HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO CREATE A LOGO?

So, you found someone who’s gonna create a logo for you.

How long should you wait for a logo?

First of all – it depends on WHO’s creating a logo (design agency, logo contest or a freelance designer).

So, because I have the experience as a freelancer – I’m gonna answer this question from my perspective, as if how long does it take a freelancer to create a logo design.

There is no ‘typical’ amount of time for a logo design process however I find that I complete mine within about 4-5 weeks for most clients, this allows me to spend some time for research, having ideas, creating them in illustrator and sending everything to the client. However, I’ve had clients that I’ve spent less than a week on a successful logo design and some have taken months. You may ask me – what makes the difference? One week verses several months.

From my experience, I’ve noticed that there are 3 things, that affect the time frame and so basically affect on how long should you wait for a result:

1. Name of your company. AKA – logo name. Everything depends on your project name, on how easily the ideas come because of your logo’s name. Some projects can have many logo options, where as others may only have a few, or in rare cases, one good option. For example, here’s my easiest logo design so far – “Sweet Planet” – ideas come in your head easily – like, sweets, cakes, cupcakes and planet – so simple vs for example my other logo design – gourmetariy.com – first of all, the name is long and you have you realize what it means and present it in a simple obvious way, like, gourmetariy – gourmet – chef’s hat, .com – means that it can be a club so we have a bow-tie here. And this logo might need some more time than the previous because of it’s name.

2. All the needed Information from a client. Make sure you provide your designer with all the needed information. The more the better. My shortest logo designs are usually the result of a client providing me with all the information needed to create a logo – solve the problem. It allows me to find the story ( a right story in a short period of time) and tell it! It also allows you to focus on exactly what you want to achieve before any work starts. Don’t think that the designer (that I) will know anything about your company! Tell me about it!

Providing as much detail as possible saves you (and the designer) a lot of time and money.

3. The process. And by process I mean :

a) the creative process of a freelancer – so make sure you find out the steps of his design process – this way you will know his approach to your project and how much time he needs for each step. As I mentioned, my design process consists of design brief, research, sketching, drawing in Illustrator, colouring, fonts, creating presentations of 3 or 4 logo options in Photoshop.

b) communication times between you and the designer

c) your company’s type – is your company a small business or corporate. For example from my experience, the longer projects are for corporate clients, where the process may be paused by multiple levels of approval from directors.

So, like I said – there is no average. A week, a month, a year. Depends on these 3 things. Anyway, I think, your designer should spend the time that is needed to find the right solution; it is after all, going to be the face of your company for years to come.

Plus, Rushing design helps no one and mistakes can be made because of a rush, however, there are times when a rush job is needed, and in these cases you should be honest.