The honest answer
So what does the extra money buy?
A $50 logo is just a picture. A real logo is a picture that survives the real world.
The cheap ones are quick for a reason. Someone picks a font, drops in a shape, and sends you one file. It looks fine on a screen. Then you put it on a sign, a truck, or a shirt, and it falls apart.
We build a real logo knowing every place it has to go. You get the versions and file types a printer, a sign shop, and a web person each ask for. The extra money does not buy a fancier picture. It buys one that holds up.
A $50 logo is a picture. A real logo is a picture that survives the real world.
How the work flows
From a talk to a logo that holds up everywhere
A real logo is built in order, and every step feeds the next.
Side by side
A $50 template versus a real logo you own
Same picture on the screen, very different once you try to use it. A template sells over and over, so it can show up on your competitor across town. A real logo is drawn for you alone, and you own the files forever.
Fast and cheap, sold to anyone
- Sold over and over to strangers
- Usually one file that goes fuzzy
- No versions for sign or screen
- You do not own it alone
Drawn for you and nobody else
- Yours alone, never resold
- Vector plus the working files
- Every version and size you need
- You hold the art forever
What is in the box
What you actually get with a real logo
Here is the difference, item by item, in plain words.
- A few good questions first: we ask who you are, who you talk to, and how you want people to feel. A logo drawn without that is just a guess.
- Real options and real changes: you see true choices, not a hundred throwaway sketches. We fix and tweak it until it is right and still feels like you.
- All the file types you need: files for print, files for the web, and a special math-based file that grows to any size without going fuzzy. Plus a tiny logo that still reads small.
- The versions you need: wide, stacked, one-color, and a small one. So it fits a sign, a shirt pocket, and a phone screen without getting chopped off.
- Simple rules to follow: a short guide a real person can use, with your colors and fonts. So the next person to touch it does not make it look like a different company.
- Files you own outright: we hand over the working files, all of them. No 'call us for the real art' games later.
Plain-English glossary
The words people throw at you, translated
You do not need to know these to hire a designer. But knowing them keeps you from overpaying.
- Vector file
- A logo drawn with math, not dots. It grows from a business card to a billboard and never goes fuzzy. This is the file that matters most. If all you get is a JPG photo file, you do not really own your logo.
- Source or working files
- The editable original the designer built your logo in. Have these, and you can change or reprint your logo forever. Do not have them, and you are stuck going back to that one person every time.
- One-color version
- Your logo in one flat color. You need it for a stamp, an engraving, a cheap print run, or any spot where full color is not an option. Real logos come with one ready.
- Favicon
- The tiny logo that shows up in a browser tab and on a phone home screen. It is so small that a full logo turns to mush. So a real logo includes a version drawn to hold up small.
- Brand guidelines
- A short rulebook. Which colors, which fonts, how much space to leave around the logo. It keeps your logo looking the same whether you, an employee, or an outside vendor sets it up.
- Template logo
- A pre-made design sold to anyone who pays. It is fast and cheap. But you do not own it alone, and someone down the road may be using the same one you are.
How we do it
How Weber builds a real logo, step by step
Four steps, and the first one is free to talk through.
- 1
We talk first
You tell us who you are and where you want to go. No charge to think out loud with us. If your look is just dated, we refresh it. If you are starting from zero, we pull the idea out of your head and put it on paper. We build your vision, not ours.
- 2
We design, you steer
You see real options, not a hundred throwaway sketches. We fix and tweak it until it is right and it still feels like you. You stay the expert on your business.
- 3
We build the set and hand it over
The versions you need, all the file types for print and web, a tiny logo that holds up small, and short rules a real person can follow. You own every file outright.
- 4
We keep it the same everywhere
Because we print and install too, the blue on your sign matches the blue on your ad and the blue on your website. Design is the easy part. Keeping it the same everywhere is the part most people skip. We do not.
Straight answers