Cookie Cutter Design - iStockphoto wants your logos for $5

29th September, 2009 by Lesley High

Oh dear! Its a pretty sorry day when designers are asked to design logos for $5. iStockphoto make this sound like the greatest opportunity not to be missed. I’ve seen this type of thing advertised on Facebook before, but never thought a company who I thought was fairly reputable would ever go down this path. Is this not biting the hand that feeds you?

For those who have missed the story, here is what istock is proposing:

“Become a logo designer for istock photo ... We’re excited to announce a whole new product coming to the iStock collection in just a few months: logo designs. Our clients will be able to download a unique logo to brand their business or organization right here at iStock from designers like you.

As a designer, you’ve probably created hundreds of different logos over the course of your career and we’re offering you an outlet to start selling new logos to the world’s largest community of creative buyers.

If you create one of the first 10,000 approved logo designs for iStockphoto by January 1, 2010, we’ll pay you $5 per approved logo and another $5 if we reach 10,000 approved logos by that date. So fire up Illustrator to create some amazing logos or dust off all those much-loved logos that never made it past the third round with a client”.

David Airey of the blog LOGODESIGNLOVE had this to say about the plan:

“I’ve learned a lot during my years as a designer. One of those things is that a logo in isolation is like lipstick on a pig. It needs to be treated as part of an overall brand identity strategy, not picked off a shelf. This is no different from the “make your own logo” websites out there, or the logo contest spec work sites that harbour an equal amount of “design” nastiness”.

Niki Brown of Design O’Blog, doesn’t think the issue is very cut and dried:

“Logos are a particularly difficult aspect of graphic design because they require you to summarize a company with a symbol and text. Logos involve a lot of back and forth with the client. A cookie cutter solution seems totally inappropriate!!! But then I remembered that I purchased a stock photo from iStockphoto.com this morning… and thought… hmmm hypocrisy?”

Reactions from the design community have been mixed. Some designers on the istock blog forum acknowledge that there will still be clients who value a proper design service just as there will always be people who don’t see anything wrong with buying a stock logo cheaply. Other designers believe istock are exploiting and devaluing the designers who made istock so successful in the first place, as one blogger says:

“This only helps to push the design industry in a race to the bottom”.

So what are your thoughts about this? Do you think this istock scheme will be popular with designers or clients? Is this just a natural extension of what istock already do? Are you outraged, or are you wondering what the fuss is about? Do you think this poses a serious threat to the design industry or not? Are we right to be angry anout this? Are we being short changed? Or, will it be a relief for design studios who will no longer have to deal with the el-cheapo clients?

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

View comments

Thanks for the interesting post. I have looked into selling stock with istock, but it really doesn't seem very profitable.

Looking at the istockphoto website it looks like the $5 is a bonus, in addition to what your logo sells for. However, what logos will sell for isn't straight forward. By my calculations, the worst case scenario is about $11 aud and the best case is $640 aud. It's hard to figure out because is it depends on istockphoto's credit system, and you only get a percentage of what downloaders paid for their credits. Istock says logos will sell for 100-750 credits, based on how they value it.

To us professional designers in western countries, that's not really worth the effort, but I imagine it's more than worth it for people in India, China, Thailand and also design students and hobbyists.

Anyway, I have mixed feelings about the idea. It devalues graphic design, but it's the same inevitable change that the music and most other industries have gone through. Technology has radically reduced the price of everything, and most people prefer the cheaper option that is usually good enough. I read a great article about it in Wired: http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-09/ff_goodenough

Of course, I'm sure there will always be clients interested in paying for a studio to create a custom logo for them, or to customise their istock logo for them. It will be interesting to see how the Design industry changes in the coming years.
Posted by Keegan Green on 30th September 2009

The discount culture we've been living in for a while has just hit Graphic Design. This comes with a high cost for those who value quality. There's an IKEA for everything... and logo design is part of the online shopping experience. But then, what if there are good customizable logos that can assist in the creative process? Anyway, I'll hate it when a client send me a link to an iStock logo, asking me to start from there, because that was the choice they made during morning tea. Or, perhaps they'll buy ten for fifty bucks... bargain-mania.
Posted by Moe Louanjli on 7th October 2009

Hi
Thanks for this post.

Discount thinking has hit the design industry, no question about that - but what will be the outcome? A big cleaning process where the professionals will be the last ones standing? There is already a big gap between clients who want it quick and dirty and the few who are still willing to spend thoughts and money on good and professional work.

How do you all deal with this mentality?

Posted by Astrid Wehling on 27th October 2009