Ben Jonhson

Ben Johnson is the Alliance Manager at Logoinn, a custom logo design company. He writes about the effect of design on marketing and brand identity and helps small businesses find design solutions for effective marketing.

24 thoughts on “DIY Logo Design vs. Custom Logo Design”

  • I agree, hire a professional, especially if you’re not creative… which most people are not. Even if you think you are creative, get an outside professional opinion in the mix. It helps spark ideas. Then you can go back to DIY if you really want to.
    In my experiences in the past when I did try DIY, I ended up having to have everything redone a year later when the DIY version was outgrown. Ended up costing more money, more time… would have been easier to just start with the professional creative mind in the first place.
    Now if I need something done, even if I have the creative idea, I’ll bounce it off my designer to get her opinion and suggestions.

    • Steve you have very nicely expanded the topic with your experience as an example, ya true DIY tool cannot customize your design perfectly.
      It is better that you go for a custom logo designer, or even if you are a designer just create it but try to gather some feedback about your Logo from some professionals, like you can create a forum post for getting the feedback. Anyway as far as the cost is concern there are many cheap logo design companies, but very few are creative and competitive, so price doesn’t matter, before choosing a company just check their portfolio and feedback on any other 3rd party website.

  • Hi Ben. Totally agree with you on this one. If there is something that you can do yourself and good at it, I say go for it, otherwise let those who are the experts in the field do the job for you. I guess that most of the time people tend to use the DIY methods due to the investment $$. Needless to say that it the long run it may cost more.

    BTW, thanks for creating my logo. It was spot on what I was looking for.

    • Thanks, ya your logo looks good on your header, but please will tell us why you have chosen Pyramid icon in your Logo, what is the hidden truth behind it 🙂

  • Be careful here, a logo can make it or break it. If you are not fully confident that you can pull this off and if you have some dollars extra, I’d rather have a design professional create the logo.

  • Yes, DiTesco, been meaning to tell you…great logo!

    Hi Ben, I actually had my logo redone very recently. He did a very good job … I actually really like it. But still torn between whether or not to go for something a bit more graphical???

    I want my logo to grow with me and I’m not 100% sure if mine currently encompasses that or not. I train, coach and do site development and not sure if this logo speaks that or if it really matters all that much. Difficult when you don’t have a trained eye for this.

    Guess I’ll have to sit with it for a while and see.

    But yes, definitely agree with you…best to have a professional do something as important as this! I’ve looked at your site before… who knows, may have to revisit it again. 😉

    ~Ciao

    • thanks for your comments Michele, I just visited your website and took a look at your logo, first of all my advice is to put your logo in a proper format, it looks pixelated.
      Over all your logo is not too bad.

      • Hey Ben,

        Thanks so much for taking a look at it and giving me your opinion. You are awesome!

        Will be in contact. =)

        • No problem Michele 🙂

      • Hi Ben. Why pyramid? Well that’s a long story and I can tell you but then I will have to kill ya, haha.. just kidding. I promise Ben that one of these days I will take the time to explain. It is not long but there is in fact something behind it.

        • I will wait for you to reveal this mystery 🙂

    • thanks Hesham for RT 🙂

  • Hi Ben
    As a newbie blogger I have limited funds and got my niece who is doing graphic design at college to do a simple design on my blog and got a printing company to do my biz cards. However I am seeing a web designer on Monday so will probably get him to do whatever needs doing to make it look more professional.
    Patricia Perth Australia

    • Patricia as a newbie blogger your blog is not that bad, yes you should redesign your blog by getting help of any professional web designer, Hope you will have a successful meeting with your web design consultant.

    • Patricia, let me know how that works out … the web designer.

      I’m having a fit trying to install a theme! I should have saved my money and used a free one. 😉

  • Ideally a logo should be simple and easy to remember. A good example would be the apple logo or the Nike swoosh. Simple, elegant designs that are unique and immediately identifiable to the company.

    • yes these are the best examples, when we talk about a simple identity.

  • Creating a logo is an extremely critically part of building your brand. It is one of the first things that customers will recognize you by. Therefore, I think this is something that should be outsourced, unless you have a graphics whiz who understands your vision of what the logo needs to communicate.

  • Yes ,A best logo design is for inspiring trust, recognition and admiration for a company or product and it is our job as designers to create a best logo that will do its job. A best logo design is distinctive, appropriate, practical, graphic, simple in form and conveys an intended message.

  • For my blog, I decided to get some professional help and pay for a custom blog mascot. The other parts of the blog header, I did myself.

    Hiring a professional to design a blog mascot for my blog is one of the best decisions I’ve made. The only thing I regret is not doing it earlier. 😀

  • The age old saying, you get what you pay for, rings true in most cases. Yes, you can get some very good home made/ self made / DIY logos, but those are few and far between.
    Anyway, if you are good at graphic design and logo design, then you are probably, or should be in that field professionally. Then it does become a professional design.

    So my though, get the professionals in when and if you can afford it

  • I would definitely hire a professional. Even with the choices you would have on a DIY adventure, I do not think I am artistic enough to figuring out what would fit it.

    BTW, I love your logo. Guessing you used a professional? ha/ha

    Richard is right, the most well known are simple, beautiful, and hard to forget. If your logo doesn’t fit this, then it is time to find someone to fix it.

    thank you for this wonderful post. I think it is time I start looking for the right professional to do my logo.

  • I agree with your post.
    Your article is really good, very positive thoughts.
    When you create a logo, your design must be unique that’s the number one technique..Thanks for sharing your wonderful article.

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