Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Alyssa Royse
First, let me admit that there’s something wrong when you get together for drinks with friends and sit around talking about investment, marketing, customer acquisition and branding. I swear I can remember a time when my friends and I talked about sex, music, movies and vacation. Ah, those were the days.
That said, I was turned on to one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time last night, and something that can be a HUGE help to you if you have a startup, need some branding work and don’t have deep pockets. Logo Tournament is a site that enables you to submit a work order for a logo, offer a “prize” – between $250 – $500, typically – and logo designers from around the world immediately start competing with logo designs that are created just for you.
Skeptical? So was I, until I looked at them, and some of them are really good, certainly as good (or better) than those that I’ve seen on the mastheads of many companies out there. You can peruse pages and pages of logos that have been selected by companies, as well as open “tournaments” for companies that are still looking for a logo.
How does it work? You fill out a fairly comprehensive work order form that includes questions about your industry, your market, your product, your “feel,” your competition, your colors etc….. And as soon as your tournament is ready, it goes out to thousands of designers around the world and they start making logos for you. If you don’t get back at least 45 options, you get your money back. Many of the open tournaments have more than a hundred logos submitted. Once you find one you like, you select it, the designer gets paid, and you own it to do anything you want with it.
If you’re a startup, and need a quick logo, I think this is a pretty sweet deal.
Now that I’ve sung their praises, let me admit that I think branding – which encompasses everything from logo to tagline to the font on your site to the language you use – is one of the most important things you can do. It is not a cheap and easy process and I’m not convinced that you can completely short-circuit it. Nor should you. But in a pinch, when you just need a logo, I think this is a great way to go.
And just to not totally alienate the brilliant designers that I know, let me tell you about two local shops that are not only startup friendly, but seriously talented and nice folks. Williams-Helde has been with me from the start, delivering incredible work quickly, kindly and of very high quality. They’re a full service branding / ad agency and Marc Williams is very active in the startup community. Likewise, the folks at G Conspiracy, specifically Josh Bestwick, are incredible designers, doing everything from logos to web sites and full development of tech based companies – look, feel and functioning back end. Also very active with local startups, often quietly and in the background, these are great guys. Neither of these shops is cheap, but when you’re ready for high-quality full branding and a working product, these are my two favorites. (Which reminds of the good old days, when my friends and I used to get together and talk about cute guys. I’m just sayin’…..)
