Front Page Blog: Now accepting Logos - Discussion

SHAME ON YOU! watering down our industry...

(Edited on 2009-11-13 17:52:35 by tracyu)

A good joke or a bad joke?


People who think iStock taking 50% is iStock taking too much have no concept of what their own time and money is worth. How much of your time and money is spent maintaining a web presence - does your web presence ensure you get seen by millions of people all over the world who are specifically looking for a product like yours and are wready to pay for it? How much of your time and money is spent promoting yourself? How many times have you prepared a pitch for a client that has been knocked back? Did you get paid for that? How many different options do you prepare for a client when you're designing a logo of piece of artwork for them? Do you get paid by the hour or paid for the logo? How much of your time is spent going back and forth with the client for minor changes and iterations? How much of your time is spent negotiating how much something is going to cost and then chasing after clients to get them to pay?


Add all of that time and money up and it comes up to well and truely more than 50% of your time. Rather than deal with all that you can sit and design logos for a perceived market. Then you upload them to iStock and it does they rest. Obviously there is going to be a learning curve, it's a new market for you. You will need to learn to think like a client who is looking for a logo for their dog grooming salon/pizza shop/corner store/bakery/etc - something that is distinct enough and meets the needs without the client having to fork out thousands on employing a design and branding firm.


Is the market there? Well that is the million dollar question isn't it. I have seen enough forum posts and anecdotal evidence to suggest that there are clients who think itis okay to use a vector as their logo and are surprised when they can't.


So you have a choice. You can sit back and watch and laugh and point if it all doesn't work and say, "I told you so" or you can decide to embrace the opportunity and show us what you're made of. No one is forcing you either way.

I hate that you're doing this, iStock. Really bums me out to see this.

i'm really looking forward to all the creations.  the artists on istock on the best ever!

If 50% royalty is just for 6 months... I think iStock will introduce Logo-"canisters" with 50%, 60%, 70% and 75% rates. That's cool!

This is a trainwreck. I can't wait to see two different companies with the same logo.

How would that work? One they're sold, they're sold.

They can only be purchased once, so the trains are not derailing.