This is much more of a branding package, it is the logo properly researched and then implemented into the company, how it works on cards, letterhead, photography, jackets, vehicle wraps, building signage, promotional items, website etc... (Note: this is not the building of those things though it could include it, just how the brand would be implemented into it) this would typically be handled by design firm.

$20,000+
These are bug corporations, cities, countries and the Olympics. Most the cost of this is implementation, usage cases and perceived value. Usually this would be handheld by an internationally recognized firm.


These are just guidelines based on what I have seen. You could get the perfect logo for $20 but it would be a random rare shot.

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From Rabbit's Perspective:

Great and straightforward answer from Mr. Fletcher, and from our perspective, because we work primarily with local small businesses, we have our logo design price level at the freelancer/print shop range. Any higher, and many of these business owners would have sticker shock because they don't understand the value of a good design, but since it's such a low price, I have to impose very strict guidelines, such as number of redesigns and touchups I will do before having to charge more.

Regardless, I hope this clarifies the issue for people searching for professional designs.