As a logo designer, I’ve met clients who didn’t know what they want and/or didn’t know how to communicate the visual that’s in their heads to the designer. I think logo design some times is a two way street. When you go buy a house, some times you found the house of your dreams was already built by someone else who happened to dream the same dream/vision. That where Brandstack’s niche is. But sometimes, you just need your dream house to be custom-built to the tee according to your unique visions. That’s when you work exclusively with a logo designer.

I don’t see Brandstack as something bad. In fact, great logos can come from visions/creative dreams of designers, before the clients/companies who are the “mates” of the logos find them. Like paintings, do painters wait until he’s commissioned first by a customers before he paints?
I’m not saying logos are exactly like painting, but it is also a form of art. Just trying to see it from that point.

If this article were to only point out one thing, that would be it.

Think of classic logos like Coke or McDonalds and you’ll see that those logos are only as powerful as they are because of the size and influence of the company itself. Not to say these companies would be as well off without the logos, but they were not the starting point – the business model was.

Thanks for the insightful comments guys.

There are obvious pros and cons to this model.

- Designers set their own prices, we do not have a say in how they value their work (other than saying it’s worth more than $250.) If a potential buyer finds a logo that is out of their price range, like the $30k star, they can work with the designer to try and reduce the price.
- We try our hardest to only let the best designs into Brandstack, although some slip through. We are constantly working to improve our process to keep our standards high. As you mentioned with the “20 Greatest Logos” post, we have our fair share of award winning designs.
- Copyright infringement is a constant battle, but it’s no different than posting your designs on a crowdsourcing site or a logo gallery/showcase. We document when every logo is posted to Brandstack and have prevented others from stealing ideas in the past. We’ve also worked hard to remove any over inspired designs from Brandstack’s inventory.

I’ve said in the past that working directly with a competent, capable designer is hard to beat. Unfortunately, there are a lot of business owners out there that don’t know how to manage this process and don’t want to attempt it. In the same sense, there are several designers in the industry that don’t understand how to fully accomplish what a business owner needs, let alone wants. In the end (as witnessed by talking to hundreds of designers), the designer hands over a design that might not be the best fit “because the client requested it.” We’re trying to fill the hole that’s left between this scenario and those sites that hurt designers. By changing the buying process for logos, we’re giving you a way to sell some of your unused designs at a price you determine and we’re giving businesses a way to find GREAT designs without all the headache.