Fiverr be wary

When you first start out in business you don’t have a lot of funds to do everything you want to do. I see a lot of people that want to get their logos, business cards or other important identity pieces done but they are only willing to spend $5. Unfortunately those cheap Fiverr gigs can do more damage than good. The costs can be higher and the designs could be copied from somewhere else. You’ll probably have to redo it in a few months to a year to give you something more uniquely you or when you realize you don’t have all the file types you need and the designs don’t blow up well.

What I recommend when someone is first starting their business is to put your business name in a nice simple font, use that as your logo until you can afford something that will reflect your unique brand. It also gives you time to define all those elements (mission, vision, values) that go into a good brand that gets translated into a logo.

Here’s what I did for my first business card. Simple, easy to read and all the information you need.

Would you go to a doctor that was only $5? Would you get advice from a coach? What would you want someone to pay you $5 for? I know I’m a bit biased since I do design work but I’d trust it to a trusted professional whether that be me or someone else in your network.

Here are some actual comments that have been made about doing design work on Fiverr.

“Just beware of copyrighted images being used in your potential logo.  They’re pretty notorious for that.”

“Fiverr can be great for things that people can’t steal from someone else. I would be careful about a logo or content or anything like that.”

“Most of them “design” via stock and recycle logo templates. Only way to make time spent profitable.”

“Cheap = low quality. I’ve had 2 clients who used them for a logo and they ended up using copyrighted clipart, which is illegal and unusable. And it cost them $100+ each. I don’t encourage anyone to use their services unless it’s something completely custom (like transcribing audio to text or a photo retouch). I just don’t think it’s worth it… I can’t help but think that new entrepreneurs want to feel confident they’re working with professionals – like themselves, to be part of their team and support their business and not to mention… do the job well.”

“I’ve actually done searches on some of the logos done through there and almost every time I saw the same image (sometimes the exact same colors) used for several different businesses. Buyer beware as they say.”

“I have had mixed results on Fiverr also. I wouldn’t use it for logo work without personal recommendations, a lot are really simple and ugly templates, then they upsell you on what you had originally asked for in the first place. However I have found some great gems as well, such as an artist that drew some affordable original art for my product. Look carefully – things like white board videos can vary tremendously in quality and price.”

“I had some “custom” graphics done by one person and they were stolen, I didn’t find out until later. I had another set done by an artist they were original and wonderful (and way over $5.)”

“I do not support crowdsourcing sites like this. most of the “designers” are untrained. Fiverr is known for blatant copyright infringement, even so far as selling a “custom” logo to more than one person. I also think as a self employed person I would rather invest in another fellow “self employed” person than to go to a site where the works are not monitored, where they sell services to the lowest bidder, are from third world countries who do not respect the industry, are not trained, do not conform to US copyright law and the list goes on. It amazes me that business women know full well how hard it is to run a business and get clients then outsource their work to a website like this but the say” support small business”. Bit hypocritical.”

“As previous comments have said, it’s hit and miss ( I am convinced that some of the Fiverr community are showcasing work that they haven’t designed) so you have to go for the wide approach but, hey its cheap and can work for the odd campaign. For my own brand identity I used a professional design agency.”

“Fiverr is great when you have a very specific project. Logos and creative work–eh.”

What goes into a logo that I design?

Oh so many things…if you do it right. Experience, fonts, colors, feeling and theory. It should not be a quick one hour process. It should take some time if you really want it to work for you and your business.

What’s my branding process?

To begin, I have a list of questions I will ask about you and your business. Answering these questions will give me a better idea of what you are looking for. It will help me know the problem you are trying to solve. Is it just a logo? Is it just a business card at this time or perhaps just a Facebook banner? Is it everything? These questions and more get us both on the same page about your wants and needs.

For the logo, I follow up with questions about what you like, what you don’t like, who’s your competition and more. From there, I start to think about all of your answers and research your industry, audience and competitors. This research and thought process can take several hours even when I’m not actively engaged in front of the computer. When I do logo’s they are always on my mind, thinking, looking around the city, sketching, writing and finally getting to the design.

I’ll send you some variations that I think will work. If you love it, we’ll be done! Yahoo! If you don’t love it, you’ll be able to make comments and we’ll work together to resolve any issues. I’ll present revised proofs and we’ll go from there! At the end, you will own all the files, the rights and have everything that you need to scale the logo as big or as small as you want it (not just a jpeg for your website). It will be professional and uniquely you! A logo is a huge investment in your business and, if done well, will stick with you for years.