Hitting up 99 Designs is like throwing spaghetti at a wall in hopes that something sticks, well that's an almost apt description. I guess the biggest difference is that you are hiring N-'designers' who probably aren't very skilled at their craft so they have to lock into gladiatorial combat for mere dollars to each make a noodle and throw it at the wall for you. They won't care about your identity, and the quality of what you get will largely depend on how good you happen to be at scoping an illustration project and wrangling amateurs to get results.
With this method you will have some sort of graphic to slap on a site or slather on a t-shirt, but you will be extremely lucky if it stands the test of time or even stands out in your market. A good logo is one thing that sets apart the amateurs from the professionals. Facebook knew this and that's why they went to Cuban Council (http://www.cubancouncil.com/).
You could just find a designer/firm who's work you admire, see if they do identity work, speak with them about your brand, and collaborate with them (they will guide you if they are any good at what they do, and they will always have your best interest at heart) to create something everyone (including your customers) will love.
Sadly, OP's description of "Startup" logo design is what is currently popular, and many people don't realize that this is not how the best logotypes/icons are made.
The quality of what you receive depends on the quality of information you provide to any designer or firm. Our suggested process for a bootstrapped startup provides a solution for how to formulate a thought out design idea and get you going in the right direction at no cost.
In reply to your comment about Facebook: Zuckerburg knew minimal about 'design' so he did what so many other startups in the Valley do. Go to the big design firms. This solution works well for startups in the position to hand over the big bucks. Different solutions work depending on startup condition, status, and/or funds available.
This process may work best for startups with limited resources and limited funding. Even if you dont like the initial work you receive from 99 designs or any other design marketplace, two important things can happen:
1. You'll be a better judge for what works and doesn't work for your startup.
2. You're design idea will strengthen from concepts created by these designers at a price you can afford to pay.
When we wrote the article, we were totally backing a graphic designer first and foremost. Hands down, having a personal graphic designer is the best route to go. But it's definitely not the only.
I think 99designs is great. If you don't like the logos they shoot out, there's 100% money back guarantee, and a lot of people feel like they're logo is in good hands in the competition format rather than just pinning their hopes on one graphic designer. If they see something that they love, then they can stick with it. If not, they lose some of their time, but they get their money back. No harm done. And I think that's where 99designs shines. In ways, it's a safe route to go, especially for starting out.
For sure on the point you made though, we think that collaboration breeds the best logos. I'm checking out Cuban Council, and these types of logo designers and firms are ones to strive toward. Thanks for the insight man!
He blogs about the process, the concepts of branding, what to expect etc. In general David has been a good source of logo design info for the past several years.
Let us wield pasta metaphors together in the fight against poor design process recipes: spaghetti against a wall is the exact analogy I use when asked about 99designs or other spec sites ;)
Slightly off-topic. If you have a startup and you have a blog like this, why not have a very big obvious link to your main website?(i.e. mystartup.com instead of blog.mystartup.com).
It seems like a no-brainer to me. It's great marketing for your product or service. I've come to your site to read your blog and I'm curious about your business now.
I do some advising for the GoParti guys. I'll hassle them about that :-) Hopefully Rasheed (author of above article) will get to these comments soon and jump in.
We weren't going too much for the hard sell, but we'll definitely make sure to put a visible call to action on the blog, it makes sense. Thanks for your interest man, we hope you love it!
Having just gone through the process, I would completely agree with the advice here. We are really pleased with our logo from an eLance designer (www.crowdshelf.com), but it lacks an independent graphic, which I quickly realized was something that would be really useful for stuff like favicons, Twitter and Facebook pages, etc.
Agreed. I think that is the strongest point about designing a logo. I just finished creating a new one and having an "icon" is incredibly helpful. Favicons, iphone apps, social media pages, etc.. can all be branded much easier.
I'm Mohnish Soundararajan, who wrote the article haha.
For startups, the process of logo design is attacked from a totally different mindset. We were driving at the guys who are bootstrapping it, not a definitive guide to design in general. When GoParti was starting, these were the concerns.
I often wonder what people think when they look at a logo as bad as some of the above. Personally I think it just shows a lack of effort, you see this in the startup game also.
Tiny nitpick: when you re-size vector text, make sure the straight edges don't straddle pixels. Notice the difference between the top and bottom versions? http://imgur.com/JlNin
So I do not see a reason why the font author should have been included in the article. The article was not about THIS logo but about logos in general. When I saw your comment I thought you might be pointing out that he was violating the license. Since he is not, I am not sure what to make of your comment.
Sorry -- it's just a promotional piece for a software retailer (software-asli.com); the Photoshop CS4 UI done with real-world tools and materials. The text menu is Letraset rub-down sheets, the swatches are watercolour half-pans, the visibility markers for the layers are loupes, and so on. Good concept, construction and photo, though.
With this method you will have some sort of graphic to slap on a site or slather on a t-shirt, but you will be extremely lucky if it stands the test of time or even stands out in your market. A good logo is one thing that sets apart the amateurs from the professionals. Facebook knew this and that's why they went to Cuban Council (http://www.cubancouncil.com/).
You could just find a designer/firm who's work you admire, see if they do identity work, speak with them about your brand, and collaborate with them (they will guide you if they are any good at what they do, and they will always have your best interest at heart) to create something everyone (including your customers) will love.
Sadly, OP's description of "Startup" logo design is what is currently popular, and many people don't realize that this is not how the best logotypes/icons are made.