We have all seen the shift going on from corporate branding to personal branding. Company owners are no longer hiding behind their brands and company identities; they are coming out to meet the public, getting to know people on a more personal level.

Where does that leave the designers of corporate identity and logos? Will company logos take second place now? What will those of us that are designers need to do in order to continue to market and provide services such as logo design? What do we need to do as designers to set a good example and lead the way?

Personally I feel the shift to personal branding is going to open many new doors and allow us to step outside our comfort zones of traditional identity creation. I feel it will call for a different more personal type of discovery process before we dig into the design. I also feel it’s going to allow us to learn more about the people we are working with, which will allow us to have better relationships with the clients.

What do you think?

I just read a great article on logo design; Niki Brown could not have said it better! Seriously people wake up and smell the reality; you really do get what you pay for. Niki talked about the cheap logo mills but its not just logos, this happens with website design and eBay store design as well.

I have done several web and eBay searches to look for companies (or individuals) that offer really cheap website design or eBay store design. I came across some real winners! I’m not going to link any of those folks here because frankly I don’t want to advertise for them and I think they are doing more harm than good.

First of all, if anyone can design a website for you for less than two or 3 thousand dollars and do it in just a few days you are getting a cookie cutter thrown together mess of code that will do nothing for you. You will probably end up with a template that looks like hundreds of other websites or eBay stores.

How much time goes into designing a good website or eBay store? At least a couple to several weeks and that is taking into consideration that the client is available to answer questions, approve changes and communicate during the project on a timely manner.

Rome was not built in a day and either should a professional website or eBay store!

As buyers please do your research, get the facts and compare apples to apples or go ahead and fall for the low end cheap stuff but have fun when you need support or you need updates or if you need marketing. If your cheap-o designer didn’t charge you much they sure didn’t do any research on your project before they started and they sure won’t be able to do any research to help you do any marketing. Then again, if they sold you a cheap design you may not be able to get back in touch with them again after your project is done anyway.