Feedback and Rating on Our New Logo Designs

The Crit Pit
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#1

Hi! My company is rebranding and we decided to use 99designs to host a logo design contest. I was wondering if anyone here could help us choose a winner by rating our two final designs and sending us some feedback. We have 13 days left to choose a winner and I’d like to have as much input as possible before I present the results to my boss. He left me in charge of working with the designers and sorting out the good designs from the bad ones and I just think it would help a lot if I had more professional feedback from other more experienced graphic designers than myself.

Concept : New Logo for a growing Real Estate company
Purpose or Goal : Create a new, modern, and refined image for our brand.
Format : Will be used in both print and digital media, but most importantly it will be put on apparel like shirts or hats for our maintenance crew and office staff. Can possibly be put on the side of cars as well.
Audience : Ideal customers are potential responsible tenants that will rent the homes.
Your Experience Level : Though I’m a “professional”, I lack enough experience to say I’m really good with logo design. That’s why my company and I decided to host the contest for freelancers to make our new logo.
Nature of Job: We’re paying the winner of the contest for their logo design.

Since it’s hard to see the difference between the two logos by looking at the examples on the poll, I’ve attached some pictures of the logos enlarged to be the same size so that it is easier to compare the two. There are subtle differences between the two, but I think they make a really big difference in the image of the branding itself.

design 1
design 11500×1500 91.3 KB
design 2
design 21500×1500 119 KB

To provide some context, we had two very similar designs that we liked a lot but couldn’t decide which one was better, so we told both designers the exact same criteria to get these final designs. We still aren’t sure which one is better since each one has its own thing going for it, and I wanted more input so that we could decide on a winner and possibly improve one design further based off of the feedback I have from both designs.

Here is what I told the designers in their briefing:
We are a real estate company providing investors with all-inclusive premier property management services for their rental properties. We market their homes, rent them to qualifying tenants, and perform repairs and maintenance on the properties as necessary so that the tenants are comfortable and happy, whilst investors can enjoy a truly hassle-free landlord experience. Our target audience is the tenants but we want to look like a trustworthy company for prospecting investors looking for a property management service. We would like something completely new and different from our current logo which is very outdated. Something professional and conveying our premium services to both investors and tenants alike. Our main goal is to become an iconic brand in Real Estate, as we are growing exponentially and currently need to provide new T-shirts, hats, car vinyl wraps, etc. for our employees so that our leasing agents and maintenance crew will be easily identifiable by our tenants.

Style attributes are: equally classic and modern, more mature than youthful, equally feminine and masculine, more sophisticated than playful, more luxurious than economical, more geometric than organic, and neither abstract nor literal.

#2

Wow, paying the winner. Glad my industry has devolved to nothing better than a game.

2 Likes
#3

Clearly those logos were not done by you. Please refer to the forum rules – only the creator can submit work for critique.

1 Like
#4

Hire one.

4 Likes
#6

Hi, thanks for letting me know. Which forum would I be able to request feedback on for things like this that others have created for us?

#7

We are using this service to find the designer we would like to hire for the rest of our branding needs. We were actually pointed to using this service by another freelance graphic designer’s suggestion.

#8

Our company had been shopping around for a new logo design for quite some time and we were suggested to try using this service by another graphic designer that wasn’t very interested in our business because it’s boring to design for. We figured it would be a good idea to try the contest since only people interested in designing for our brand would be entering. It was actually a really good way to find many capable designers and I now have a list of people I would like to work with for other projects, though their style didn’t fit with this company in particular. Sorry if that seems like it’s just a game to you, but from a self-marketing stand point I think it’s a viable way to earn public interest.

#9

If it helps at all, this is our company’s old logo:
Revitalize Realty Logo

#10

Like I said in another thread…
I give up.

1 Like
#11

As already mentioned above, the forum rules prohibit critiques of work not created by the person posting the work.

As for the contest thing, its anathema to any professional designer. With few exceptions, professional designers don’t enter contests in the hopes of getting paid. We do this for a living and need to be paid for the hours of time we spend working.

I have no idea why a designer would have turned down your project due to it being boring. That kind of response from a designer is unprofessional.

Rather than going the contest route, I’ll suggest that you head on over to Behance.com, look through the hundreds of portfolios, then contact a few designers whose work you like and ask them if they would be interested. Don’t be surprised if some are not interested.

There is, of course, a difference between refusing to pay for incompetent work and not wanting to pay for those things you just don’t care for. What you shouldn’t do is ask someone to do work and then only expect to pay them if you like the work. It’s up to you to check the caliber of their work before hiring them. Professional designers don’t work for free any more than restaurant owners, dentists or any other professional does.

Also keep in mind that logo and trademark design are not just matters of coming up with nice-looking drawings or marks. Instead, a professional designer will look carefully at your business, your goals, your target audiences and your overall branding before recommending a logo that will best fit your needs. When you hire a good designer, you’re not just hiring an artist, you’re hiring a professional who can give you good advice as to what works, what doesn’t and why.

Finally, for what it’s worth, yes, you do need a new logo and it’s likely not the one you got from the crowdsourcing site.

4 Likes
#12

Thank you so much. Behance looks like an incredible source to find good designers. Looks more like I’ll be looking through thousands of them since there’s so many. Wish we knew about this route sooner. We will try this for any future graphic design needs.

I completely understand and we’re willing to pay whatever we need to get the premium logo we want. Unfortunately, we are already locked in on this site to pay whoever wins the contest at this point.

We actually also had a big local design firm turn down our project as well just before the freelancer did. We had a meeting at their offices and everything and they told us they’d send us over the paperwork we need to sign to work with them. My boss agreed to do everything they’re asking and requested the documents we needed to fill out to proceed and then never got any word from them after. He was willing to pay everything they asked for. I’m not sure why they didn’t reply to us or reach out after the meeting. Maybe they were too busy with all their other big-name clients.

Anyway, thank you for all of your feedback @Just-B and others. It’s given me a lot more insight on how we should go about our future design needs. I hope it helps others as well if anyone finds themselves in a situation similar to ours.

#13

You could pay em, and not use it.

#14

I’m curious about something.

Let’s say I have 10 houses that I rent out and need a new property management company. If I came to Revitalize Realty and said, “I am going to have 10 different property management firms each manage one of my rental properties for the summer and whoever does it best is the one I’ll hire.”

Would your company manage a property for free in hopes of doing a good enough job you’d get paid?

Of course not. You provide a professional service and deserve to get paid for the time, energy, and expense you put into managing a property. So why are creative services any different? They’re not. Okay, maybe the difference is that there are a bunch of unqualified, newbie type “logo designers” that are willing to work for peanuts and bastardize the very industry they hope will pay their bills.

2 Likes
#15

Dayum, what a stingy, lazy-ass dude! First he goes to the cheapo price-dumping design site to hold his hurray-the-winner-gets-paid contest, and then he goes to a public design forum to let others do the work of picking the winner (for free of course).

It’s just comedic irony that he got conned, and the two “different” designs both originate from the same stock image, that was most likely created by a third person. If there is a God in America, Revitalize Realty will be sued by the original designer and justice will be served.

2 Likes
#18

You cannot believe how much I loathe crowdsource. However, in defence of the OP, they are symptomatic of the problem. Of course anyone can work out that professional services should be paid for, but this is entirely consequential of the problem with crowdsource and competitions. It simply lowers expectations. If you believe this is the norm; the way to procure design these days, because it has become so prevalent, you can’t be entirely to blame.

We are all subject to it. Most people go to the supermarket and buy milk based on price, not realising that the purchasing power of the supermarkets is squeezing dairy farmers so much that in many cases, they are producing it for cost, or even less sometimes. I am lucky enough to live in an area where there are a few small dairys that sell direct, via local shops. It costs about double what the supermarkets sell it for, but, boy, is it good stuff. I know where the cows are, what they eat, etc. Worth every penny,

For most people, this isn’t an option, so they just buy milk at the supermarket and don’t give the consequence of that a great deal of thought.

I am not condoning the OPs stance, but that is why we must always champion the cause and sit on crowdsourcing wherever it rears it’s ugly head.

1 Like
#19

You got similar designs because they stole the logo idea from stock sites.

The EULA in stock images specifically prohibits them from being used in logos - and this is where you will end up with a lawsuit on your hands.

image

3 Likes
#20

To elaborate - a lot of crowdsourcing designers do this - they steal ideas to make a quick quid at no thought to the client and the ramifications it may have for them.

They are not original, they are thieves, and probably have illegal copies of the software too to make their ‘living’.

Albeit, with no concern to the fact the guy who made the stock image needs to be paid, the designer who should have got the job should have been paid, the company is left with a lawsuit waiting to happen, and the only winner out of this is a designer who gets a paltry prize for stealing and undermining about 4 different industries all for a ‘win’.

And I said it before, there are some crowdsourcing graphic dresign sweatshops who operate with child labourers. So there’s another reason to forego these sorts of avenues.

The cost of 1 sale at the percentage you get, what is it about 2%, that should cover the cost of your logo. 1 sale.
Think about that.

1 Like
#21

Sure and when I shop around for property mangement I’ll let you and some other company manage my properties for a few months and then whomever I like best or even better, whomever internet strangers like best, I’ll pay. How’s that sound?

#22

You better charge him a legal consulting fee now @Smurf2! :smile:

#23

There’s literally 100’s of the same idea https://www.google.com/search?q=r+real+estate+logos&sxsrf=ALeKk00OFyU-bQeogoc65-TtgLR8DevgSw:1602777802674&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_5tPM_LbsAhV5UhUIHcb8DREQ_AUoAXoECAwQAw&biw=1200&bih=554

I don’t know if you can file this under a lawsuit due to so many similar.

But who wants the hassle? Right?