Going rate for one of our logos? $15 apparently...

The template website boasted some wonderful things. For a few dollars, we could use one of their ready-made designs and go to town, creating our own corporate identity at a fraction of the price.

Fair enough. Say I wanted to purchase a new, ahm, record company logo. Sounds good. Let’s select a template that is appropriate - say, this one:

Nifty. Its got earphones and stuff. Perfect. But what to do? According to the good folks at xxx.com, I can either download the artwork for ‘limited use’ or buy it outright.

Sounds great. Now that you mention it, I am tired of ‘relying’ on graphic designers. And who can beat fifteen bucks? I’m on a tight budget, so I only plunked down $15.00 for non-exclusive ‘rights’, paid through Pay Pal and downloaded the files (complete with user guide, fonts - hey, is that legal? - and various formats of my new ‘logo’). Only one small problem. The logo is remarkably similar to a design that The Logo Factory created for Diversity Records and a design that's been on our web site for years. It is the property of someone else (ie: our client). And that logo is not available (legally) for use by anyone else, exclusively or non-exclusively.

So unfortunately (and $15.00 later), while I believe that I can use this artwork for my new music company logo, I can’t (it belongs to someone else) and am running the risk of being hassled by the true owners, or the original designers, the minute this ‘logo’ hits print. As I know what's up, I won’t be taking that risk. Unfortunately, unsuspecting clients of ‘logo template’ merchants may not find out their spanking new brand is a rip until it’s way too late.

Lesson learned? For potential buyers of graphic design services - remember that old saying ‘Caveat Emptor. And ‘desingery’ folks - if you’re going to open up a template logo web site, please remember that it is not cool to sell material that you don’t have the rights to sell. Nor is it cool to be (as they invariably put it) ‘inspired by'’ other people’s stuff and make like you designed it. It can potentially lead you, and your clients, into a world of hurt.

Now, wonder if I can get my fifteen bucks back.

"Hey - waddya want for a few hundred bucks"? (Originality perhaps?).

In the cluttered logo design market, design houses who cannot compete on the level of professionalism, turn to rock-bottom pricing in an attempt to win over your business.
Trouble is, professional logo design requires professionals and expenses can only be cut through reduction of design integrity. One offshoot of this is the advent of so-called 'pre-made' logos - libraries of clip art 'logos' that are made available at greatly reduced prices. One obvious problem is that if you're paying peanuts for a pre-made logo, from an untested vendor, how sure are you of ownership rights and the chain of copyright transfer? Turns out not very sure at all. This site was offering a series of great 'pre-made logos off their web-site. All under $200. Only one small hitch. ALL the designs were TLF originals, taken right off our web site (didn't even bother changing the name) and are the exclusive property of somebody else. That would qualify for a pretty big 'whoops'.

Do it yourself logo design. Slap down a few bucks, select from a bunch of templates and you're all set.

Mama always told us that if it sounds too good, it probably is. While buying a rejected design at a hefty discount sounds really nifty, there might be a hitch or two. Let's look at this little gem from a Flash driven do it yourself site - looks remarkably like a logo that we designed back in 2000. Judge for yourself.

Copycats - Logo Design Templates

Of course, that's not the only time we've happened upon a site that is selling clip-art 'pre-made' logos that look more than a little like our designs. Case in point, Select Logo who claim to sell "exclusive" template and pre-made logos. Trouble is, many of them look suspiciously similar to designs created by The Logo Factory including this one for Carbide Solutions, created over five years ago!


Unfortunately, it was not the only one...
Each of the logos presented is available for sale for $US 129 - illustrating one of the largest problems with so called 'template' or 'pre-made' logo sites. The logos presented are basically clip-art, with dubious lineage, and while they're often offered at discount pricing, can lead to all sorts of problems down the road, especially if you're about to spend $1000s to promote a logo that you might not have the rights to.


(above - Dreamlight Candle Company). Sometimes, template or 'pre-made' logo sites will be a little more than 'influenced' by other people's designs. They'll use bits and pieces of other companies work, a copyright and/or trademark no-no. There's a reason why these sites offer deeply discounted 'pre-made' logos. A successful logo design project involves research, preliminary design and a evolutionary design process. A logo is NOT simply a pretty picture. (below & right - Hoopnet Basketball logo).


Consider Bloated Fish Concrete Works - a logo that TLF logo designers created for one of our clients in 2001. At right you'll see the 'poor man's' version offered as a template, or pre-made, logo on a template web site. Not only does the logo present copyright and/or trademark issues. It also lacks the dynamics of the original, which was created as a result of the design process illustrated (below right). Your logo should be an original piece - in fact THAT is the very point of the exercise. You want to stand out in the market place. And if there's one thing that's worse that a really bad logo, it's a logo that looks like it was copied from somebody else.