How to get/make a Logo for Your Startup? - tocomment
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staunch
Use Inkscape[1] and do it yourself. It's amazing what even a newbie can do
with it in an hour or two. You can always pay someone to make a slicker
version later, which will be much easier if you have something to use as a
base.

1\. <http://www.inkscape.org/>

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SwellJoe
I did the same, after two months of repeated failed attempts to hire someone
to design a logo (one of the logo companies we hired sent us about a dozen
horrible ideas plus the Verizon V-Cast logo, as though we wouldn't notice).
I've since made two logos that I'm reasonably happy with, both using Inkscape.
I'm not a designer, by any stretch, but the T-shirts we had printed up with
this one look great:

<http://www.virtualmin.com/images/logo-185x38-background.png>

And I made a logo for our example website (our product manages webservers and
websites, so in our demo video we build a website from scratch and launch a
useful application in a couple of minutes):
<http://doxfer.com/twiki/pub/Main/WebPreferences/logo.png>

This one was whipped up in literally five minutes (once you know how to make
the Web 2.0 "shiny" text thing, it's numbingly simple to do).

Neither are going to win awards, but they've allowed me to get on with work,
and I'm not ashamed of them. When we take funding, or when we're making more
money, I'll hire someone famously good to re-imagine our logo. Until then,
I've been burned enough by bad anonymous logo shops.

One thing to keep in mind, that most non-designers (and even some designers)
do wrong: Keep it simple. Imagine it in black and white. Imagine it on a
T-shirt (and imagine paying for all of the colors you put in it--twice the
colors is twice the price for printing), coffee mug, letterhead, and your
website. Look at successful companies for inspiration, not just Web 2.0
companies (even if you're building a Web 2.0 app). You'll almost never go
wrong by simplifying a logo design, but you'll certainly go wrong by putting
too much crap in it. Also, pick your colors using a color scheme generator--
not at random. Unless you've got the queer eye, you'll pick ugly colors. I
guarantee it.

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simianstyle
<http://designoutpost.com> \- you pay a set fee, and a slew of designers make
a logo based on your description. They then iterate till they get it right,
and don't get paid till you choose one. Pretty good methodology, i've tried it
twice and got what I wanted both times.

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tocomment
Sounds interesting. How much did you pay?

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wastedbrains
We ended up paying $180, if you want to see the final result of that we got,
we just made a post with it. If you look through the flickr pictures you can
see some of the options we received.

<http://blog.pretheory.com/arch/000565.php>

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tocomment
My new startup needs a logo, and I'm not sure if I trust my artistic ability
to make one. What would you folks recommend?

If it matters, I want the logo to be a Dutch windmill but futuristic looking
(or a windmill/robot hybrid type of deal). I'll announce my startup on here
soon, hopefully with a logo :-)

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hacker64
Try <http://thelogocompany.net/> . Haven't used them, but there examples are
cool. Or, post on elance and see if someone good bids.

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wordsthatendinq
<http://gfxcontests.com> \- offer a nominal reward to get several people to
submit designs in a competition.

I found out about these guys through MashupCamp 3, which was run by Mass Event
Labs. Mass Event Labs offered $100 for a logo design and got many entries
actually, check out the discussion at
<http://gfxcontests.com/showthread.html?t=713>

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whacked_new
I don't have my draw program with me, but if you want, give more details. I do
some monochrome stuff if you're ok with that. And no, I'm not a pro so I don't
charge, but I enjoy doing logo-like design.

Right now, I can't really see how a windmill and a robot will go together
without looking kinda silly (think propeller hat) or sadistic (blades), if
they are merged together.

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tocomment
I'd be interested to see what you put together. Can I email you?

Yeah, maybe the robot part is out then :-)

Maybe just a traditional windmill like one of these below, but then having the
building part of the windmill be made of shiny metal. Perhapss the blades
could be shiny metal too. ? Can you make that "shiny" effect?

<http://www.angelfire.com/sc/soriluc/images/amstertraditional.jpg>
<http://www.enweirdenment.org/pics/Europe2001/111-1147_IMG.JPG>

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whacked_new
Whoa... you sure about the robot? If it fits into some grand vision I'm sure
there are creative people who can integrate it somehow.

I have attempted a chrome effect before and I feel without further training I
won't match the pros. My designs are plain, and I like to merge text into the
picture. I don't have good samples with me but here are two.

<http://www.withmsg.com/1.gif> <http://www.withmsg.com/2.jpg>

rather obscure, but the text reads to "pktw." if you like this style, yes I
have one or two sketches in mind. If you'd like to blend some text in, the
first letter maybe, I need to know that. Finally, if you want a vector file I
probably won't be working fast -- because sadly I don't have AI. And I'm very
unfamiliar with inkscape. What I'll end up doing is roughly tracing a paper
sketch. You'd need to get somebody to smooth out the edges after that.

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tocomment
Nah, the robot's not neccessary. I don't need any words or letters in the
logo, just a picture. I'd probably want a vector a file though. Well, don't
worry about it if it's too much work. I'll probably end up using one of the
pay services suggested in this page.

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danw
<http://dache.ch/>

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yaacovtp
Try playing around on <http://logoyes.com/logocreator.php>

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jward
Kind of a neat tool, but I didn't see anything that caught my eye. Except the
price. A hundred bucks for a logo I design myself online with no designer even
telling me it's crap is just a little excessive.

My recommendation is to find a design student and offer 'em a hundred bucks
for a logo.

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plusbryan
if you decide to make your own, be sure to use illustrator or somesuch
"vector" program. don't use photoshop else you'll have to redraw later when
you need it at another size.

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cyu
We did a logo contest on SitePoint, and were really happy with the results.

<http://www.sitepoint.com/contests/>

