You’ve just started out on your own as a sole trader, or maybe you’re at a startup company and need a custom logo design to get the brand up and running. What do you do if your budget is limited? How do you sell yourself to the world?

There are a multitude of options for you to consider, from hiring a professional logo designer to using online services or logo design competitions. Some are good choices, others not so much, but we’ll get into that.

I get a lot of quote requests through my site from startups and small businesses looking for budget logo design – I hesitate to use the term cheap logo design as it could be interpreted as cheap-looking or of poor quality as supposed to cheap prices. Unfortunately I have to turn most of them down, which can be hard, but if you’re looking for a custom logo design for your budget of £50, may I suggest thinking about your business acumen and understanding of how time equals money? Hopefully not coming across as a snobby graphic designer, the point I’m aiming towards is that there are alternative options to hiring a professional logo designer when you’re on a tight budget.

So what are these options?

1: Design your own Logo.

If you have no money whatsoever to invest in your brand, as many don’t, you could design your own logo. The advantages of this are that it will be free, personal and as long as you’re not working with clipart or generic templates, it should be unique. The disadvantages are that you will require specific software to design your own logo in digital format – I recommend finding some free logo design software as supposed to shelling out a few hundred for something you’ll only use once.

If you’re going to design your own logo, all I can suggest is to keep things simple. As simple as possible. Don’t try to show off your newly acquired skills through fancy effects and 3D Wordart, I promise you that if the stylisation is central to the design, it will look dated in no time as trends change. It can be as easy as searching for a nice font on myfonts.com and using it in a colour that works for the message you’re trying to convey. Remember, not all successful logos need to have an icon or symbol to make them memorable.

2: Use a Logo template

There are a lot of sites that offer custom logo templates for sale as a one-off, so when you purchase it, you are the single owner. This is a better idea in that you will still come out with a custom logo, rather than a stock icon or template hundreds of other businesses are attached to. These templates can range in price from £5 to a couple of hundred, be sure to find out about the designer – are they professional? Is this logo listed for sale elsewhere? What is the rights you have to use the logo? Does the price include personalisation? These questions all need asked before purchasing.

The advantage of this for a smaller business is that you get to see the ‘final’ logo design before buying it – as long as you can imagine your company name alongside it, you’ve got a pretty good idea if it will fit your needs. The downside to using a logo template for your business is that it wasn’t designed for you, it was created for a fictional practise that you’ll be putting your name to – however, if this doesn’t bother you then it’s not a big deal.

I personally have a custom logo design shop where very affordable logo design templates are listed for sale. They are all created by me, and include customisation to your needs when purchased – as I said before, the logo is then removed once purchased to retain exclusivity.

3: Run a logo competition – a.k.a. crowdsourcing.

A touchy subject amongst designers as a whole, leaving a somewhat split audience whether crowdsourcing is good or bad for businesses. All morals aside, if you run a small part-time company with minimal turnover, maybe a non-profit organisation or church, running a logo competition is a good way to get a selection of logo concepts to choose from on a shoestring budget.

Bear in mind that those who regularly submit logos to these competitions are likely to be amateur graphic designers, children or bulk-submitters who spend between 5-10 minutes on the design to get as many submissions as their time allows. There is a lot of copyright and trademark infringement on these sites (even if the owners claim no knowledge) so be wary that the logo you select may have been stolen or copied from someone else. It happens all the time.

I do need to point out that I don’t recommend running a logo design competition, not simply because I’m a logo designer, but because the results are rarely worth the money spent – if you have a limited budget, spend it wisely. It’s like firing arrows blindly at the target, if you’re really lucky, one may hit – but it won’t be a bullseye.

4: Hire a graphic design student

Try building a relationship with a young, up and coming design student or a graphic designer who’s new to the industry. Their prices will tend to be much lower than the average since they’re just starting out themselves – another good reason, they’ll understand where you are coming from with the financial side of a new business.

When I started out, I was and still am exceptionally grateful to the clients who trusted me with their brand. With a limited portfolio I knew I had to do more than just deliver, I had to over-deliver in every way. Find a young designer with passion and determination and speak to them, let them know what you need and you’re on a limited budget – I’m sure they’ll be only too happy to assist.

Don’t ask them for a free logo design, or work for publicity / future potential work – it’s a bit disrespectful.

5: If none of these appeal… increase your budget!

Okay, you can’t afford the multidisciplinary design company with the stunning, global portfolio, but a freelance graphic designer can be very affordable. You can always use a temporary logo placeholder for a month or two until you have a more respectable budget (over say £100) when you can then return to finding the designer for the job. Be up front early on, let them know your budget for design, what you need and they’ll tell you if it can be done.

Do not underestimate the importance of a solid logo design for your startup business – it’s the face of your company, the first thing they will see and the image they’ll remember. A poorly designed, generic logo will be forgettable, certainly off-putting as it diminishes your professionalism. Spend whatever budget you are willing to invest wisely and it will pay off in the long run.

In Conclusion.

Everyone has a budget for business investments, whatever they may be, and your ‘brand’ is one of the most important. Work out how much you can realistically allocate to the logo design and spend it as sensibly as you can. My recommendation is to try and build a relationship with a graphic designer before falling into the bulk, cheap logo design pitfalls of the many online services.

If you intend to grow from a small business and be successful for years to come, having the relationship with a professional graphic designer will be an asset – alternatively, if all you need is a simple graphic for your personal blog then by all means try out the crowdsourcing options or design your own logo. If your startup doesn’t work out, then you haven’t wasted too much money.

For more information on the cost of custom logo design, please see my logo design prices. Alternatively, feel free to check my own Logo Portfolio or request a quote.

I was recently sent a copy of Logobook by Taschen – the so-called “monumental logo compilation”. Taschen have a history of producing fine books for the design industry, many of which are regarded as essentials within a complete design library. They are usually pretty pricey but you’ll find that’s only an indicator of quality.

Logobook by Ludovic Houplain – the co-director of the film Logorama (definitely worth a watch by the way) – features approximately 7000 logo designs organised alphabetically and acts more like a referenced archive than hub of inspiration. It’s by far the thickest logo book on my shelf with nearly 800 pages and coming in around two and a half inches wide (6cm). Each page consists of between 8-10 logos, at the bottom you can find information on the designers, when it first came to public view and what country it originated.

Despite it acting as a reference book, it can undoubtedly work to inspire, however, organising by letter makes it less visually orientated. You can’t have a look for “animal logos” for example unless you know the names of some brands beforehand that use animals. Flicking through the pages offers a range of logos, some famous, some I doubt I’d ever have come across either due to their location or historical nature.

What it does a nice job of is showing multiple iterations of logos that have been iconically designed – looking up Adidas for example shows three different versions from their history. Each does deserve recognition as it’s been part of the brand development and most logo books only feature the latest versions.

It is definitely a book I’d recommend to logo designers, due to it’s comprehensive approach to archiving and showcasing some of the best designs in the industry. It is available on Amazon if you search for “Logobook” but for some reason it’s named as “Logorama” – even though the cover is correct. Odd.

You can buy it here.

Getting stuck in a creative rut is a terrible thing. You have an important deadline to meet, people expect great Einstein-like ideas and your mind is as blank as the notepad in front of you. So, where’s the solution?

Creative inspiration is essential to fuel creative thought, I tend to think that if you’re not regularly inspired by new things, your ideas become stagnant and repetitive. You’ll end up producing the same generic output day after day until it gets boring and you’ve become simply a conveyor belt for mass-produced final products. Below are a few approaches I adopt to reinvigorate the creative thought – creative inspiration is like a medicine for the blank mind!

Proactively hunt down inspiration.

If you’re working on a project involving a certain subject, maybe you’re designing a website for a bakery for example, see how other people have approached the bakery theme. Actually try going to a few bakeries to take in the surroundings and absorb detail from the experience. Maybe there’s a ‘standard’ way of doing it that you need to rethink, maybe there’s something you’ve missed – get on Google, Dribbble, CargoCollective, Behance and any other site that showcases great design and study how things are done. You’re not looking for things to copy, you’re looking for things to inspire.

Pinterest is another great site to get hit with a tonne of visual stimuli – make sure to follow a bunch of folks that update regularly with imagery and links that offer fresh mind-food!

500px and Flickr are probably the two most popular photo sharing sites currently, 500px in particular offers a ridiculously inspiring “popular” page which updates continually with images that can’t fail to get the creative juices flowing.

Let creative inspiration find you.

Proactively hunting down inspiration is great, but you should always allow the world to inspire you in it’s own time. Go outside, absorb yourself in nature and take a camera. Take a sketchpad or notebook and doodle on the train – draw things you see out the window or people that stand out. Even if the sketch you do there and then doesn’t inspire the current project, it may inspire the next.

That brings up another point, oftentimes I’ll look over old sketchpads and notebooks from the past few years – it’s nice to look back, but undoubtedly there’ll be something there that will jumpstart a fresh thought or ‘aha’ moment.

Recently RSS has been somewhat ‘killed’ by Google, but the approach lives on through alternative providers – Feedly for example is something I refer to daily on the iPad. Subscribe to sites that provide daily inspiration, be it imagery, blog posts or even just news. If something interesting jumps out in the headlines, read up on it.

I found that a daily desk calendar, apart from being informative, offers a daily dose of inspiration. Last year, I had an illustration one that showcased a different piece of art from a new illustrator every day of the year; this year I’ve got one called 1,000 Places to See Before You Die – On more than one occasion I’ve come across a beautiful looking place that I’ve then researched on Google Earth and  500px. Easy inspiration.

Do a Project 365.

Talking of daily doses of creative inspiration, a Project 365 is certainly something I’d recommend to creative people to do at least once. Taking a photograph every day for a year, or doing a piece of art every day will be totally worthwhile, even if you don’t make it to the end of the year – I abandoned my photo 365 around halfway, but by that stage I had accomplished my own goal of learning the basics of the camera. This year I’ve been doing an iPad art piece every day, only slipping up on a couple so far in 2013. It’s amazing to look back over the work – the amount of inspiration you can take from your own work is always surprising, so to have 300+ a year is invaluable.

Take a break.

Most designers will spend too much time in front of a computer screen. Not much can be done about it, but taking breaks can offer more than simple eye relief. Going for a walk or simply changing your surroundings for a few minutes or hours can really help your thought process, especially allowing for a fresh mindset when you return to what you were working on. Don’t forget to double up on the inspiration here – on your walk, keep a notepad in your pocket in case the poster you see on the way out of the studio sparks your imagination.

Alternatively, turn the TV on and watch something interesting, or play some games on the xbox. Even if your not inspired directly during this time, you’ll clear your mind of the project for a bit – again, keep the pen and paper close to be sure not to miss an opportunity.

Get uncomfortable.

Leading on from the last point, getting out of you comfort zone (literally and metaphorically) can really help you raise your creative game. If you are used to working in the same office day in day out, try taking a laptop to a coffee place or park if it’s warm and spend an hour or two working from there. This can actually work wonders in another way – if you remove the distraction of the internet by going somewhere where you can’t connect, real focus on the work can help push new ideas. No more Facebook, no more you-tubes to waste time on!

Maybe you have a specific taste in music and don’t listen to anything other than the 1975-1978 era, hair-metal albums from Swedish language-only bands. Maybe try dubstep for a bit? Fire up Spotify and check out some music that you’d never consider in a million years – it might not change your taste, but it may get you thinking. Personally, my music tastes are so eclectic that shuffle in iTunes is inspiration enough – however thanks to an open mind I’ve now started really getting into contemporary classical and minimal techno – great for working in headphones!

The point of getting out of you comfort zone is simply to give your mind a jolt. Certainly in my own experience, when I’m in a new place or travelling I try and take everything in. It’s hard to say what it could inspire in future.

Books! Remember them?

Get back to school and start reading up on books from within your industry. There are always going to be people that are better than you in the field, many of whom have written books, so take the time to learn from them and be inspired by their years of experience. There’s no reason why searching for inspiration can’t involve the pursuit of growth, in fact, they should go hand in hand. In my case, I’ve compiled a list of what I believe to be the best books for logo design which I refer to for both ideas and research of nearly every project. Spend time in book shops browsing and exploring your industry.

Everyone is inspired in different ways, reacting and seeing the world in their own way – the above is just a few specific approaches I’ve found work well to personally gain creative ideas.

I’d love to hear how you find inspiration when a project starts to stall, leave a comment below with how you un-stick your mind!

Continuing on from last weeks post on the Best Free WordPress Plugins comes the second part, the Best Premium WordPress Plugins I’ve used on my sites in 2012 and 2013. Sometimes the free plugins do the job, other times you need more functionality, more options, more customisation – that’s when the extra work implementing the code requires a small fee for the work. Usually, the paid or premium plugins are good value if they do what you need them to – it’s a relatively low price to pay if you don’t know how to do it yourself, especially compared to hiring someone to do it for you.

I’ve come to rely on a few premium wordpress plugins in the last year or so, some of which I’ve listed below that I feel (at least in my experience of running a portfolio / business site) are worth paying for. In saying that, they aren’t expensive for the job they do.

My top 5 Premium WordPress Plugins

1: Gravity Forms  ($39 – $199) - a feature-rich and highly customisable contact form creator.

If you want your portfolio site to literally bring potential clients to your inbox, I recommend installing Gravity Forms. It allows you to create a range of input forms, from simple contact pages so visitors can get in touch to multi-page questionnaires with check boxes and advanced buttons. I use it so people can request a quote for logo design and also to create a logo design questionnaire. After one project, this plugin has pretty much paid for itself and I genuinely recommend checking it out if you want your site to bring in leads directly from the potential client themselves.

1.1: Gravity Forms PayPal Add-on (Part of Gravity Forms Developer) – allows users to pay you via PayPal without leaving your site.

If you have a lot of clients that use PayPal to pay you, this is worth adding onto the Gravity Forms plugin. Simply, it allows you to make a form on one of your pages that integrates all the standard PayPal details, whilst acting in your branded environment. Although the add-on is free, I believe you need the Developer’s version of Gravity Forms to work.

2: Slidedeck ($49 – $149) – create responsive wordpress sliders and image galleries easily.

If your theme doesn’t allow for easy sliders and image galleries I’d recommend choosing one that’s more appropriate for a portfolio! On the other hand, you can install Slidedeck to do that for you. It allows you to create really nice, professionally designed slideshows and galleries that present your work in the best way possible. It’s both a time saver and an interactive, engagement tool to help visitors navigate the content efficiently. The free alternatives, and there are a lot, are generally pretty good, but I recommend slidedeck if you want something great!

3: Social Image Hover for WordPress ($14) – make sharing to Twitter & Facebook real easy.

I used this smart plugin for a while to integrate social media into the site, instead opting for the simpler insertion of code into the sidebar when I’d learned how to do it. Generally speaking, it’s not recommend to have ‘too many’ plugins installed as they slow down the site, so if you hardcode something with the same purpose it’s probably a better idea. But that’s the beauty of plugins – they allow non-techy people quick and easy access to additional site functionality.

4: Backup Buddy ($75-$197) – Premium website backup tool

This deserves an honorable mention in my books as another backup plugin that at one point safeguarded all my sites. In the end, I went over the 2 licence price limitation and went back to the free alternatives which had me covered, albeit with a little more work on my end. It’s not a bad price for the peace of mind it gives you.

5:  Visual Composer for WordPress ($25) – Makes layout and arrangement of post easy via a visual approach, as supposed to html.

This is a great alternative to WordPress’ own post creator, which at times, can be limiting to someone with no html skills. Even something as simple as making paragraphs list in two columns is difficult without intermediate/advanced skills – this is where the visual composer really shows it’s power.

So what have I missed?

Having used WordPress for a few years now, I’ve tried a lot of different plugins to varied success – the items listed above and in last weeks free WordPress plugins are what’s stuck. At the core of a good portfolio site I believe is the ability to showcase your work, with large images and a nice layout that allows the viewer to focus on what they want to see. After that comes the informative side of things – make getting in touch as easy as possible so that it’s not a hassle. If Gravity Forms is a little overkill for your needs, at least make sure to try out a free contact form plugin from the repos.

After that, making sure the site looks good and responds quickly will be all you need to advertise your work successfully online. Everything else, as long as it provides a useful fuction is upto you.

If there’s any free or premium wordpress plugins or tools you rely on for your portfolio site please feel free to let me know below – I’m always interested to learn about time saving devices and ways to make the website as good as it can be.

WordPress is an amazing way to quickly and easily set up an effective portfolio website. I’ve used it since day one to advertise my services as Inkbot Design and have yet to find a comparable system that equals on quality, diversity and popularity. There are a tonne of great plugins for WordPress that allow non-coders (like myself) the ability to make a site tailored to their specific requirements. If you need your site to have a particular purpose, in the case of a ‘portfolio site’ to showcase your work to potential clients – be sure to have a look through the plugins and there will most likely be a purposely designed tool to do it.

I’m always curious as to what systems, tools, apps and plugins designers use on their websites, if there’s something you would recommend please leave a comment below even if it’s not wordpress related.

Some of the best free WordPress plugins…

You can get by solely on free plugins sourced from WordPress’ own repo, most of which work perfectly well and are updated regularly. I’ve listed below a few that I use and recommend, certainly worth looking into since they won’t cost you a penny.

1: Akismet - blocks spam from reaching the comments section on a blog post.

Installed by default for good reason, this highly effective plugin blocks 99% of useless spam comments from filling the discussion section up with cheap links to adverts and scammy sites. If you have a portfolio site without a blog, you could probably uninstall this but if there’s anywhere a comment can be inserted it’s worth having.

2: W3 Total Cache – optimises your site’s loading times so everything appears quickly.

They call it “The fastest and most complete WordPress performance optimization plugin” and although that may be marketing copy, I kind of agree. When my site was having page load speeds of above 10 seconds using a previous caching tool, I decided enough was enough and installed W3 Total Cache. A few simple clicks later that time was halved; with a little tweaking I had the average page load time down to a couple of seconds. I noticed over a period of weeks, the bounce rate jump from a measly 1.3 to 2.1 – basically, people were spending more time on the site, happier to click through to more pages. No matter what type of site you run, a decent caching plugin is essential – make sure you have one installed.

3: WordPress SEO - make sure all your pages are named and described properly to get Google’s love.

Everytime you add content to your site, be it a new page, blog post, image or video, you need to make sure you give it a decent title and description so that the search engines can understand just what they’re looking at. As smart as they are, the web crawling spdiers still need your help to work out what’s what, so make sure you’ve installed a good SEO plugin (or have a theme that is optimised for SEO) and take the time to name everything in detail. WordPress SEO should be a premium in my opinion with the quality and service it provides.

4: WP-Optimize – a ‘clean up utility’ for the database and background data.

This is a great little tool that you can run manually to optimise the database and delete old drafts of posts. The cache plugin makes sure everything that loads, loads quickly – this makes sure everything that is loaded, is as efficient as it can be.

5: BackWPup - can automatically make backup up copies of your website and syncs with Dropbox.

When I first started inkbotdesign.com it looked quite a bit different. It was pretty good and I was happy with the results of many hours of effort that I put in to learning and creating content for it. Unfortuantely, I managed to delete an important folder in the site structure when trying to install a new theme, and was absolutely delighted (sarcasm) to realise I’d made the site unworkable. If I had been aware of BackWPup at that point, there wouldn’t have been all the headaches and broken keyboards, but… you learn from your mistakes.

Learn from mine.

Install a backup plugin that automates the process for you so you don’t forget. Set it to backup your whole website including database(s) at least weekly, more if you make changes every day. Losing your website literally wastes your time as you start from scratch to rebuild, but restoring from a backup can be done easily, within 10-15 minutes.

This post is the first of a two part look at the best free WordPress plugins I use on my sites. The second half of the top 10 is the Best Premium WordPress Plugins and is definitely worth a look if you want to take your portfolio site to the next level.