logo farming a good idea?

[n/a]

ok so its been a few months with my freelance design biz. Doing ok but I have an idea for changing my business model a little bit to make it more mass market. This is what I was thinking.

Right now I do classic graphic design. Someone tells me what they want and I design them a custom logo, pretty much how it works across the board. Been doing ok at it.

I was thinking of maybe getting into Logo farming. For people who dont know what that is its when me (and other designers I would hire) Would mass produce quality logo templets to then put on a website for people to buy right there on the spot. They like a certain design and want there name on it and they can change things like color,size, etc but they are still buying that same design.

Once they buy this design its thiers. I would take it off the site unlike most logo farmers.

What do you think will be more sucessfull? I would then rely HEAVILY on getting traffic to my site as opposed to just talking to a few people about design. So this would change my whole model from freelance to more of a mass market business model.

I think logo farming idea may have the potential to grow over the freelance. But I will then have to be one of those people who are very concerned about google ratings and traffic etc.
hmmm

[crackah]

Yeah, its not a bad idea.

I guess you would have logos with, (your name here) kind of thing?

[n/a]

yeah I would have themed catagories and unthemed ones. So if your a coffee house or in the coffee industry I will have serveral templates with coffee mugs,beans ,espresso machines etc. I would make up names as opposited to saying "your name here" so it wont look so tacky

[bizdom]

In my personal opinion logo farming is okay for fast turnaround time.
But a serious customer would still want a personalised logo evolved
based on the product/ servises he or she is offering. To me logos are
a brand strategy for the life of a company.

[n/a]

thats true bizdom but I would target people who want the fast turnaround not people who are who you discribed.

[bizdom]

Thats good model. Those who want a fast turnaround will go for
farmed logos. Others can discuss and evolve a logo. You may charge them
higher. I think you have a winner in hand.

[usakos]

It's a good thing.

Logomaid.com and Logoworks.com almost do a similar thing, except Logomaid.com also accepts logo designs from other designers.

The only problem Logomaid.com has experienced is copyrights infringement, because some designers copy existing company logos, modify them a little and then try to resell them.

Logoworks.com has also partnered with many office products like Office Depot, where customers place orders for logos and Office Depot outsource to Logoworks.com, etc.

There's definitely a room for logo farming. It all just depends on your style and pricing.

[mbolton2181]

Interesting indeed. If you can drive the traffic to your logo farming site then you're set. But most design firms operate on the niche level of those they have contact with. It's no wonder so many design deals are made through people you know in real life - because its easier to focus in on those people in real life rather then competing with the other billion design firms online.

my 2 cents

[n/a]

well I would still be a designer that does designs that are custom for local companies (That is most of my biz right now is local). But this would be a side venture that I can work. I am doing some more detailed research....

[silversurfer]

ok so its been a few months with my freelance design biz. Doing ok but I have an idea for changing my business model a little bit to make it more mass market. This is what I was thinking.

Right now I do classic graphic design. Someone tells me what they want and I design them a custom logo, pretty much how it works across the board. Been doing ok at it.

I was thinking of maybe getting into Logo farming. For people who dont know what that is its when me (and other designers I would hire) Would mass produce quality logo templets to then put on a website for people to buy right there on the spot. They like a certain design and want there name on it and they can change things like color,size, etc but they are still buying that same design.

Once they buy this design its thiers. I would take it off the site unlike most logo farmers.

What do you think will be more sucessfull? I would then rely HEAVILY on getting traffic to my site as opposed to just talking to a few people about design. So this would change my whole model from freelance to more of a mass market business model.

I think logo farming idea may have the potential to grow over the freelance. But I will then have to be one of those people who are very concerned about google ratings and traffic etc.
hmmm

the reason people make money in logo farms is reselling the same design. When we worked with companies selling us designs that they could never resell again, we were paying $3000-7000. If you want to undercut that, then fine, but I think you'll find prices are $40 per design when the person sells 20 of them.

[deep_impression777]

Copyright infringement is indeed the bad impression that turns off most potential logo design from ready made logo sites. Its good lamarsh that youre opposed to this.

A couple of things that will help us recover from the bad impression is a good customer service structure and more information on copyright issues on the site itself. Even when a copyright-included logo design is priced way more than another site's offer, the client must realize he's better off with a protected logo design in the long run.

I don't imagine he's gonna to be pleased when he sees his same own logo design on a shop in another state. Not quite classy.

[dmdelectronics]

Why not compromise then and make an option of executive ownership (as a company logo) or shared ownership (as a regular design or something), and the price of the shared being lower than the other.