Designing a logo with Fiverr

Especially for a software company where there's no physical product, a logo can bring a strong sense of tangibility to an early-stage startup. And while you can launch without a logo, the questions you need to answer to develop a logo are critical to the rest of your startup journey. They are especially useful for brand positioning and in building your pitch deck.

It's common when hiring for logo design to combine this with either a brand palette (which defines your organization's unique colors; your logo will likely include some or all of these) and sometimes the process will include a full brand identity guideline. This recipe will cover only hiring for a logo and brand palette, but the questions listed will apply to later stage startups that may be looking for a brand identity guideline document as well.

Hiring for logo design can be uniquely challenging because it's possible to spend high five figures on a logo if you are using a boutique agency in New York, and it's also possible to get a logo for free by using a logo generator like Hatchful.

In this recipe we'll be using the online marketplace Fiverr to hire a logo design. The recipe is based on Fiverr for the reasons we list in our criteria. Logo designs on Fiverr start at $5 but higher quality designs will cost more. If you have a minimum $250 budget for logo and identity, you will likely have a better experience using 99 Designs, Upwork, or a freelance designer to source a logo and brand palette. The questions below apply to any individual or agency you hire, however.

Unless you are working with a branding agency (and paying the cost that comes with it), your role in the logo design process will be to direct the designer with a detailed set of instructions. This means that the final logo will be heavily influenced by the input you provide. You'll want to

Pull all of these answers into a short creative brief. You'll need it for this recipe.

Here are some questions to ask a potential designer. Some of these are related to their process and some will help you select one designer over another, because on any marketplace you will get potentially hundreds of bids.

When you first arrive at the Fiverr site you'll see a search box to describe what you're looking for. Fiverr is a global marketplace for project-based work, so you'll need to identify yourself as looking for logo design. It might be an option on the home page, but if not just enter logo design in the search box.

The logo design screen will give you a number of filters to help you refine the list of designers. Outside of budget (which we'll get to later) the most important of these is style.

For a corporate brand logo, minimalist or hand-drawn are the categories most likely to match your interests. You can select multiple styles using the Logo Options dropdown (it just contains the same styles as the boxes, plus a few more uncommon styles).

The other radio buttons visible are for Pro Sellers (These are specifically vetted by Fiverr for quality but will also be more expensive), Local Sellers (Local in this case means 'same country'), and Online Sellers (Sellers who are active on the platform right now).

Scrolling down the Logo Options dropdown you'll see options for Output File:

Unless you know what you are looking for, select all of AI, EPS, and SVG.

There is also an option for additional services:

You'll want to select all of Printable Resolution, Include Source File, and Vector File. If you expect to need a social media kit you can select that option, although it will generally increase the cost. This will generally give you profile and header images pre-sized for popular social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, twitter, and LinkedIn.

Fiver's website describes the criteria used to place each designer in a level. You can generally expect that the higher you go the more they will cost. Level One Sellers are more expensive than New Sellers, Two is more expensive than One, and Top Rated more than Two. If you want to filter on Language you can do so here. English is the most common option, although most Fiverr designers are not U.S.-based and English may not be a primary language.

You can also filter on budget. As with many services, you will get a better result with a bigger budget, at least to a point. From experience we recommend setting a minimum price of $100. Logos at prices below that tend to be overly simplistic or too generic to make the impact you'll want.

You can also filter on delivery time. Shorter delivery times will cost more, but a logo isn't something that you should rush so you can save money by not limiting this. If you need a logo to use temporarily, you can try an online generator like Hatchful.

Once you have applied filters, you will have a reduced set of potential designers. At this point the process is like buying any other item on a shopping site. You can sort by Best Selling or by Fiverr's Recommended vendors. Each vendor has an image and an overall rating generated from previous work (the same way that Uber drivers have a rating from other passengers). Some will have earned the Fiverr's Choice badge for consistent positive feedback. Try clicking in to a few of them and reading some of the reviews. If you tap the radio button marked Show only reviews with delivery images you can see logos that other clients received. If you want to ask a question, you can use the Contact Seller option, but many sellers don't respond quickly to questions if they have a lot of business.

The designer's profile page should indicate any special packages they offer along with the differences in each package. This will look similar to this chart:

As you can see, turnaround time can make a huge difference in the final price.

If you are satisfied with a particular vendor and you want to proceed, use one of the Select or Continue buttons to select the package you want. The next step is to set up a Fiverr account and handle payment details, and the last step will be to submit requirements. Some designers may have specific questions they will ask as part of the process, and some will ask you to submit a client brief. This will be your opportunity to send the information you developed earlier in this recipe.

Your turnaround time will depend largely on your ability to review submitted options and provide feedback quickly. Be as specific as possible in your feedback, and eventually you'll find a logo you like.

Once you have the image you love, you can use it in your website, emails, or other marketing initiatives. Fiverr also offers the option to tip your designer, but it's not required. If you are happy with the work you should leave a positive review since that is critical to the designer's business.

In writing this guide we contracted for a logo design on Fiverr. You can review the requirements document we developed here.

After hiring a designer using the criteria above and providing design input, we received the following logo concepts as a first round of designs:

After review, we selected one of the concepts as a base. We requested some design feedback. We asked the designer if it would be possible to stack the words in the logo as opposed to having both words on one line. They submitted this revision, which we accepted as final: