The chance of you needing one of the pre-existing logos is small, the chance of needing a logo period is higher, and seeing the portfolio of logos gives you a starting point to imagine things.
The only negative is that it might anchor you emotionally to a lower than average price if the current logo price is small enough.
The web site concept though seems to be exactly like a clothing store putting last years clothes out on the side walk for "cheap" and just getting people walking by to think about it and come in and browse. Which solves Internet company problem #1, "Nobody knows I exist."
Yes, this is primarily a neat marketing idea, surprising that HN seems to have collectively missed this so far! Guess the hive mind is having an off day.
The premade logos aren't even a bad idea: If you have a project, and you see a logo in the premades that fits well with it, than you may well buy it when you hadn't previously considered paying for a logo.
Wouldn't it make more sense that the price would go down as more are purchased, as the most popular logos are already taken? Is someone really going to pay $1000 for 'Mr. Grin'
I think you maybe misunderstand the point of this web site.
The designer has no interest in selling all or even most of the logos at the sort of market rate they could actually command. The website is much more useful as a portfolio/marketing tool than as an actual logo store. What the designer wants is for the price to rise high enough to prove that he can sell logos and to set expectations for clients who want custom work, while also guaranteeing that most of the logos go unsold thus keeping his portfolio active and engaging.
If the price went down with each logo sold, he might never even get that first sale, and if he did, there would eventually be a snowball effect which would lead to everything selling out, and his no longer having such a neat attention-getting portfolio.
I think he wants people to hurry and buy it now before it goes up, rather than holding off and wait until it gets cheap enough.
That's a classical business move, like any "time limited sale", force people to buy it right now before they have the time to think whether they need it or not.
After spending much time among entrepreneurs I find that there are very few with a "business" mind. Great idea, horrible model. This pricing model is so far out of left field that I had to do some research to see if it's ever been successful.
If there's a logo there that you like, the upward-racheting price adds urgency and drives a 'need to pounce' lest a) it disappear, and b) the price increase.
The author is pouring gasoline onto the impulse-buying fire.
At the long end, there are plenty of people who might pay a premium for a logo from someone whose logos are so good that they sold 48 of them in a day....
Yes, eventually sales will slow down as the price becomes too much. But in the interim the pricing model creates a sense of urgency that is likely to increase sales now. With the site most likely being used to market and sell custom logos (in and for the log run) his current pricing model doesn't seem that bad. Not to mention the pricing model also has some baked in social proof... someone paid $xxx for one of his cookie cutter logos! "Someone else found it to be worth it, I won't be outlandishly foolish if I buy one too..."
I think he just wants to encourage people to buy some of the logos quickly while the the prices are cheap. Forces immediate action instead of waiting and thinking about it.
I doubt there's any expectation that he'll sell all or even most of the logos in this fashion and it's certainly not revenue-maximizing -- but that clearly doesn't seem to be the goal.
Actually, coming from a marketing perspective, this model is sort of like the Kickstarter model. Those who take a risk with a logo before the design firm has been established with a reputation will get a high discount factor but as more clients buy logo, the designer establishes a track record and can thus command higher prices since they can show a past history of sales/clients.
Two points. 1. Peoples tastes are subjective, so while Mr. Grin is likely not going to sell IMO, who knows who else might like it.
The pricing accomplishes two great things that are quite brilliant.
When someone is ready to buy, there are two excuses they turn to to not take action. The first is trust and the second is procrastination. Within the context of trust, is value (is it a good deal).
By having the price go up, and inventory disappearing, you conquer both excuses.
1. Social proof of a) others like these logos and b) others are willing to pay this price for that value.
2. As the price goes up, you get worried about paying too much for something you want and wondering if you will lose out on a logo you like.
Both of these compel you to take action. As you wait, your risk of missing out or getting ripped off go up in a very visual and real way.
This also does a great job of framing the logo value when you order custom from the designer.
I assume the argument is that people will see it and strike "while the price is right". While $1000 is not cheap, it's also not exactly exorbitant when you consider the cost of creating your own logo or hiring someone to make it.
English not being my native language, reading your comment just made me realize the ":mrgreen:" pun (the smiley code that was shipped with standard phpBB installations).
Price goes up $40 per logo sold? So, after you sell 10 more logos, it'll be ($40*10) + $120(current price) = $520 per logo?
Seems like a strange pricing strategy. I guess it increases the "buy it now" urge, but at some point it will kill sales. I guess when it stabilizes you can just say "ok, that's what people are willing to pay for these". So perhaps it's a good way to explore pricing...
When I first opened the site, it was $120 per logo, with 2 logos listed when filtered for "sold". Now it's at $200 per logo, with 4 in the "sold" category. So yes, it looks like the price per logo is increasing by $40 every time a logo is sold.
We always have had a surplus of logos. When we design for a company, perhaps 3 to 5 decent ideas are sketched. Of course only one makes the final cut per client. We own any preliminary work, so we can offer these for use later. We would just change the name,
revise slightly and change the color. Bam...new logo.
What we did finally was revise the ones we like (25 to 50 initially) and include them for free as part of a new web design project. A lot of clients have bad logos that can ruin a design. So it helps our designs and clients brands.
Clients could also purchase at a low flat rate if they liked one without a website. This has worked well too.
Can I pay extra and have a custom image burned into the pizza instead? Would be great for parties.
Reminds me of a local pizza place that will make the pizza in a heart shape for $2 more. Of course, my wife and I just had to buy one. The chef and the waitress actually went out of their way to let us photo it before cutting and everything. Way more than $2 additional work, IMO. If we weren't both dieting, we'd still be eating there quite often.
The pricing model could be the logical conclusion to some basic behavioural economics insights. Feeling of a loss >> feeling of a win. Thus you create an ever present feeling of that potential loss (missing out on the lower price) which forces potential buyers to act to lessen that feeling of possible pain as opposed to the standard approach of selling based on the feeling of a win (my nice and shiny logo). This idea could probably also be leveraged to combat procrastination somehow.
It also has that novelty factor of the pay per pixel advertising from back in the day.
Neat :)
I guess the only problem is that the last logo shouldn't sell easily (without adding more).
This is a great idea! I'd actually sign up for a mailing list to get notified when new logos are added.
I'm aware of products like fiverr and 99Designs, but I'm worried about sinking a bunch of money into them only to get crap back. I like being able to view the logos and simply browse without any commitment.
With the per-logo price increasing by $40 every time a logo is sold, the final logo will cost $2000. But I wonder if it'll get that far. At that point, can't you find a decent graphic designer and get a logo exactly to your liking?
Quick edit: this is not a rethorical question, I honestly would like to know!
If you find something that fits well for your company, $2,000 can easily be worth it.
Working with a designer to create a logo for you can be time intensive. There can be a lot of back and forth with the designer as you refine the logo to something you like. Avoiding that time can surly be worth it for many companies with the right budget.
You can create a logo and pay a designer less than $2k but how much of your own time are you going to spend making that happen?
I think that might partially be the point. These seem to be a backlog of unused concept, and the designer has a CTA for custom work below. It's a marketing piece.
Maybe the owner doesn't know what the logos should sell for, runs this once, and then sets up a new site selling the logos for at or near the ceiling price from the unorthodox auction.
I like the idea of a website listing a lot of logos, me scrolling through them and picking something I need.
But I wish new logos would be added continously, priced separately, and definitely price increase on something that did not sold in the past is ridiculous. :D
Using a .pizza domain and using "Hot & Ready" in the tagline might make the casual consumer think these are logos made out of pizza, or are on pizza with cheese in the shape of a logo, or would have to do with pizza in general.
This makes it look like getting a logo is easy and quick. And it can be, probably.
It's not my area of expertise, but I would expect there are some pitfalls just like with company names, app branding and other branding/trademark stuff.
I would not want my logo to be too similar to somebody else, and researching that is probably tricky.
The person that made this site would probably be sued if he/she sold a logo to a company that's too similar to existing work, arguably not before the company itself gets sued. Hence, for new companies it's a gamble as the legal fees could put them out of business.
Maybe there is a disclaimer somewhere on the site, but I haven't found it.
Regardless, finding out whether or not a logo that you produced (or a design studio produced) is too similar to already existing work is difficult as images cannot be as easily searched as plain-text. This is hard for design studios too.
Also, and this is speaking as a layman, but initiating such a legal affair probably requires a trademark.
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|9 years ago|reply
" Need a custom logo? Let’s chat! [email protected] "
The chance of you needing one of the pre-existing logos is small, the chance of needing a logo period is higher, and seeing the portfolio of logos gives you a starting point to imagine things.
The only negative is that it might anchor you emotionally to a lower than average price if the current logo price is small enough.
The web site concept though seems to be exactly like a clothing store putting last years clothes out on the side walk for "cheap" and just getting people walking by to think about it and come in and browse. Which solves Internet company problem #1, "Nobody knows I exist."
[+] [-] dood|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] djsumdog|9 years ago|reply
http://www.horriblelogos.com/
[+] [-] qwertyuiop924|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] giarc|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pram|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nolemurs|9 years ago|reply
The designer has no interest in selling all or even most of the logos at the sort of market rate they could actually command. The website is much more useful as a portfolio/marketing tool than as an actual logo store. What the designer wants is for the price to rise high enough to prove that he can sell logos and to set expectations for clients who want custom work, while also guaranteeing that most of the logos go unsold thus keeping his portfolio active and engaging.
If the price went down with each logo sold, he might never even get that first sale, and if he did, there would eventually be a snowball effect which would lead to everything selling out, and his no longer having such a neat attention-getting portfolio.
[+] [-] eloisant|9 years ago|reply
That's a classical business move, like any "time limited sale", force people to buy it right now before they have the time to think whether they need it or not.
[+] [-] condescendence|9 years ago|reply
It hasn't.
Although https://github.com/metafizzy is kinda interesting (what this websites UI is based off of)
[+] [-] sborra|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ISL|9 years ago|reply
The author is pouring gasoline onto the impulse-buying fire.
At the long end, there are plenty of people who might pay a premium for a logo from someone whose logos are so good that they sold 48 of them in a day....
The author/artist is clever.
[+] [-] jrs235|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jaz46|9 years ago|reply
I doubt there's any expectation that he'll sell all or even most of the logos in this fashion and it's certainly not revenue-maximizing -- but that clearly doesn't seem to be the goal.
[+] [-] Kiro|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] calbear81|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davemel37|9 years ago|reply
The pricing accomplishes two great things that are quite brilliant.
When someone is ready to buy, there are two excuses they turn to to not take action. The first is trust and the second is procrastination. Within the context of trust, is value (is it a good deal).
By having the price go up, and inventory disappearing, you conquer both excuses.
1. Social proof of a) others like these logos and b) others are willing to pay this price for that value.
2. As the price goes up, you get worried about paying too much for something you want and wondering if you will lose out on a logo you like.
Both of these compel you to take action. As you wait, your risk of missing out or getting ripped off go up in a very visual and real way.
This also does a great job of framing the logo value when you order custom from the designer.
All in all, it is pretty brilliant IMO.
[+] [-] doppel|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arcatek|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IshKebab|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] snowfield|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] impostervt|9 years ago|reply
Seems like a strange pricing strategy. I guess it increases the "buy it now" urge, but at some point it will kill sales. I guess when it stabilizes you can just say "ok, that's what people are willing to pay for these". So perhaps it's a good way to explore pricing...
[+] [-] tronje|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] carlob|9 years ago|reply
The total he's trying to net is $40 * 50 (50 + 1) / 2 = $51.000
Not bad!
[+] [-] nathanaldensr|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TimothyFitz|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] have_faith|9 years ago|reply
edit: wrong assumption, just delayed response
[+] [-] wodenokoto|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peteboyd|9 years ago|reply
What we did finally was revise the ones we like (25 to 50 initially) and include them for free as part of a new web design project. A lot of clients have bad logos that can ruin a design. So it helps our designs and clients brands.
Clients could also purchase at a low flat rate if they liked one without a website. This has worked well too.
[+] [-] tedmiston|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wccrawford|9 years ago|reply
Reminds me of a local pizza place that will make the pizza in a heart shape for $2 more. Of course, my wife and I just had to buy one. The chef and the waitress actually went out of their way to let us photo it before cutting and everything. Way more than $2 additional work, IMO. If we weren't both dieting, we'd still be eating there quite often.
[+] [-] smnplk|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kriro|9 years ago|reply
I guess the only problem is that the last logo shouldn't sell easily (without adding more).
[+] [-] klausjensen|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] giarc|9 years ago|reply
I'm aware of products like fiverr and 99Designs, but I'm worried about sinking a bunch of money into them only to get crap back. I like being able to view the logos and simply browse without any commitment.
[+] [-] tronje|9 years ago|reply
Quick edit: this is not a rethorical question, I honestly would like to know!
[+] [-] MichaelApproved|9 years ago|reply
Working with a designer to create a logo for you can be time intensive. There can be a lot of back and forth with the designer as you refine the logo to something you like. Avoiding that time can surly be worth it for many companies with the right budget.
You can create a logo and pay a designer less than $2k but how much of your own time are you going to spend making that happen?
[+] [-] cschmidt|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] awesomerobot|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] derrekl|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] apgwoz|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] corndoge|9 years ago|reply
http://logo.pizza/img/happy-cat/happy-cat.png
[+] [-] dpc_pw|9 years ago|reply
But I wish new logos would be added continously, priced separately, and definitely price increase on something that did not sold in the past is ridiculous. :D
[+] [-] noer|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coldcode|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amelius|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ColonelTrick|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 91bananas|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jo909|9 years ago|reply
It's not my area of expertise, but I would expect there are some pitfalls just like with company names, app branding and other branding/trademark stuff.
I would not want my logo to be too similar to somebody else, and researching that is probably tricky.
[+] [-] leksak|9 years ago|reply
Maybe there is a disclaimer somewhere on the site, but I haven't found it.
Regardless, finding out whether or not a logo that you produced (or a design studio produced) is too similar to already existing work is difficult as images cannot be as easily searched as plain-text. This is hard for design studios too.
Also, and this is speaking as a layman, but initiating such a legal affair probably requires a trademark.
[+] [-] elmigranto|9 years ago|reply