Choosing a Logo for The Old Flamingo.

We officially made it alive through our first week as owners of The Old Flamingo.  Suffice it to say I am exhausted.  Going from a customer of a store you love to the owner is a whole different ball game.  It’s been an emotional roller coaster of excitement, road blocks, ups and downs.  Luckily The Old Flamingo has been in business since 2011 and doing quite well.  Our goal is to give it the 4men1lady flair.  First order of business, get a new logo to reflect the more hip, urban vibe we’re going for.  This logo will be the face of our brand.  The business cards, store tags, website, flyers, emails and branding will all feature the logo…that’s a lot of hats for a logo to wear and thus a lot of pressure to get it right.

A friend of mine introduced me to 99Designs when I asked her who designed her super cute business cards.  99 Designs  is a contest based logo site.  You type in what you are looking for as well as upload any inspirational images then several designers get to work creating logos over the course of about 5 days.  You can give feedback and ask for variations in the designs being submitted during that time.  At the end of that time frame you pick 6 finalists who then go to work again submitting their very best designs.  Once the contest is over, you pick the winner and the winning designer gets the money.

Here’s a sampling of what several designers submitted for our logo:

Picking was SO difficult.  They are all dang good!

In the end we narrowed it down and chose this cool guy designed by “Wintrygrey“:

Our designer even put it on several different mediums which helped us visualize how it might look on more than just a business card.

In addition to logos, they also do websites, business cards, t-shirts, car wraps, packaging, book illustration covers and total business branding.
Here is just sampling of some of my favorite designs from 99designs.

The prices range based on what you want (ie website, flyers, book jacket design, etc.) Logos price design falls in to 4 different tiers.

We went with a more expensive tier but my friend went with the most basic tier and got a killer logo.  We weren’t sure what we wanted to begin with but knew we wanted something that had a vintage, hip, urban flair.  With that small feedback the designers helped us visualize our direction.  I was really impressed with the whole process.  They kept in good touch with us and communicated regularly throughout the process.  We are thrilled with our logo and are now ready for website design.

I would 100% use 99Designs again. This is NOT a sponsored post and I’m not affiliated with them in any way.  I am participating in their referral program.  If you work with them I get a credit to their site.  By using my link you’ll get a $99. upgrade toward your design contest.   Happy logo-ing!