Logo Contests….Because Not All Graphic Designers Will Understand Your Concept

One of the most nerve-racking parts of branding a business is having to find someone that can portray your business ideas and concepts in the form of a logo. The logo becomes the face of the company and the roots of the branding. The colors, the icon, the effects….all play intricate roles in how your company may be perceived. So—to say the least—the logo is very important.

When we went through our restructuring, we decided to change our logo. We spoke with several different graphic designers, but we didn’t find one that understood what we truly represent at our core. We believe in using a natural and deliberate approach to make our clients the FOCUS in their industry. Somehow our logo needed to translate that to the viewer.

I remember hearing on numerous occasions about 99designs. So I looked into how exactly it works. It is set-up as a contest where we would have the opportunity to work with a minimum of 30 different designers. AND they offer a 100% money back guarantee. You can’t go wrong with that! So we gave it a go.

I began by filling out a design brief that included things such as a description of our business, our target audience, values, and some sample logos—to name a few. From there, the contest began. The designers had four days to submit work for us to view and give feed back before the next round where we would choose the final designers we wanted to work more closely with until choosing the winning design on day seven. The first day or two, we didn’t see a lot of potential. Again, no one seemed to understand our vision. Several of the designers were using a target, a magnifying glass, or a camera lens as the emblem or icon in the logo.

By the end, there were a total of 207 design entries from 51 designers. Entry #107 was the first one with real promise. And that one didn’t come in until day three. We began working with this designer intently. He lives in Indonesia which is a 12 hour time difference, not to mention the language barrier. He was terrific though. He worked very hard and is the creator of our current logo. Here’s a link to his portfolio page on 99designs: W.H.Y at 99designs.

If you are interested, check out how our contest went.

Thank you for keeping up with FOCUS. To continue staying in the loop, just press the Follow button!