The best way to get a logo designed

I'm no graphic designer (though I've dabbled), so I pay someone else to design logos. I wanted to share the method I use to get results that I love.

I'm a serial business starter, let's not beat around the bush. In my defence, I've used this method for other people's businesses more than I've used it for myself. Anyway, I've done this a handful of times and got a great result every time.

There are two problems with hiring a graphic designer to make you a logo:

• What if they can't give you what you want?
• What if you don't know what you want?

The method I use (I didn't invent it) solves both of these problems. It's called a Logo Contest.

A Logo Contest is exactly as it sounds - people design logos, and the best one gets a prize. I use Freelancer.com, and they have a whole section dedicated to design contests. Then I post a brief, explaining the brand and any preferences I have. Next, I post a reward of about $200. That seems to be enough to attract a mass of decent designers.

You'll be asked whether to keep entries closed or open. A closed entry contest means designers can't see each other's entries, so they can't copy each other, but they also can't benefit from gradually narrowing what you do and don't like. My suggestion would be to choose closed entries if you want a wider variety and choose open entries if you want to quickly find things you like and let designers iterate on that. Set a deadline of about two weeks, then you're ready to go!

Once you've posted your contest, you should check in daily to rate the designs as they come in. Leave a comment on as many as you can, to let the designers know how they can improve. If you've kept the entries open, all designers can benefit from these comments. You can also leave comments on the contest to centralise your feedback.

In my experience, a small portion will be unusable, a large portion will be quite decent, and then another small handful will be good enough to go on your shortlist. Even if you don't get something you like enough to use, you'll have more than enough to figure out what you want. From there, you could pay the best entry to develop their idea further or take the concept to a different designer entirely.

A funny story - when I ran the logo contest to replace the temporary one I made for Choir Concierge, one of the "designers" decided to cheat by googling "Choir Concierge" and submitting the first result... Yep, they submitted my own design as their entry!

This method is the best in terms of value on a budget. With a higher budget, I'd suggest a different approach - rather than a contest, commission a regular logo design service from a handful of decent designers and keep the one you like.