Last updated on November 23rd, 2022
Are you a logo designer who is starting new in the industry and does not have a clue as to how to build your career? Many designers lose their way after some time and end up frustrated as they are unable to get clients regularly. Most of them fail to attract valuable clients’ attention. They need to follow some basics for improving their ways of starting their career.
Logo designing is the one career that most professional graphic designers like to pursue. This is mainly due to the fact that every small, medium and big business has a logo as its dominating visual identity. So, a logo is visually present everywhere in a brand’s promotion campaign besides being on products or services. This is the reason that the demand for logo designers to create unique logos never fades away, and instead, it grows up steadily.
Huge Demand For Logo Designers
Some glaring statistics about the use of logos is evidence of how logo designing has been growing steadily as a business. According to some reports, the market size of the logo design in the USA is estimated to be $3 billion. The importance of logos for businesses can be gauged from some survey reports that say that 67% of small businesses will happily fork out $500 for a logo design. Also, 18% of them are willing to pay up to $1000.
Despite the fact that the demand for logo designers is growing fast, many of them are unable to explore the market to their advantage. The fact is that most designers just do not know how to start their career. As a result, they do not get as many clients regularly as they thought of initially.
Considering that, Designhilll, the leading marketplace came out with a webinar to specially address the issue. The webinar aimed at giving helpful tips to logo designers who are starting their career so that they can avoid mistakes others made.
The webinar titled as How to Get a New Logo Design Client Every Week was held on July 11, 2019. The guest speaker was Adolfo Teixeira, who is the founder of Logovolt. He is a passionate logo and brand designer himself.
During the webinar, Adolf discussed various issues that new logo designers often confront when it comes to finding out clients and winning their trust. He answered queries from the designer community.
Check Out The Webinar Video
In this blog, we give you the excerpts from the webinar where Adolf is talking about logo design field as such. He also talks about his experiences of creating logos for clients, how to communicate with clients, and finally how to coup with the situation when a client rejects your work.
Here Are The Tips He Shared With The Design Community In Response To Their Queries
01. How does logo designing field sound to everyone?
A misconception people have is that they can get clients right away. You have to be that good a logo designer to get clients regularly. This is basically due to the fact that a lot of people are offering logo design service. You just go to Fiverr and see that thousands of people are offering logos for five dollars. There is nothing you can do about it. Therefore, your logos should stand out. The question is how do you go about it?
The answer is –time and practice. When you start you should be willing to work for free. It should also be for fun when doing graphic design jobs. However, it is not something very popular as people say that you should never work for free. I do not think that is true. On the beginning, for six months, you should be willing to work for free. During this period, work hard and focus on the quality of the freelance logo design as part of the practice. If that happens, instead of you finding the clients, they will look for you.
So, I will advise you to first, obviously, learn the skills. Get books and watch videos on the subjects. Practice and sketch a lot, which is very important. You can start first for yourself. Challenge yourself to create something new.
Then, start with your friends and see if they need a logo. Of find out someone whose logo is bad. Ask them that you will do a logo free for them. Now, make sure that while you are practicing and working free for your friends, post those logos on social media. Most importantly, post those logos on Instagram, Dribble, Behance, etc. If you are doing your best to create impressive logos by sketching well and putting a lot of hours in a single logo, you will have a good portfolio. Then, people are going to following you on social media. Other designers and also possible clients are likely following you. They will start contacting you. This is when you are going to start charging money.
So, it is like a snowball. You start posting more logos on social media and get more clients. But you should be consistently posting, unlike many who initially post some and then they are absent for many months. Therefore, post at least three times a week. This way, the algorithm of social media keep you favorable.
02. How can I create a good logo design for a client?
There is another misconception that a good idea will come with hard thinking. It does not come from thinking. It comes from studying the master graphic designers. You should have iconic designers you admire and follow their works but do not copy.
I would advise you that when you start your career, you should have five logo designers whom you would like to follow. Then, just try to emulate their works. Initially, you will be creating very similar logos though that may not be a copy. Later, after say five years, you will start developing your own style. Then, you do not have to look at the other designers for inspiration. You will then come up with good ideas yourself.
As a logo designer, you should read good logo design books. I will recommend you read books like Logo Modernism, Draplin Design Co. Pretty Much Everything, Logo Design Love and Vector Basic Training. While I do not think the execution of logo design is that important, still it matters. I think there are a lot of logo designers who are good at sketching a great logo idea but they fail to execute it properly on Illustrator or other software.
03. What is the right way to communicate with a client?
I hate communicating with clients on social media. They contact me and try to get a conversation on email as soon as possible. Social media such as Instagram do not give you the freedom for the presentation of your packages. Maybe they start contacting me on Instagram but I try to shift the conversation to email quickly.
If a client is important and serious, then I will think of taking him on call. In case your English and conversational skills are good, then definitely you should talk on the phone. But if the client is local from your city, just meet personally. A client will hire a freelance graphic designer who can communicate design ideas well.
04. How do you mentally recover when your proposals are rejected?
That is a nightmare for every logo designer. First, get some payment upfront from the client. Never work without taking this payment first. I will advise getting at least half of the upfront in advance. You should ask for the advance payment to ensure that the client is serious about the project. Then, by paying you the advance, the client will be available to you for answering your queries. The client will answer your email faster and return your calls.
A lot of times, clients do not share your vision, and so they do not like your logos. But there are several things you can do about it. First, ask the right questions before starting the project. A good project starts with good questions. Ask the client to tell about the business in a single phrase or quote. Enquire about the niche selling proposition of the client’s business. Also, find out five logos that the client really likes and why. Similarly, ask about the five logos that client hates and why. Ask also why the client hired you.
Stick To Your Design Style
Another thing I will advise is that after working for so many years, you should start sticking to a style. When I started I was doing all kinds of logos. But after sometimes, I started doing minimal logos more and stick to it. Now, when a client when contacting me knows that I develop minimalist designs. Therefore, your portfolio should be consistent in style to design a logo so that the client knows what to expect.
Present Logo On A Live Call
Additionally, instead of presenting your logos via email, present it on a live call. This way, the client is seeing the presentation on-screen and both of you are seeing each other’s reaction. For example, if your logo has a hidden meaning. If you send it via email, the client may not understand the logo. But on a live call, you can show the entire sketching process and tell the meaning. In this way, the rejections of logos will drop.
Even then, clients reject logos, then understand that there is something not right with the logo. After all, a client knows the business more than a designer.
So, these were the key points raised by the design community with Adolf Teixeira during the webinar session. He offered the solutions from own experience. We hope that you benefited from his advice and you will implement those tips to get clients. So, it is not enough to be an expert in using a logo maker or designing a logo on your own, you still should be looking for ways to sell your design service and expertise.
Designhill is a marketplace where thousands of designers in every category come to look for work. If you need a logo or any other visual to build your identity of the business, either you can work one-to-one with our designers or launch a design contest. Dozens of designers will do their best to win your contest and attractive prize. This will help you access unique design ideas at one price.
Wrapping Up
Starting a career as a logo designer is not as easy as some designers initially think. They soon face many issues in getting clients on a regular basis. Failure in winning the trust of clients is one of the big problems new designers face. During the webinar, expert designer Adolf Teixeira offers solutions to these issues to design community from own experience. He lays emphasis on doing some free gigs, following some iconic designer’s style, and communicating well with clients.