the Cost of Logo Redesign and Upgrade

My sister-in-law recently began a house cleaning service and wanted me to help her get it set up by getting fliers and business cards printed for her. I thought it would help people remember her service better if she had a logo that would stick in their mind, so I approached the graphic design department at a nearby college and asked if they were aware of any soon-to-be graphic designers that might be interested in the task. I ended up with 5 different students willing to try. They all offered suggestions that sounded good, so I decided to offer $75 as a prize for whichever group or individual student designed the "best" one as chosen by both my sister-in-law and myself.

The students worked diligently, with each submitting 5-10 logo ideas along with generic wording tha could be changed. These "proofs" were ready within 3 days. It was a very difficult decision to make, but we eventually decided to combine 2 of the logo/set-up ideas. In return, we paid each of the winners $75 with the stipulation that they would have to work together to design the final flier and business card setup, utilizing both of their designs and wording. We had our final copy ready by the end of the week and couldn't have been happier! Now my sister-in-law has an interesting, bold logo with wording that really seems to say, "Look at me!" and her business has had tons of phone calls from the fliers (the business cards have not arrived yet).

Always think outside the box. A regular printer would've charged much more than the college students, and the students' ideas were definately "fresh and new", unlike some printers that scan through clip art books for their logos and ideas.