Perhaps one of the most important parts of any brand is their logo. Getting the right logo however - one that is reflective of the company's mission and culture, and which conveys trust and authority - is not an easy task. If you've ever hired a professional graphic designer you know how cumbersome the entire process can be. Fortunately, there are services available which ease the burden and pretty much ensure you get precisely what you want out of your logo.
Logomyway is a company that I first came across at Ad-Tech Chicago this past summer. The service enables businesses to start a logo contest and receive concepts from thousands of designers all over the world. Create a contest brief and within a few hours designers can start submitting their designs. The beauty of this is how quickly and affordable it is. Also, since you can rank designs - underneath each logo you rank them 1-10 and mark them with elements that you like and you can even eliminate them. Once it's selected, funds are released from escrow. Contest owners have fourteen days to decide on a winner. LogoMyWay has run over 100 contests since May and they have not had any abandoned contests yet.
One of the advantages for designers using the services is that, even if you don't win the contest itself, you're in effect creating a portfolio of designs to showcase your work (you even get a link). Even though I have not tried the service (as a designer or as a business owner running a logo design contest) I like the idea/concept very much. There are some similar service on the market like 99Designs which you may also want to check out.