this is 10 years of experience as a logo designer condensed into under 10 minutes actually it's more
like 14 years now I've gone from selling logos below 50 a project up to Turning Away new clients
and earning thousands of dollars every single project the first thing I'm going to say is that
the vast majority of logo designers Focus too much on the design side of things and not enough time
on the client and business aspect of this industry myself included in the early years sure you need
to have good design skills and make good logos which we'll get into later but those skills are
going to mature with time however if you have a bad understanding of your clients and how business
functions you're not going to get very far even with Godlike design skills hey if you understand
what I'm going to say right now then you will have an edge over other graphic designers firstly you
should know your place in the logo design world what I mean by that is you should know if you're
designing for lower tier clients mid care clients or the upper tier clients each tier has different
types of clients within it and each different type of client has different expectations different
wants and needs I really failed to understand this early on in my career and it just ended up
stunting my growth as a designer so most of us will be designing for lower tier clients in the
first one to two years of our career if not more these low-tier clients do not expect a four to six
week turnaround like higher clients probably will do they often don't want to wait very long and
they won't want a radically amazing design they are paying less money for Less skill and less
time if that does make sense you can stay in this bracket for your entire career if you want to and
you can make money by just flipping designs but if you actually want to move up tears then this
is what you have to do when entering the market do research on pricing of other designers at your
tier level get a good scope for the average pricing in your tier group and then try try
and kind of undercut that pricing by a tiny little bit initially in your career this isn't the only
way to start out but it is a tried and tested method and basically you want to be focusing
more on getting a portfolio Edition and clients as opposed to huge profits early on in your career
starting off with competitive pricing is totally fine and that's because you want to land clients
and jobs right out of the gate once you actually begin to land jobs with competitive prices you can
then gain contacts projects and make a portfolio in fact converting clients into return customers
for your logo design Services is one of the most important things you can actually be doing I would
say around 70 to 80 of my clients are in fact return clients who just keep coming back to me
year after year now you might be asking how do I convert them into returning customers well
obviously by delivering effective designs on time and not missing deadlines being polite and if you
can going the extra mile to please them and to meet their needs and it really doesn't hurt to
ask a client six months after a Project's finished to see how their business is going how the logo is
and just you know just speak to them in general terms this often will spark a conversation where
you get more work it it might be something like a redesign of a logo a business card design or
they might even know someone who needs a logo designed as well my next bit of advice is that
just simply being on freelance platforms is not enough in today's world nine times out of ten
it's not going to be enough to grow your career effectively and quickly so consider networking on
social platforms like LinkedIn and one thing that I did several years ago is to build an email list
the email list will require some work for you to set up but it's such a hugely powerful tool when
it comes to marketing you really just cannot be ignoring it now you can send emails to potential
clients presenting your work the email can show your unique skills in terms of logo design
business card design brochure design and anything else from The Branding kit you might only get a
one to two percent conversion rate but think about it that is one or two new customers for
every 100 emails that you send but yeah marketing your service is 100 essential today and being a
freelancer on a platform is just not enough some people can make that work but they are only a rare
exception basically think of ways you can Market your services and reach more people looking at the
actual logo design side of things the technical side of things there are some principles and just
things that novice designers seem to get wrong over and over again and I've spoken about them on
this channel before but I'll quickly go over some of the really important ones for you right here
today before the last and the major tip at the end of today's video so try and avoid making literal
designs and by that I mean a light bulb design for an electrician business or a book for a Library
business and so on just imagine if the tech Brand Apple had used a computer monitor instead of an
apple design it wouldn't be half as memorable or iconic the cliche designs do not offer character
or memorability in the end user or the audience the consumer and then we have the target audience
which is probably one of the most important parts of the whole thing now if you don't
fully know understand and can think exactly like your target audience of your brief your logo will
probably miss the mic if your logo has a symbol or a logo mic then the choice of font is equally as
important as a logo symbol itself if not more they should both work together in harmony and
typography psychology or typeface psychology is hugely hugely important and of course less is more
in logo design and your logo should be refined down to the absolute Essentials no extra noise
and no extra confusion I mentioned earlier about the logo design process I failed to have a process
for the first one to two years in my career and of course I just didn't grow so I would
get a brief I'd look at it and then I'd just start designing you really need a local design process
that acts like a blueprint to your workflows now if you are catering to the low tier clients the
process would not be as extensive of more detail to someone designing for a top tier client and
that's simply because the low tier clients will probably expect a quick turnaround but yeah you
should have a very strict and rigid design process and here's a quick tip that goes a long long way
if you're reaching out to potential clients show them your design process on a neat and snazzy PDF
file this shows them what they can expect from you as a designer and also it just makes you
look like a very professional and very well-oiled logo designing machine now if you want to really
get the grips with the logo design process I do suggest grabbing my e-guide which is always
Linked In description of my videos anyway here's the Big Daddy The crucial reveal in today's video
the presentation of your logo is potentially more important than the logo design itself there I said
it and yes it's actually true now how does that guy sell pet rocks in the 1970s and make millions
of dollars doing so because of the marketing your logo could be subpar but if you sell it
to a client in the presentation in a clever and tactful way you could easily clinch a sail the
presentation is hugely hugely important to success of your logo design career and yes I have said
some of these things in different videos on this channel but I want to put everything together in
one condensed bit of advice for any logo designers who want to make a career for themselves in this
industry but if you want to learn all about presenting a logo to a client so they say yes to
your designs just click the video on screen until next time guys design your future today peace
thank you