Toptal is a marketplace for top professional logo designers. Top companies and startups choose Toptal logo design freelancers for their mission critical design projects.
Jordan is an expert designer whose focus is on visual communications and whose work integrates strategy, service design, and UX/UI. She has worked in a range of companies, from corporate in-house to boutique design studios. A self-starter who wears many hats, Jordan is in her element leading a project or managing a team.
Brian is a multidisciplinary designer specializing in brand strategy, identity, product design, and art direction. His design ethos can be defined as efficient, adaptable, and sparked with enlightenment. For over ten years, Brian's designed complete brand systems, cross-platform mobile and web applications, and creative campaigns for hundreds of brands and organizations, including Dell, IBM, Boys & Girls Clubs, Cylance, and Ford.
Tommy is an award-winning designer with 20 years of product design experience. His past clients include Activision, GE, Disney, Colgate-Palmolive, The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and many startups. Tommy is passionate about problem solving, web technology, playing with his kids, and trail running with Arlo, his dog.
Oscar is a visual and UX designer with 18+ years of experience building digital products and brands while managing international creative teams. He specializes in user interface design and online branding for both B2B and B2C industries. His process is multidisciplinary and user-centered.
Miki is a multidisciplinary designer with a focus on typography, clarity, and efficiency. His services include branding, print, and digital design. As a former art director at Saatchi & Saatchi, he has worked on big brands such as Volkswagen, T-Mobile, Microsoft, Cisco, and Nestle and learned to combine business with visual thinking. Self-taught, passionate, and a perfectionist, Miki loves purity, simplicity, and beauty.
Ivana has more then fifteen years of experience in visual design, working on various kinds of projects ranging from branding, corporate, and promotional materials to books, magazines, packaging, and web design, with clients and teams of all sizes and from different backgrounds. She enjoys solving problems and giving creative solutions. She also works as an Adobe Certified Instructor and Assistant Lecturer at Algebra University College in Zagreb.
Ivona Petrović is a product designer, illustrator, and podcaster. With a background in fine arts and eight years of experience in the field of visual communications, she brings her knowledge to projects all around the world. Some of her clients are businesses and startups focused on sports, eCommerce, education, and tech. Ivona started the Dizajn Priča podcast in 2018, where she talks about her experience as a full-time freelancer and shares insights into life as a professional designer.
Alex has worked with some of the biggest brands on the planet, including Nike, Converse, Heineken, Vogue, and CoStar Group. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Wired, and Communications Arts. With a hefty number of awards, 15 years of experience, and the philosophy of practicing what he preaches, Alex is known for his minimal and timeless designs. He thrives when working with bold brands and has a deep appreciation and understanding of the impact that great design can have.
Calin is a product designer, lean UX practitioner, and brand design specialist with experience at startups and scale-ups. He's worked on end-to-end product design, from concept and strategy to usability testing to visual design. Calin works well with small teams and startup founders to iterate quickly, test early, and turn ideas into solid products.
Shammer is a brand and digital designer with over ten years of experience. His breadth of skills varies from print to digital design. He defines himself as a chameleon; he can design for various clients while staying true to their brand's visual identity and extending it wherever needed or desired.
Ana is a UX/UI designer with several years of design experience and a career specializing in digital interfaces and design systems, primarily for dashboards and mobile apps. She loves working with content, analyzing, and making strategic design and user-centered decisions. Ana then transforms these into concepts then wireframes, mockups, and prototypes that all lead to the development of intuitive digital products with seamless user experiences.
Hiring a top logo designer builds the foundation of defining your brand messaging and overall experience. Although this can be a challenging phase of the branding journey, your logo is also one of the most important aspects of your brand identity. This hiring guide looks at understanding the key roles of a logo designer within your business as well as the skill sets required to successfully design your company logo.
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Despite accelerating demand for coders, Toptal prides itself on almost Ivy League-level vetting.
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Creating an app for the game
Building a cross-platform app to be used worldwide
Leading a digital transformation
Drilling into real-time data creates an industry game changer
Testimonials
Michael is an incredible designer, and has been a great fit for our project. He just gets it in a way that can’t be taught. My goal was to pay Toptal to find me a high quality designer for my project, and that is exactly what happened. It was easy. Being able to see the portfolio work on Toptal’s platform is what gave me the infomation I needed to choose Michael. I have nothing but good things to say about Toptal and am looking forward to using Toptal for other projects in the future.
Edward Daniel, Co-Founder
improvemygun.com
I've worked very closely with Martina for over a year and have to say she is one of the best people I have ever worked with. Instead of simply following instructions blindly, she thinks through the task at hand, becoming a thought partner to help with whatever the project may be. Besides being super talented at design, she possesses specific qualities that make her exceptional to work with given the fast paced nature of being a startup. I would definitely recommend her to anyone looking for a talented, professional designer who doesn't need much direction to hit the ground running.
Sahil Khanna, Sr. Manager, Marketing
LeanTaaS, Inc.
Darko did a great job figuring out the user architecture for our concept, which led him to produce terrific wireframes. His knowledge of usability and design was a perfect match for the outside voice we needed to help jumpstart our project. We would certainly recommend him and work with him again in the future.
Rich Danker, Founder
Prose Market
Carlos has the unique talent of blending both quantitative and qualitative research to keenly identify UX challenges and opportunities. He thinks methodically, emphatically, and holistically to produce data-driven strategies and well-executed designs. Over the past 8 years of working with fully or partially distributed teams, Carlos manages working remotely far better than anyone I've encountered because of his strong communication and presentation skills. He is the first on my list the next time I need a UX designer.
Michelle Krogmeier, Project Manager
Union Station
Rafael is an amazing designer. His aesthetic sense is spot on, and he seems to be able to anticipate our needs before we even know what they are. He's taken the time to understand both our company and our clientele, and his solutions are consistently in-line with our values, interests, and our customers' needs. He delivers on time (if not earlier), works quickly, is well organized, and very effective. He's a pleasure to work with, and we're very happy to have found him through Toptal.
Ethan Brooks, CTO
Langlotz Patent & Trademark Works, Inc.
Toptal gave us access to the best designers out there. They’re not easy to find. Those designers integrated very quickly with our existing teams. They very quickly understood our business case and the value of our solution. Toptal really allowed us to focus on building the best possible product and save a lot of time on the typical administrative pains that goes with it -- specifically, finding the best talent. Toptal designers were very responsive, always online -- and that made life very easy for us. We have ambitious goals on how to grow the application and already Toptal has been a key contributor to that success.
Thierry Jakircevic, General Manager, Digital Solutions, Bridgestone Head Office, Tokyo
Bridgestone Corporation
We had an amazing experience working with our Toptal designer. In only two weeks, we accomplished what would've taken most companies 3 months to complete. We also enjoyed working with the Toptal team to make sure we were paired up with the right designer that would fit both our company culture and working style.
Ted Blosser, Head of Sales and Customer Success
WorkRamp
Dean blew us away. He ranks right up there as one of the top five designers of the hundreds I have worked with in the past. He listened, was totally professional, and came up with a 3D rotating cube design completely on his own. We didn't even ask for it, and yet it has become the centerpiece of our app and how users engage with it right off the bat. What he produced inspired all of us at Votify, and put us on track for launch and investor funding.
Michael Lawrence, Founder & CEO
Votify LLC
How to Hire Logo Designers through Toptal
1
Talk to One of Our Industry Experts
A Toptal director of design will work with you to understand your goals, technical needs, and team dynamics.
2
Work With Hand-Selected Talent
Within days, we'll introduce you to the right professional logo designer for your project. Average time to match is under 24 hours.
3
The Right Fit, Guaranteed
Work with your new logo designer for a trial period (pay only if satisfied), ensuring they're the right fit before starting the engagement.
Find Experts With Related Skills
Access a vast pool of skilled designers in our talent network and hire the top 3% within just 48 hours.
At Toptal, we thoroughly screen our logo designers to ensure we only match you with talent of the highest caliber. Of the more than 200,000 people who apply to join the Toptal network each year, fewer than 3% make the cut. You’ll work with design experts (never generalized recruiters or HR reps) to understand your goals, technical needs, and team dynamics. The end result: expert vetted talent from our network, custom matched to fit your business needs.
Can I hire logo designers in less than 48 hours through Toptal?
Depending on availability and how fast you can progress, you could start working with a logo designer within 48 hours of signing up.
What is the no-risk trial period for Toptal logo designers?
We make sure that each engagement between you and your logo designer begins with a trial period of up to two weeks. This means that you have time to confirm the engagement will be successful. If you’re completely satisfied with the results, we’ll bill you for the time and continue the engagement for as long as you’d like. If you’re not completely satisfied, you won’t be billed. From there, we can either part ways, or we can provide you with another expert who may be a better fit and with whom we will begin a second, no-risk trial.
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How to Hire a Great Logo Designer
Most designs are ephemeral. A new website design, a brochure design, a social media image—they’re obsolete within a few years, if not a few days.
Logo designs are different. A good logo can last for decades. The oldest logos still in use (Lacoste and Chanel, designed in 1927 and 1925, respectively) are approaching 100 years old.
"If you do it right, it will last forever." –Massimo Vignelli
Because of the timeless nature of the best logo designs, hiring a logo designer takes a carefully considered plan. It’s not a process to rush through if you expect to get the kind of long-lasting design results the best logos achieve.
What Is a Logo Designer?
In the simplest terms, professional logo designers create a mark, symbol, signature, and/or typographic design used to represent or identify a business. Logos are prominent in everyday life, appearing on everything from advertisements to websites to products.
Responsibilities
Discuss logo concepts with clients
Research a business’s target audience to produce a logo that improves brand recognition
Understand the motive behind the company logo
Understand the company’s core values and brand
Create sketches or mockups of ideas for new logo designs based on design needs
Refine initial logo sketches into a finished design, based on client feedback
Test logo design to ensure it achieves the brand’s needs
Understand the variety of media a logo might be used for
Produce final logo files as needed
Related Professions
Some logo designers focus solely on logo design. Others may create logos as a subset of other branding or graphic design services.
Graphic Designers
Graphic designers create designs for everything from logos to marketing materials to graphics for products (such as T-shirt designs). Graphic designers often create designs for both print and digital media (visual designers, sometimes confused with graphic designers, focus solely on digital media).
Branding Designers
Branding designers create logos in addition to other brand marketing materials. They’re responsible for the overall look and feel of the entire brand, as opposed to the logo alone. In some cases, brand designers will design a logo in addition to other materials; in other cases, they’ll work with a logo designer to craft a logo that fits the overall branding.
Fiat used this ornate, Art Deco logo on its vehicles for nearly 18 years at the start of the 20th century.
Your Logo Design Project
It’s critical to define the scope of your logo design project before you hire a freelancer. Consider where and how the logo will be used. Will it be used only on company marketing materials (including things like business cards or letterhead), or will there also be products that feature the logo? Will it be used strictly digitally or will it also appear in print? Does there need to be a monochrome version or will it only be used in color? Those are important considerations to hammer out ahead of time.
It’s also prudent to consider what you like about your current logo. Are there things you want to keep? Are there certain recognizable characteristics (such as a mark or a color palette) that you want to keep to maintain brand recognition? Make note of such things and include it in your project brief.
Define what you want the new business logo to do for the brand identity. Logos are the face of a brand and a company, whether they’re multinational corporations or small businesses. They’re often the first impression a new customer gets of what the company stands for. They help to set one brand apart from others. A logo also conveys what the brand stands for and can convey its values as well.
Another important thing to note in the scope of the project is the phase that it’s in. Has market research been done? Has customer research or interviews been conducted? This is important because it impacts not only the cost of a project but also the timeline to complete it.
What to Look for in a Professional Logo Designer
Expert logo designers have a strong grasp of the principles of design. They’ve mastered concepts like balance, emphasis, proportion, and white space. Further, they know how to implement these principles effectively to create a company logo design that’s both visually appealing and conveys the brand’s message.
Professional logo designers also need a strong grasp of typography and color theory. Creating a wordmark logo is more than just picking a font. At the very least, designers generally adjust things like kerning in a wordmark. In many cases, though, they may create custom lettering, which requires a more in-depth understanding of typographic principles.
Understanding the impact of color on the impression a logo gives is also essential. Different shades of the same hue can have very different impressions—consider lime green vs. forest green, for example.
The best logo designers should also be experts at incorporating feedback from stakeholders, including marketing teams, other designers, and business owners. Since great logos are so important to a company’s image, they sometimes go through more rounds of feedback and revisions than other design projects. Designers who are resistant to feedback can slow down the process and generally make the project more difficult to complete.
The freelancer interview process is an important step in choosing the right logo designer. In addition to the answers to the questions, getting a feel for the designer’s personality and how they’ll fit in with the design team and stakeholders overall is important. A designer who’s a good fit for the company’s culture will have a better grasp of what the perfect logo will represent.
Beyond the interview, you should also review any potential designer’s portfolio of completed projects. Beware of candidates who only have conceptual designs in their portfolios and no business logo design projects that are in actual use. While this can be a good showcase of their grasp of design skills, conceptual projects don’t necessarily test a designer’s ability to successfully incorporate business needs.
Ask designers which tools they use. Companies should be flexible enough to allow their designers to use the tools they’re most comfortable with, but if there are certain programs they’ll need to use to work with others on the design team, it’s good to know up front if they’re proficient with those programs.
Getting Started
Before you hire a logo designer, you’ll need a few things in order. Proper planning will make the entire process smoother.
A project brief that includes the scope and deliverables required (such as specific file types or versions of the logo) as well as timelines, goals, and milestones, and any special requirements.
Legal documents should also be in order before you hire a logo designer. This would include contracts that spell out the work to be done as well as the payment terms. It may also include any non-disclosure agreements necessary before proprietary information can be shared with the designer.
How the Logo Design Process Works
Once a logo designer has been selected for the project, you’ll start with a work agreement that spells out the specifics of the project.
After that, the designer will participate in the research and discovery process to find out what customers think of the company, the existing logo, and the competition. They’ll also review research about the market, competitors, and industry trends.
The art direction phase of the logo design process often overlaps with the ideation and sketching phase, with initial concepts for the logo created and submitted to stakeholders for feedback. Those stakeholders will likely have feedback on the designs submitted. Major feedback may result in another round of ideas and sketches.
If the feedback is minor, the designer may move directly into the next phase of refining the design and creating digital proofs for approval.
Once the proofs are approved, the logo designer will create final design files for delivery according to the specifications in the project brief or work agreement. Once the files are delivered, payment for the project will be made.
Tips for Working with Remote Logo Designers
Communication
Clear lines of communication are important on any professional design project, and logo designs are no exception. Setting up expectations about how much and what kind of communication is required as the project moves forward is key to preventing misunderstandings.
If you want daily or weekly progress reports on the project, define that expectation at the beginning of the project. If you’d rather just have updates on major milestones, that’s fine, too. Just let your designer know that. Also, make sure that they know who their point of contact should be on the project and if they should communicate with just one contact person or multiple stakeholders.
You should also make it clear that if there are any roadblocks or delays in the project, you want to know as soon as possible, and how the designer should best relay that information. The same goes for any roadblocks or delays on your end; be transparent with your designer if there are likely to be delays in things like reviewing their work.
Milestone Deadlines
Set deadlines for the major milestones or phases within the logo design project. These should be spelled out in the contract so that everyone is on the same page at the start of the project.
If there are unforeseen delays on your end in reviewing work or providing information, don’t expect the designer to stick to the original schedule. Make adjustments for the delays so that the design process doesn’t end up rushed (resulting in lower-quality work).
Regular Updates
Make clear when updates on the project are expected and keep your designer in the loop about progress made on your end regarding providing information vital to the project or reviewing the work they’ve submitted.
Regular updates build a sense of teamwork and make sure that everyone involved in a logo design project is kept up to date and involved.
Feedback
Providing feedback should be done at each step of the project. Ideally, feedback should be provided in a set format and from one point person to prevent miscommunication or conflicting feedback.
If the feedback comes from multiple people who aren’t reviewing what every other person is thinking about the project, the results can be conflicting. One person involved might love the color palette being used, while another might hate it. If both send feedback individually to the logo designer, that creates a bottleneck in the process while they figure out whose feedback they should rely on. By appointing one person to collect and sort through feedback from the entire team before passing it on to the designer, you can prevent that kind of conflict and the inevitable delays it will cause on a project.
In the case of conflicting feedback from multiple stakeholders, there are a few ways to handle it. One of the best ways is to ask for the designer’s input directly. After all, they’re the expert at logo design and their experience can be invaluable in figuring out which approach is best (or coming up with some kind of compromise).
Scope Creep
Scope creep—expansion of the original project plan—is sometimes inevitable but can also cause major delays to any logo design project. It’s best to avoid it whenever possible. Minor scope creep (such as needing additional file formats of the finished logo) may not cause much of a delay.
More substantial scope creep (such as needing additional versions of the logo), however, can not only mean delays in the project timeline but may also result in additional costs. Don’t expect a designer to do substantially more work than the original contract called for without also receiving higher compensation. It’s best to ask the designer what additional scope requirements will cost—in terms of both time and money—prior to expecting them to be added to the project.
Maintaining the Relationship
If you find a logo designer you enjoy working with, it’s a good idea to maintain that relationship going forward in case you have future projects you’d like to work on with them.
Make sure to thank the designer when the project is finished. Let them know that you appreciate the work they did and that you’ll keep them in mind for projects in the future. You could also inquire about the other types of design projects the designer handles, in case any of those come up before another logo project does.
Logo Designer Interview Questions
Can you tell us more about your design background?
Finding out more about the designer’s background, based on his or her general introduction, can provide relevant information about the design school the candidate attended, past/current work positions, design experience, problems and projects that s/he found along the way, and how this translates to his/her current logo design career and future aspirations.
What is your design approach?
The design process is essential to how logo design candidates develop and create a logo. Insight into the way they work can distinguish their quality. As the design process becomes more thorough, the results become more elaborate and detailed.
Also, the design process is often limited by budget and time, and a useful insight would be how s/he and the design teams that s/he has worked with in the past handled various situations and briefs.
What do you think of (x) logo?
Suggest a few logos, or ask a designer to select a logo and then dissect it. The candidate should be able to pick it apart.
Listen for answers that explain context, goals, references, influences, and pure aesthetics, as well as identifying weaknesses, strengths, and the outcome of the chosen direction. If the candidate can elaborate with quick solutions to a set of specific weaknesses, that’s even better.
How would you describe your work and your influences?
Look for elaborate and interesting stories, search for passion for design and design thinking. References to history, design history, art, culture, music, and architecture are useful when describing choices, intentions, and solutions.
What is the meaning of color and color theory in logo design?
Color plays a major part in the consideration of visual communication and particularly in logo design.
Big brands tell their stories through color. They connect with their consumers and the public with consistent use of color, color palettes, and color systems. Color is a powerful tool that enables distinction and differentiation between brands. A brand that changes color with a new identity sometimes has dangerous results. A good logo designer recognizes this and knows how to address it.
Tell us how successful brands communicate through color theory in their branding and the meaning of color in logo design.
Portfolio critique: Please explain the three best projects from your portfolio.
The candidate needs to explain the entire logo design process, from the decisions, ideation, context, why’s, do’s and don’ts, through describing the production and execution of a specific logo.
Question the designer’s decisions to discover details of projects and the reasoning behind these decisions. Ask how the designer would have made those projects even better.
