LogoNerds Review 2024 – Why Cheap Logos Aren’t Always The Best

The LogoNerds Promise: A “Professional Custom Logo” at an Unbeatable Price

LogoNerds is a low-cost logo design agency with a pretty bold claim: You’ll get a good-looking, custom-designed logo for your small business, delivered in three to five business days, at “a price that can’t be beat.” (Their words, not mine.)

When logo design prices start as low as $5 on Fiverr, I’m fairly skeptical that LogoNerds’ pricing really can’t be beat. But pricing aside, what about the quality? Will LogoNerds’ designers actually give your business a unique, memorable, and professional-looking logo?

I was curious too, so I hired the company to find out.

As part of our quest to crown the world’s best logo design service (find out who won here), I signed up for LogoNerds’ Professional Business Logo package, which is the middle tier of three packages offered. All packages require one-time payments and promise original designs customized to your small business.

Although the website is only available in English, LogoNerds designers can presumably create your logo in any language that has digital fonts. And if your new logo is so fantastic that you want to spread it all over the world (and the World Wide Web), you can hire the company for other branding services, too.

That’s a big “if,” though. First, you need to figure out whether LogoNerds is the right logo design service for you. Will your budget-friendly logo be cheap in a good way – or cheap in a bad way?

What Features Do LogoNerds Offer?

In the world of low-cost logo design services, LogoNerds fits right in. Depending on the package you choose, you can get useful file formats on a quick timeline, covered by a reasonable satisfaction guarantee.

At the same time, though, you should prepare yourself for some, shall we say, “interesting” quirks along the way – like the mysterious project manager “Phil Nerd” or the strangely short time frame in which you can actually download your logo files (before they’re deleted forever).

1

Let’s Hope LogoNerds’ Logos Look Better Than Its Website

I simply cannot go any further with this review without saying what’s on everyone’s mind: the LogoNerds website looks straight out of 2002. The first iPod is out, the cool kids are on Friendster, and all the companies LOVE shiny gradients and stock photos.

But is the dated website a reflection of dated features? Or is the company just so good at logos that it doesn’t need a good website? Let’s find out whether you really can judge a book by its cover.

You’ll Get Logos from One Designer (Unless You Pay More)

With LogoNerds, you hire the company as a whole, its management team chooses designers, then you receive logo concepts to review. You’ll get multiple logos to pick from (three or six, depending on the package), but you don’t get to select the designer(s).

I was curious just how many designers work on each project, so I asked. Phil Nerd, who you’ll hear more about later, told me that typically it’s one designer per project, but you can pay a “minimal upgrade fee” to get work from multiple designers. (Not sure I’d call that minimal since it’s half the price of the total cost, but okay.)

So in summary: There’s no design contests, like on 99designs, and no hiring an individual designer, like on Fiverr. Instead, you hire LogoNerds as a whole and then hope for the best.

I’m happy to report that LogoNerds works with in-house designers, so the company isn’t just a middleman outsourcing its logo design to the cheapest bidder. You can view the designers’ portfolio online, as long as you have the time to click through 31 pages of logos, four at a time.

As you might notice from this screenshot, the LogoNerds portfolio isn’t immediately awe-inspiring. Many of the logos feel just as dated as the website itself. But we’ll get to the logo design quality in just a bit.

Timeline, Concepts, and File Formats All Depend on $$$

LogoNerds’ services are pretty straightforward: pay a one-time fee, get a new logo. The finer details depend on which of the three logo design packages you choose. (Strictly speaking, there’s actually only two logo packages, as the most expensive option is for character mascot design. Some would call this a logo, and some wouldn’t.)

With the mid-tier package I chose (Professional Business Logo), I was guaranteed:

• Six logo concepts
• Delivery of initial logo concepts within three to five business days
• Web-ready files: JPG, GIF, and transparent PNG
• Print-ready files: AI (editable), PSD, EPS, TIFF, high-resolution JPG

This package gives me everything I need, including transparent files for versatile display and vector files that are great for printing. The cheaper package offers only three logo concepts and no print-ready file formats.

You Can Provide Your Own Images

With any package, you can submit your own images to the LogoNerds team. If you already have an icon you love, for instance, you can attach the file to your creative brief and request that the icon be used in your final design.

Taking this idea one step further, you can even send in your entire logo and request what LogoNerds calls “logo repair.” Maybe your logo concept is solid but the design looks outdated, or maybe you lost the original vector files and need your logo to be recreated in a print-friendly file format. In cases like these, you could save money by choosing the logo repair service, which is about half the price of the design package I chose.

You’ll Always Get Free Revisions

Every logo design package includes free revisions, although the company does not specify how many revisions you can get. Presumably the 20th, 30th, or 40th request to tweak your logo would eventually be met with a no, but I never got the impression that the designers were hesitant to fulfill my revision requests.

LogoNerds says revisions will be delivered in one to three business days, and my requested revisions (both rounds) did fit into this timeframe, if just by a hair.

Not Satisfied? You Can Request a Free Redraw

No matter which logo package you’ve chosen, LogoNerds promises “satisfaction guaranteed.” If you’ve requested revisions and they just aren’t looking good enough (or if you don’t like any of the initial logo concepts proposed to you), you’re entitled to a free redraw with no questions asked.

Well, you will be asked questions (I hope), but only to make sure your redrawn logo is what you want. You won’t be hassled about asking for the redraw in the first place.

I didn’t personally use this service, but the rest of my experience was hassle-free, and I’m comfortable assuming this would be, too.

Other Branding Services Are Available

As I mentioned above, you can purchase other branding services from LogoNerds, too. You can add some of these from the beginning, as shown in the order form screenshot below. Others, like website development, require a totally separate project.

As if we really need more reasons to feel like we’ve been teleported back in time, one of the add-on services is getting your logo files on CD. At least it’s not a floppy disk, I guess.

I later found out why this backup service exists: Once LogoNerds sends your final logo files, you have only two weeks to download them. After that, they’ll be deleted permanently (!) from their system. Still, I’d rather back up the files myself than buy a CD for $14.

My Experience with LogoNerds

Somewhat outmoded file storage aside, how did my personal experience go down?

Well, after I got over the dated website aesthetic, everything was fairly smooth sailing. I clicked on the logo package I wanted, filled out the creative brief, and paid to get started. Then I waited for the magic to happen.

I didn’t have to wait long, either, as LogoNerds delivered on its timeline of three to five business days. In fact, I got my six logo concepts within 36 hours of placing my order.

The logos were sent through the admin portal by the one-and-only Phil Nerd, and here’s what they looked like.

Right off the bat, I could see that the designer stuck to my brief in terms of layout (I asked for a horizontal logo that would fit nicely in a slim website header). Other than that, I wasn’t a fan of the monograms – they look unbalanced, and they don’t really say “young” or “friendly,” two of the adjectives I used to describe our brand.

Concepts 1 and 2 felt plain, and Concept 6 felt a little dated, so I asked to see a few iterations of Concept 3, with the icon moved to left and with different colors. I also asked if there was some way to possibly combine the motifs of planet and magnifying glass, hoping to see something a little more creative.

I received the revised logos (this time from “Helena Nerd”) at the end of the promised three business days.

The first logo is exactly what I asked for and no more: the icon to the left and new colors. I like the second one better, though, since it looks a little more unique. I wasn’t crazy about the gray, so I asked to see it in the blue of Concept 1.

Within about 12 hours, Phil Nerd sent me these three color combinations.

I appreciate that he sent more color combinations than I requested, but the other two shades look way too similar to the purple, making the logo hard to read.

In the end, I approved Concept 1 with the original shade of blue. I could’ve asked for more revisions (and I’m confident I would have gotten them without problems), but I was happy enough to call it a day. I received the final files in a little over a day.

Soooo, drum roll, please! Here’s the final Website Planet logo from LogoNerds.

One last note before we go: The process of working with LogoNerds felt very impersonal. No one asked follow-up questions about my creative brief, and no one messaged me to say, “Thanks for signing up!” or “We’re working on your logo!”

Everything was automated, and many of the LogoNerds responses were clearly copied and pasted. For example, I received the exact same paragraphs, highlighted below, on three separate occasions.

By itself, this impersonal approach isn’t necessarily good or bad. Just a word of warning that if you care about personal interaction, you probably shouldn’t hire LogoNerds.

How Easy Is It to Use LogoNerds?

Astute reader that you are, you’ve probably noticed the trend by now. Pretty much everything about LogoNerds is serviceable, but definitely not the latest-and-greatest, cutting-edge, knock-your-socks-off kind of stuff. And the same goes for overall ease of use.

Everything on the website is technically easy to use (because you have very few functions available), and the entire logo design process is simple. But as you’ll quickly find out, “easy” doesn’t necessarily mean “enjoyable.”

In-House Project Management: Bare-Bones but Serviceable

Unlike many larger-scale (and more costly) design agencies, LogoNerds does not use a third-party project management tool like Basecamp or Asana. Instead, it processes jobs through its own customer portal system.

Like everything else, the system looks quite dated. The best thing I can say about it is that it works.

Creating an Account

When you purchase your logo package, you’ll also create an account to access to the customer portal. You can’t speak directly to your logo designers but instead a project manager – usually Phil Nerd.

The customer portal has very limited functionality, but it does keep a record of your creative brief and previous messages, and it allows you to send messages to your project manager. Once you’ve received your logo concepts, you’ll use this dashboard to request revisions and approve the final logo design.

The Creative Brief Could Be Waaaaay Better

Before you ever get to the customer portal, you’ll have to fill out the LogoNerds order form. The single-page form also includes the creative brief, where you’ll explain what you want for your new logo.

Warning: If you have a fear of the blank page, filling out this form might be the scariest thing you’ve done all year. It looks like this (and that’s only the top half!).

A little daunting, right?

The design is straight out of the earliest internet days, with nothing but simple text boxes. There’s nothing to help you, as a client, better express what you want for your logo:

• No examples of logos to help you choose the right style or layout
• No example adjectives to help you describe your brand identity or preferred logo design
• No examples of what different logo styles mean (e.g., minimal, modern, or vintage)
• No drop-down menus or multiple-choice questions to help you give clearer responses
• No definition or explanation of “font style”

Even professional designers can have trouble describing what they’re looking for off the top of their heads, so I’m sure that most busy business owners would not find this form helpful or easy.

Many do-it-yourself (DIY) logo makers and hire-a-designer platforms offer much more guidance than LogoNerds. 99designs, for instance, uses sliders to help you describe your brand in concrete, understandable terms.

Similarly, Fiverr uses images to help you choose the logo style you like, making it much more likely that your ideas and expectations will match those of your logo designer.

Because the creative brief is so important for creating a personalized and relevant logo for your business, it’s disappointing that LogoNerds has such a basic form. Adding some small touches, like many other companies have, would make a huge difference.

Limited Choices Make the Customer Portal Foolproof

Once you’ve trudged through the order form and creative brief, the rest of the customer portal is simple and straightforward – mostly because there’s not a whole lot you can do there. By clicking the buttons at the top of the screen, you can do three things: send a message, request revisions, or accept your final logo design.

Overall, the system does what it needs to do and nothing more. It lacks additional features to make the interface more visually appealing and/or more helpful to you. You can’t set tasks, see a calendar, or even directly message a specific person.

For an agency that specializes in design (even low-cost design), I’d love to see something more polished. To be fair, though, the company promises a cheap but professional-looking logo – not the world’s most beautiful user interface (UI) or most convenient user experience (UX).

Support Is Rather Slow and Limited

LogoNerds offers few avenues for customer support. Everything has to be done in writing either through the customer portal or through the website’s public contact form. There’s no phone number, no live chat feature, and no support by email.

LogoNerds Is Available Monday through Friday

LogoNerds is closed over weekends and major holidays. If you have a burning question about your project, you’ll have to wait until the normal business week begins (in Canada, where the company is based). Even then, you’ll have to cross your fingers for a fast response, since you can’t pick up the phone and pester them yourself.

Messaging Through the Customer Portal

If you’re already a customer, the quickest way to receive a response, according to LogoNerds, is to send a message through the customer portal.

Unfortunately, I can’t call their response quick. I used the customer portal to ask a question on a Friday, but by the next Tuesday, I still had not received an answer (even though someone messaged me to send me the revised logos). Only once I asked again did I get a response the next morning.

In the end, getting an answer through the customer portal actually ended up taking about as long as using the public contact form.

Sending a Message Through the Contact Form

Even though I was already a customer at this point, I wanted to see how quickly LogoNerds responds to general inquiries. To keep myself anonymous, I filled out the contact form using my other email address. (Not quite James Bond levels of stealth, but hey, it’s good enough.)

The LogoNerds contact form is what I would call “aggressively unhelpful.” Before you can get to the screen to type in your message, the page directs you to the FAQs – just to make sure you can’t help yourself. Then after you’ve filled out the form and clicked Send Message, you’ll again be directed to check the FAQs first.

I understand that they don’t want to waste time answering the same questions over and over, but they could be a little nicer about it.

Past the contact form itself, the interaction was much more pleasant. Good-ol’ Phil Nerd did respond to my inquiry, though it took almost a week to hear back. Much like the question I sent through the customer portal, the answer I got here was clear, direct, and helpful. Just not particularly quick.

Other Support Options?

There is a brief FAQ page with around 20 questions and answers, mostly pertaining to what various file formats are, how long projects take, and other basic questions about working with LogoNerds. Otherwise, there are no real design resources to speak of: no blog, knowledge center, video tutorials, or anything like that.