What qualities differentiate, what I call, a “magic logo creator” logo from a professionally designed logo, or identity?

Well to start off, the “magic logo creator” websites lure you in with promises of professionally designed logos, customized for your company or product for ONLY $49. What this consists of is you providing the name of the company, the kind of business, if you have a ‘mascot’, tag line, short 1-2 sentence description of your business, or what kind of image/colors you perceive as relating to the name.You pay and they tell you you will receive 3 concepts to pick from and X number of revisions/modifications to one of those designs. From this point the company posts the specifications on their job board, or ‘freelance’ website for a pool of designers from around the world to come up with concepts. They narrow down the choices to the top 3 (perhaps random selections), you pick the one you like and the artist that created it gets the job of doing the revisions and is paid $5-15 for his/her efforts. You never get any personal one-on-one interaction with the designer and revisions can take weeks or months to complete. In the long run, you end up with something that, at best, fairly represents your company or product. It is unlikely to be something memorable, something original looking, something that sticks in the minds of your customers. (This is my very generalized understanding of the way these companies do business and is in no way aimed at any logo design site in particular.)

In the world of professional identity development a logo is created only after extensive research into the company, its philosophy, its history, the industry, what it produces,  its competition and many other factors. Once a complete understanding of all important factors is understood, then the creative process can begin. Hundreds of ideas are looked at, brainstorming sessions ensue, sketches are drawn and reviewed and further explored. After an exhaustive effort has been put forth (along with dozens of hours) then the mark begins to emerge and there is still an evolution that takes place until it is perfect. Once it says, clearly and concisely that it is a summary of all that your company and/or product is, then it earns the title of a final logo, the company’s identity signature. That signature should be something that people will remember and will (can only) associate with your company, your product. Think of Nike, Coca Cola, AT&T, and Apple and you see their logomark. Conversely, when you see their logomark, even without their name, you know instantly what the company is, you know what they sell. Whenever you see that distinctive swoosh, you don’t think running shoes, you think Nike running shoes. The Coke logo doesn’t represent just a soft drink, it represents COKE and you want one. These aren’t “magic logo creator” logos, these are professional identity systems.

Below are a few of the identity systems that I have created. (A number of these had been created as school projects and personal design projects and don’t represent real companies.)