Ask HN: How to get a Logo/ Corporate Designs in 2021?

99designs worked great for my non profit. For a relatively affordable price you got quite a few good options.

As a long time designer my advice is to focus on your company core business. The value of professional corporate identity design is immense and expensive. To shape a brand the designer must do deep research and come with a concept of uniqueness that will serve your company longterm. This cannot be accomplished only with graphical representation that is "cool", "trendy" or "something that we like". It must have meaning beyond the "current trends". So when you have enough ROI, you can find someone with proven record and invest in your brand. Corporate design is most difficult thing when done correctly.

You could use fiverr and a generational model.

generation 1 : write a brief 5 designers @ $5 select your favorite design (be sure to get some outside human perspectives)

generation 2 : modify brief based on what you learned in generation 1. what you liked and didn't like. include the winning design from generation 1 as an inspiration and say you'd like to improve it 5 designers @ $5

for $50 you get 10 designs and have iterated twice

you can repeat this process until you're satisfied.

Logomark and Logotype are two aspects of Logos. Some companies decide to do both, some only one.

Regardless, the purpose of a logo is to discern and identify amongst thousands of other similar looking logos. I lean towards Logomarks (Nike, Apple, Starbucks) and less towards (Stripe, CocaCola, Kellogs).

I recommend getting a logomark + logotype designed by a professional graphics designer.

The problem is, beyond investing a Fiverr-sized amount, there is almost never enough ROI in enhancing identity design vs creating functional product or UI communication improvements. And when there's no effective ROI for most tech companies, it's a vain and user-hostile to spend extra time or money on corporate identity, beyond a reasonable minimum.

Similarly, most businesses do fine with basic Wordpress templates... some just find that out after a research and development period that wastes immense resources. Logos are kind of the same deal. You don't need a special one unless you're micro-optimizing and can directly drive revenue with it, just a functional and professional one. Very few companies need immense research on their logotypes, unless they're undertaking something like Amazon's "smile" corporate identity shift, where revenue can truly be at risk.