Incarnations of a logo
Building the website OVCsupport.net, I suggested using some cheap logo designers for the creation of, you've guessed it, a logo. I ended up working with five. I'm briefly discuss my experiences, focusing on their services, less on the quality of their design.
Cheap logo designers are plenty to be had online. Just do a search for cheap logo design and you'll have more designers than you can shake a wand at. I did the search, picked five from the list and started working with them.
OVCsupport.net aspires to be the global hub on information related to orphans and vulnerable children. If you're not familiar with the lingo, this mostly means AIDS orphans. The site has a few predefined colors to work with and tries to get across a sense of youth, dynamics and interaction.
Two of the five designers I worked with were professional, two were mediocre and one was almost looked like a fraud. Here's the list.
Update (2 September 2009): It turns out I'm not the only one having issues with 50dollarlogos.com, other customers getting the same excuses as described below.
Also, both Google and Firefox now rank their site as Suspected malware, so I would clearly advice staying away from them. Additionally, there's also a website 50dollarlogo.com (without the 's' at the end). I think I would also steer clear from them.
GotLogos.com
The turnaround time with GotLogos.com was a cool 6 days. The price a low 25USD, with adjustments coming in at 10 USD each. We didn't request any changes.
We received four version of the logo, all .gif, two larger ones, two smaller ones, two with a transparent background and two with a white background. The files were too small to use for anything but the web.
Although the design is rather generic, I think it's easy on the eye. The 'V' in the logo doubles as the figure of a person, which I think is clever, adding a personal touch to the logo itself.
Cheap logo design
Cheap logo design gave us an exceptional two day turnaround for just 19 Pounds and provided us with 8 different file types, some in reasonably large size. We required one adjustment, which was included in the price.
I'm not too impressed with the font, but the graphic is lovely. The three letters 'OVC' make up the figure of a celebrating person, with the image looking rather primitive, as if drawn by a child.
Logonerds
Logonerds gave us six rather generic, but different, concepts to begin with, from which we could pick one and tweak it. After final agreement, we received a whole host of different filetypes to use. Not bad at 47 USD and a turnaround time of 12 days.
Also, the largest files we received from them are also perfect for use in print production.
I like the idea of the graphic, but the lack of symmetry makes it look a bit lopsided. The font looks good to me.
WebsiteDesign
WebsiteDesign, possibly based in Oz, judging from their URL, has a rather dodgy website, but do deliver. However, communication was quite a bit of a challenge. No less than three times did we get the exact same files from them, supposedly updated after our requested changes. Then, on several occasions, did we have to ask for the same changes on multiple occasions because of them not having been implemented.
The whole process took just over a month, though we were given plenty of options and 10 different file types to work with. Not too bad for 99 Australian dollars, just under 60 euros.
@fe_wong thinks the graphic looks like those floaters used in fishing, and I think she has a point. However, the fact that the graphic also looks like a hugging couple is good enough for me.
Also, notice that the letters 'OVC' have a strong resemblance to the VOC logo.
50dollarlogos.com
http://50dollarlogos.com seems to be almost appeared to be a fraud. After two months, I only received excuses as to why they weren't able to provide me with a logo. I've asked for a refund, but that, perhaps not surprisingly, has not been forthcoming either. Update: the refund was received!
Here's the list of excuses I've received:
+ Six days after placing the order: "At this time, we are experiencing high order volume, and we've had to extend our turnaround time by quite a few days."
+ 23 days after placing the order: "Recently, a virus took control of my PC, rendering it useless until it has been fully scanned, cleaned, and possibly a clean OS install."
I asked for a refund, 27 days after placing the order.
+ 30 days after placing the order: "As you can imagine, this has been a very stressful time. We would be extremely grateful for any understanding you can extend. This was completely unexpected."
Again I asked for a refund, 36 days after placing the order.
+ 43 days after placing the order: "I request that you please give me a little time to process the refund. I realize this sounds like an excuse, but I was in a car accident."
I haven't heard from them since. I didn't hear from them until 22 days later:
+ 65 days after placing the order: "Please give me a little bit more time…"
I received my refund 10 days later, 75 days after placing the original order.
Which one did the client choose?
My preference, by far, would be for using the graphic from Cheap Logo Design, the slightly primitive drawing of the celebrating individual, with perhaps some other font.
My client, who has to select the logo, is the International HIV/AIDS Alliance. Unfortunately, they've postponed their decision on selecting a logo. Not only does this mean that the website now lives without a logo, the OVCsupport presence on a series of social networks is also logo-less. The former is not too much of an issue. The latter looks plain amateurish.