Regular Designing Process

Regular Process

There are quite a number of people who are somewhat unfamiliar with the elaborate process when employing the services of online design companies. I’ve decided to outline the usual process usually taken by most logo design companies on the Internet.

Firstly, you would have to set up an account with the online design service provider after which you can place your respective order on a specific design package which aptly suits to your needs and requirements. A usual waiting period of 3 to 4 days is applicable before you receive your set of initial design concepts. However, there are some online logo design companies which can give you a set of initial concepts in just 24 hours.

Depending wholly on the online design firm which you are using, the initial design concepts provided ranges from 2 up to 6 concepts. After reviewing the initial concepts, you can ask for revisions or modifications on the logo designs - be it in terms of color schemes, font types or even, the layout of the design. Please be aware that certain design firms charge for revisions while some provides unlimited revisions for free.

If you completely dislike the concepts proposed, you can request for new concepts and this process is called ‘Redraw’. Likewise, please take note that some online agencies offer a limited number of redraws only while others will charge you an additional fee for each redraw. Make sure you check with the company on the fees and hidden charges involved before starting on your design project. The design package which you have chosen should have listed all of these details.

Once you are happy with the design and no changes are required, you can then finalize your design project. The final files will be sent to you in a variety of file types. Make sure that the files given to you fit your needs such as a Freehand file, an Illustrator file, an Acrobat file, GIFs and JPEGs files.

The duration of the entire process depends on you. If you would have asked for continuous edits and redraws, it might take weeks or months to finish. But if you have a clear vision on what you want your logo design to look like and you can convey it clearly to your graphic designer,  I’m sure you will be able to get your ideal logo design within 4 to 5 days or less.

At the end of this entire design process, the finalized logo design is fully owned by you but all the remaining logo concepts offered during the designing process do not belong to you. So, do not be shocked if you might come across a familiar looking logo design that you have rejected earlier being used by another company.

Refund Concerns

You can request for a refund if you are not satisfied with the designs offered. More often than not, in respected design firms, the designer in-charge of your assignment would offer to brainstorm one final batch of designs to meet your requirements. If you still dislike the designs, then you will be given a refund whether it is a full or partial refund relies wholly on the company’s policies. Nevertheless, there are some online design agencies that will simply postpone the refund and continuously provide excuses just so that they can resume charging you for their hours in working with you. So, please be careful and read the fine print in the terms and conditions of any online design firms.

Your refund will be calculated based on how much work has been done thus far on the design. For example, if you have asked for roughly 15 to 20 logo changes, it is impossible that you will be able to receive a full refund but you may be paid 10 to 20 percent of the total amount initially paid on your design package. You may be entitled to a full refund if you have asked roughly less than 5 times of design edits.

What About Chargeback?

Once you have informed your credit card company on the cancellation of your order, the design agency would have to pay you back the full amount and will be fined with a small penalty fee. Perform this only when the design agency concerned ignore your request for a refund.

Do take note that once you have been refunded through the design firm itself or via chargeback, the logo design would not be owned by you but by the design agency instead. So do not in anyway, use those designs as there were instances whereby legal actions were taken against the customers.

Cheap & Still Good… Are You Actually Serious?

This will be a follow-up to my previous post of Expensive VS Cheap. Many have asked: How come there are countless online design firms offering such low price for respectable quality logo designs equivalent to those of high-end prices? Could they earn a profit? How are they able to sustain their business? And finally, are they a legit, reliable design firm to deal with? Consumers are genuinely very concerned and curious over this matter as to how a business offering low-priced services could in short, survive and still churn out quality logo designs.

Well, it all boils down to how the company works to minimize its cost. For instance, some online design companies do not provide a contact number be it toll-free or not, as it helps in playing down the cost involved in having a hotline customer service. The absence of having a phone line for customer service will help reduce the cost of the designs you are paying. More often than not, many design firms do have an online feedback system (live operator chat, e-mails and the likes) as a much cheaper alternative.

Design agencies with a fixed line or toll-free customer service number usually offer higher design rates as you are actually paying for these accommodating yet hidden and costly service provided by the respective design firms. This is true when you compare prices between those online logo design companies with and without a direct telephone link to their customer service.

So, if you prefer to communicate with the head designer responsible on handling your design project than you must be more than willing to fork out the price attached to the design you are getting. On the other hand, if you have a preference to skip the hassle of actually having to talk to the designers you are assigned to (similar to conventional local design company), those low range priced online design firms are definitely your choice. In all honesty, for me, I would prefer to at least, be able to communicate to the designer in-charge of my project be it via the phone or the Internet. It is just as vital to be able to explain to the designer your visions, requirements and the creative direction you want to take.

Besides, these online design companies are able to survive because they manage to produce the designs at a very fast rate while at the same time maintaining the quality of their work. This further helps to make up for any losses incurred from their low-priced services. By hiring permanent in-house designers instead of freelance designers also help to minimize the total cost of the whole business.

With more and more of these cheaper online design firms sprouting on the Internet, choices are aplenty and it is up to your judgment on choosing the right one that work best for you company.