The Internet of Things (IOT) has shrunk the world. This struck me when I bought an inexpensive iPhone accessory on Amazon and it was shipped from a post office in China. Is that not astounding? I was amazed. Shipped to Dallas, Texas from China for 80 cents! Everything and anything is available online and prices are being driven down by the competition.
So now for companies who want to revamp their brand or start-ups who need a brand identity there are online resources that will bring you designers from around the world. Designers willing to lineup to compete for your design project and your dollars. You’ll end up with a logo for a couple of hundred dollars. Sound good?

There are three problems with this concept.
• Designers who work for these websites are usually from the third world. In a lot of these countries two hundred dollars for a months work is well above the national per capita average. I’m not saying there aren’t great designers in the third world but you’re entrusting your brand to someone from a very different culture. Will they have to have the intuition to connect culturally to your customers? If you’ve travelled in the third world you’d notice that the tapestry of their graphical context is different in color and imagery.
• The focus of these designers is trying to sell the client not that clients target market. Here’s an obvious example. The client is a chiropractor in Irvine, California. The designer is in Sri Lanka. He researches Irvine, it’s symbols, its geography. The logo delivered has sea, sun and a palm tree. Yes, that says life in California but to a native Californian does this sell the chiropractor?
• After delivery is there any backup afterwards to make sure the logo has the flexibility to reproduce in all the ways the client might need. Does it work equally well on the website as to does on the business card?

When I create a logo for a client there is a lot of discussion that happens before , during and after the evolution of the single powerful idea to mark that goes into production. I just don’t see that happening with someone from the other end of the world. A logo that you chose out of hundreds and that a client revised via email with someone who speaks a different language could be doomed to fail. You paid a fraction of what you should have to and you’re left to question whether the new graphic mark reflect the uniqueness and implied value of your product or service. Now you have to live with it. The question I have to ask is: Is two hundred dollars what your companies brand is worth?