My review of $25 logo from gotlogos.com

I’d agree it’s not an exciting logo. A similar option is 99designs.com, where designers compete for your work. I plan to use the site soon.

If you are interested, I do freelance graphics. If you view the samples on my site, you can get an idea of my style of logo design. The logo you purchased is clean, but canned. For me, it does not convey “Personal Trainer.” It is possible to have a clean, crisp logo that is also inspiring and communicates who you are.

My business site is https://www.decaldivas.com

Ill be honest, it sucks. Thats just being real it looks really cheap, i can do the same thing in under 2 minutes using photoshop. Its not as much as a logo as it is writing ur name and putting a squigly line though it, members on free forums can probably make u much better ones that this if u ask them and its free 2. If ur happy with it fine, but as this logo goes u got ripped off. I wouldent accept this if it was given 2 me for free.

all what I am about to write now is ment to be constructive criticism and with no disrespect what so ever.

I find the design boring an unimmaginitive.
It tell me NOTHING of what you described above about yourself.Nada.
At first glance it looked (to me) like a marine – related company (yacht engineers ???)
It lack all the dynamics that I would expect from someone who is dealing with sports.
The typography is dull, and the strange kerning at the bottom does not help either.
A good thing to do when examine a logo is to think how it would look ONLY IN ONE COLOR (black) . this is how it would look on faxes, stationary, and the company’s rubber stamp (for example)
Yours would be un-readable becasue of the wave interaction with the letters.

hope it helps. and again, no offense intended..

I had a great experience at 99designs, but it is much more expensive than what you’ve described. The cost is $139 to post a contest and offer the minimum prize.

However, I loved so many of the logos that were submitted to my contest. I picked the winner to be the logo for my photography site, and worked out a deal with another designer for a logo for my personal blog (it just didn’t work for my photo site).
the winning design
the other tweaked design

However, you have to put in some effort with rating and feedback for the designs. But I thought it was really awesome and I recommend it.

Hello- I am Daniel from https://www.Gotlogos.com and was the designer of this logo. I feel Chris got a very good, clean and professional treatment for his brand considering he directed us not to use typical style fitness figures in this logo and to basically make it a text treatment.

Some of the comments that followed were fair and some were harsh as is the nature of the Internet where everyone had an opinion and are not shy to offer their 2 cents worth.

Chris we appreciated your business and for $25.00, no matter what some of the naysayer type say, you did receive something you can work with well.

Please also remember that Chris had the option if he chose to have further tweaks done to this logo at only 10.00 per subsequent round.

A logo doesn’t always have to have figures/icons in it (as Chris seemed to indicate he did not wish, he wanted soemthing more low-key) to be brandable and as a matter of fact, most recignizeable brands out there ARE simply text treatments. I could look at the Microsoft logo and say, hey I ocul dhave doen that in two minutes in Photoshop. What is the point of that? Many of us can look at any concept and monkey it all day long. If that is what works for ethe client adn it is clean an dprofessional then it will reflect well on the brand.

So, so far everyone is a “naysayer” apart from the designer, who (not surprisingly) thinks it’s a great design. There seems to be a lack of “yeasayers”.

gotlogos — I think you do yourself a disservice by trying to dismiss the criticisms that people have made. That kind of feedback is invaluable if you want to aspire to be anything but a hack.

I’ve already said it’s a dull and clunky logo. I’ll elaborate. You’ve used three fonts in one logo. That’s at least one too many. The wavy line doesn’t relate in my mind to sports or fitness at all. It does seem vaguely nautical. Maybe Chris teaches rowing?

The wavy line starts off “hilly” and then flattens out towards the end. Perhaps this is symbolic of how you’ll feel after a session with Chris?

The font for “Chris Ranes” is spiky. Is that a comment on his personality? Is he cruel to his students?

But I should really address Chris himself rather than the designer, since he’s the one that would be using this logo. Are these the associations you want to brand yourself with, Chris?

99designs (or some other designer) might cost $100 bucks more, but you’d get a far better design. Do you want your website to say “I can’t afford to pay $100 for a decent design?” Or “I cut corners and am shoddy”? Or do you want your website to say, “I am thorough and pay attention to detail”.

To the designer: if you don’t like this or any other criticism: tough. You’re not the one who has to live with your logo.

To Chris: drop this guy. His attitude sucks.

Haecceity – Because I defended my design, my attitude sucks. Who is actually sucking here…why don’t you try something other than being a typical e-punk.

WE gave a good effort for Chris and his gut reaction is he liked it. When you put out a call for critique, on the net, you normally get a confluence of naysayers and negativism.

As much as you say the font isnt appropriate we can say it puts Chris in light as a down-to-business trainer, as he described himself. Chris asked for basically a text treatment including all the elements we worked in. He asked for one design. If he would have asked for two and paid for each (total of 2 designs) then he would have had two different looks to choose from.

Many clients do that and many say, “Let’s try one and if it doesn’t work we will give further direction and get a different look”.

My advice Chris is just don’t listen exclusively to those you tell you others’ attitudes suck with no provocation. Dude, you are ugh-worthy.

*GotLogos.com has been featured in Wired Magazine, NY Times, Lifehacker, Boing Boing, Print Magazine and newspapers all over the world. Our designs have been nominated blindly, several times, in SINGLE contests. Our designs are being used in some of the largest sites on the net today who have the budgets to hire much costlier design services, despite our remarkable affordability.

Gotlogos: It’s because you’re totally dismissive of criticism and over-estimate your own ability as a designer that your attitude sucks. Good luck with your business. You’ll need it.

Haecceity – we really do value any input, even this. But we just feel some of it can be overly snarky.

Our business services are popular, we do well. Since 2000 we have done over 30,000 designs and almost all our business is word of mouth generated.

I like the logo…i think it works: its basic and clean. The color is pleasant on the eyes.

@gotlogos

When you put out a call for critique, on the net, you normally get a confluence of naysayers and negativism.

this is sooo untrue …
Usually I see more positive feedbacks on bad works than bad feedback on brilliant work.
I think it just depends on the overall level of expectations, based on personal standards of the person who looks at the work, and the ones who created it.
Bottom line is this :
If you are happy with your design and feel completly good with it, than ignore what everyone said here (including me).
But if you have some professional integrity , and by that I mean that you are willing to accept some citic (from potential clients of your client I might add), than you might want to put your design to some other “field tests” before convincing your client that your product is the perfect one for him.

Personally, I think for $25, you got a pretty good deal. It may not be the greatest logo in the world, but it’s clean and professional looking, and fine for your business as a personal trainer. Really comes down to if *you* like it.

If you were a large company launching a product, you would probably not be satisfied with this logo. But you’d also be willing to spend a lot of money developing a logo — logo development can be a long process, involving looking at many variations, and with many different considerations.

But for a guy in his own business, especially a business where client word-of-mouth is very important, I think your logo looks fine — it doesn’t look “home made” or amateurish, and you only paid $25 for it. At that price, you could have them do 4 or 5 of them and choose from the lot.

Why don’t you ask some of your clients and trainers what they think? They are your audience. And the best way to do it is make them give their first impressions right off the bat without thinking about it. Don’t ask them to critique it, because then they will (of course) be critical. Just try to see what their immediate impression is.

this is sooo untrue …

Absolutely, especially on the forums here, where people are generally frank with both their reservations and their praise when it comes to evaluating designs.

Hey ranessirhc, i think that u got a nice proffessional logo dirt cheap.

One big mistake that most ppl do when they hire a designer, is to guide him to what THEY have in mind, instead of letting him/her free to design.
Personally I dont like the “nautical” logo style and colors, the wavy line could be in a different color emphasizing the name, but, on the other hand, if you have a website in such colors and/or use such a style elsewhere then it would perfectly match.

It’s a matter of aesthetics. I don’t even like microsoft logos! But that logo doesn’t seem amateurish or cheap, as StrangeAttractor just said.