After ten years of selling logo design services, Utah-based Logoworks announces that it’s closing up shop.
Arguably one of the first crowdsourcing design sites, and since its inception in 2001, Logoworks was one of the top-ranked and successful logo design websites of the internet era. Purchased a few years back by Hewlett Packard for a princely sum (rumored to be in the neighborhood of $9 million) Logoworks was undeniably one of the largest purveyors of internet-driven logo design sales, so this announcement, posted on the Logoworks’ home page comes as a little bit of a surprise –
Dear Valued Logoworks Customers,
Recently HP has made a strategic decision to focus its web resources on non-design related projects. As a result, Logoworks will no longer be taking on new projects. If you have a design project in process, we will continue to work with you until you receive a logo or website that you love. You can continue to log-in and review your project using the link above.
We want to thank the tens of thousands of customers who have worked with us over the past ten years. In that time we worked on more than 200,000 different logo, website, and other design projects.
We also want to extend our thanks to our partners, affiliates, and suppliers who helped us grow and become the world’s premier online design agency.
Most of all we want to thank the many designers, account managers, and developers who created so much outstanding work—winning recognition from AIGA, Communication Arts, and other industry notables. We couldn’t have done anything without these incredibly talented people.
We anticipate that Logoworks.com will remain online until approximately March 31, 2012, so that you can access all of your design files. If you haven’t already, we recommend that you download any files you may need before that date.
If you need a new logo for your business or product, you can check out the free logo design tool at Logomaker.com where you can create and download a logo in 15 minutes or less.
The past ten years has been a tremendous experience for all of us, and we are grateful to have had the chance to work closely with so many small business owners. We wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors.
Sincerely,
The Logoworks Team
Whether this is indicative of larger forces at work in the logo design niche, or simply Hewlett Packard ditching services outside their core is anyone’s guess.
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I wonder what was the true reason behind it all.
I sorta saw this coming. I never saw Logoworks as a threat to me because their quality and practices were questionable. I write about it in my blogpost from a few months back, “Why Logoworks Sucks” http://ulrichdesign.ca/2011/06.....rks-sucks/
I’m sure their legal team advised to close shop. They were constantly involved in lawsuits. This “create your logo tool” is completely stupid for anyone who wants a real logo that will stand out from the rest. Templates for layouts is one thing, but a logo cannot be a template.
Good news!
As a designer for LW for 9 years, I can affirm that the “true reason” has not been disguised. Nor was their any pressure from any legal team. HP has been making strange strategic decisions lately (I’m sure you’ve noticed) and this was one of them.
I enjoyed your post. And I’ve enjoyed working here. It has honed my abilities as a designer and trainer. There were months of crazy controversy, but I’ve always believed in the model. The founder Morgan Lynch is a good friend. LW has been a very professional and credible company for both designers and their clients.
But how does it feel to be part of something that is actually killing design from the inside? It’s sites like this that falsely educate people about what good design really is and what is involved. They think it’s clip art and cookie cutter and can be done by a high school kid on a computer in 10 minutes.
I can’t remember ever educating people that.
This is the first I’ve heard, hallelujah!
Let’s hope it doesn’t resurface under another crowdsourcing curtain.
This is FANTASTIC news and about time. Not surprised that a free logo design tool was recommended. It goes to show how truly they care and are concerned about a businesses’ branding image by offering a take their money, slap a logo together and call it good business practice model.
HP actually bought them in the neighborhood of $65 million. It was a good run for them. Broken business model, as their margins were terrible. On top of that, their work wasn’t great. However, they had great strategic vision, and made some people a lot of money. It’s probably not an accident that this is happening right after a new CEO (Meg Whitman) has been named, and making an early shakeup. So long LogoWorks. Hope everyone lands on their feet.
While never being a threat, it still feels like a Hallelujah moment to me, great news at last!
Really astonished to see LogoWorks shutting down. What is the reason behind this action? They were one of the pioneers. I just hope this is not a negative signal for the Logo Design industry.
Logoworks was not a crowd-sourcing company it paid its designers for all their design work regardless if the customer chose it or not. Logoworks improved design not destroyed it because a logoworks customer would have just done it themselves if there wasn’t a low-price solution to help them. Thousands of small businesses and hundreds of designers world-wide benefitted from this great company. Plus, Logoworks got in Communication Arts and Logolonge so you know they have good talent. Now small businesses can either just find affordable freelancers, pay an ad agency thousands, or get bad design from crowd-sourcing websites. This is not a good thing.
I used LogoWorks last year to design a logo for a startup, and the experience was horrible. Their designs stunk. If you request something custom and they don’t have a copy/paste image for it, it looks like a kid did it in MS paint. I never used their logo.
Good riddance.
[...] – HP shutting down Logoworks [...]
Hi. You only have to look at the Freelancer website, as one example, to see how many people ‘think’ they’re logo designers. There’s no work ethic involved which leads me to believe this is a ridiculous way to process a business strategy for any new or existing company or corporation. It makes no sense to assume that, just by adding a few company details, people can freely upload devices previously designed by others, and call that good design practice. I’ve worked with worldwide blue chip clients all my working life, all the while, safe in the knowledge that I can produce exemplary work based on detailed research into, and garnered from, those companies and helping to drive their businesses into the future. Now, you can derive and concept designs for naive people who are unaware of the implications of intellectual property law infringements, and what it could do to their own businesses. It makes my blood boil at times. It isn’t just about designing a logo. It forms a part of an integral relationship between the client and the consumer; a marketplace tool to befriend would-be business ‘goers and growers’. It can make and break businesses in an instant, and only a good chosen few really know how to strategize and properly, professionally prepare business logo design to work as a whole, and not as a stop gap for something better to be created at their expense later on.