2020 Logo Design Trends
New logo design trends and fads appear every year. Here are the hottest logo design trends for 2020.
Postcards are a fun, unique, and effective way to share your brand or event with others. Custom designed postcards help you stand out from your competition and offer a personable experience for your clients, potential customers, or friends.
Strong postcards are not only captivating, but they are very informative and welcoming. Strong postcards also offer a great glimpse into your brand and its values.
Best for personal use
free | $0 to $50 | |
Postcard design options | do it yourself | generic templates |
Quality and value | not professional, generic | not professional, generic |
Who needs it? | personal use only | personal use only |
Best for businesses and important events
$300-$600 | $900-$1,000 | |
Postcard design options | freelance designer or design contest | freelance designer or design contest |
Quality and value | high quality, original | elite quality, original |
Who needs it? | businesses, important events | businesses, important events |
Best Value! |
Big brands
$1,500-$2,500 | $2,500+ | |
Postcard design options | small design agency | large design agency |
Quality and value | high quality, original | elite quality, original |
Who needs it? | big brands | multinational brands |
Your business’s brand identity (everything visual about your brand) is one of your most valuable assets. And, consistent branding is the best way to build strong relationships with your customers. So, you should view your designs across all mediums as a long-term investment.
But, design companies and agencies typically charge thousands to tens of thousands of dollars for their services. And, you can easily find an amateur designer who will create a generic design from a template for only $5!
With such a wide price range, it can be tough to identify the sweet spot that will deliver you an awesome, custom postcard design for a reasonable price.
Here are important elements that you should look for when you buy design services:
Obviously, the most cost effective option is to create your own postcard design. By using free design applications, or those you already own, you can craft your own postcard based on your own vision.
But not everyone has the talent, or time, to make a DIY design. Plus, doing so would require you to know, or learn, a graphic design application such as Adobe Illustrator ($20.99/month) or Affinity Designer ($49.99).
Moreover, you also have to print them yourself – increasing your cost of production. Instead, some brands in this range turn to online postcard templates, which provide generic designs. These online printers charge anywhere from $0 to $50 just for the design(s), but can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars if you print with them, too.
Never!
We’re serious. You’ll find many free or low cost automated options that can create generic postcards for you. But, online templates are generic and uninspiring designs that will make it impossible for your customers to fall in love with your unique brand. After all, do you want people to think you’re running just another mediocre company? There is nothing premium or professional about generic templates.
Sure, you might be able to use a free template and save a few dollars, but it will end up costing you much more when you struggle to build a strong brand.
Computers don’t understand human emotion or psychology. Real designers understand how people think and how to create emotionally powerful brands and postcards.
The truth is that free or cheap postcard design is never free or cheap.
Don’t fall for statements that you can create a professionally designed free postcard in seconds. This is not possible.
Look at the world’s most successful restaurants. Not a single one used a generic template to build their postcards. That should tell you something...
You’ll either pay for professional design up front with a small fee or suffer the inevitable consequences of bad design.
Generic templates will not leave a lasting impression on your customers and will not give you a one-of-a-kind, professionally designed identity. Even if you can customize generic templates, you will get an uninspiring, non-professional, generic design.
Simply put: there’s nothing unique, custom or brilliant about postcards when you make them using pre-made generic templates.
If you have a slightly bigger budget and need a high-quality professional postcard design, freelance designers and design contests are your best option (both options are available on crowdspring). They also happen to deliver the best overall value.
Freelancer designers can invest their time to create custom, unique designs that will help you stand out from the competition. You can share your values and your vision, and have a professional designer create unique postcards that reflects your unique brand.
Usually, freelance designer costs fall in the following ranges:
Similarly, design contests, like those you find on crowdspring, also incorporate a high-quality, professional, and personable process. Yet design contests go a step further, and allow dozens of designers to submit their own unique designs. At the end of the project, you pick the postcard design you love best! And, importantly, you set your own price.
With design contests, not only do you get that superior quality (with the added benefit of many options) – you get excellent service and communication, all wrapped up into one price.
Typical prices you can expect from design contests are:
A postcard design contest is a perfect fit for businesses and people planning a big event like a wedding, bar mitzvah, mat mitzvah, anniversaries, important birthdays, and more.
If you have a big budget, and are already a well established, multinational brand, or want the 'complete branding package,' then brand agencies are your best option.
Branding agencies are equipped with talented teams of creative professionals. If using an agency for your project, they dedicate a team of creatives to design and plan your brand’s identity. They also create a consistent visual style across your platforms, completing the all-inclusive package deal.
But the price can be staggering and out of reach for most businesses. Depending on your needs, and your budget, the following ranges represent typical agency costs (these costs do not include the custom postcard design - this is just for the overall brand identity):
As you can see, brand agencies costs are significantly higher than other options. But, if you have the budget to invest heavily in your brand, this is a good option for you.
Below, we share questions you should ask before picking a designer or agency.
Stock art and templates are all over the Internet. That’s why so many amateur designers rely on them.
But stock art and templates are generic. If you use stock art or templates, your company’s brand identity will look like thousands of other businesses. You’ll simply confuse your customers and prospects.
Look for a designer, design company, or agency that provides truly original designs to help your company stand out from the competition.
Original designs belong to the person who creates those designs, until intellectual property rights for those designs are legally transferred to a new owner.
In our digital world, where everyone has easy access to millions of designs on the web, it’s more important than ever to ensure that the designs you commission are original. Otherwise, you may find another business or designer knocking on your door with a cease-and-desist letter, requiring you to pay huge fines and forcing you to pay tens of thousands of dollars to rebrand.
That’s one reason why crowdspring, from the day we launched in 2008, has included a free, custom legal agreement transferring the full intellectual property rights to any original design you buy on crowdspring, to you. And, it’s also why crowdspring is trusted by tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, small businesses, brands, and agencies from over 100 countries.
A great finished design is only part of the picture. How you get there is important, too.
Make sure the freelance designer, design company, or agency you choose has support staff available to help in case you run into an issue, your project changes direction or you just have a few questions.
The best designers, design companies, and agencies will offer support via phone, chat, and email 7 days a week (and the turnaround time is measured in hours, not weeks) to ensure you can get in touch when and how you need to.
A single designer can only excel in a limited number of unique design styles. And, the lower the price, the fewer design options you’re likely to see.
If you’re not 100% sure what you’re looking for, it helps to see many options. And, a team of a dozen designers all providing varying artistic perspectives will ensure that you’ll find a design that resonates with you.
Your designer should send you a range of file types so that you can flexibly use the design in the future.
The most commonly used file formats are PNG, EPS, AI, and PDF. The designer should send you files in each of these formats in case you need a certain format for future use.
Each format has its benefits. Here’s a quick summary:
Choosing and refining the perfect postcard design can be tricky. And, sometimes, we get so close to the process that it helps to have outside opinions.
Not all designers, design companies, or agencies make it easy to share the created designs and get useful feedback to guide you. Look for a designer, design company, or agency that offers easy-to-use tools, like focus groups or polls, to get easy feedback without creating a lot of friction for you and your friends, colleagues, and customers. No one wants to manually assemble design comparison sheets and track lengthy and cumbersome group email chains.
Design is a speculative field. You never really know what the end result will be. And, if you’ve been present and engaged in the creative process and you’re still not satisfied, sometimes it’s best to walk away.
Look for a designer, design company, or agency that offers a 100% Money Back Guarantee that covers all costs and fees paid.
Here’s everything you need to know about the important principles and theories that can supercharge your marketing and influence people to buy your products or services.
Here are some of the classic warning signs a designer or graphic design company may not be worth your money:
If just one of these classic warning signs are present, you might want to keep looking for another designer or design firm.
A postcard is a mailer that advertises your brand in an eye catching, information-packed, and strategic way. Postcards are made to give the receiver a glimpse into your brand and how your business can benefit them.
So what are the important takeaways of a well designed postcard? A well designed postcard strengthens your business’s credibility, offers a perfect introduction to your brand, keeps the face of the business in customer’s hands, and improves your brand’s exposure.
These days, information and authenticity is everything. People take the time to look into brands before stepping into the role of a customer or investor.
Prospective customers are typically looking for five different bits of information, depending on the type of postcard. A good postcard contains the following:
Postcards are made to show that you mean business in a fun and informative way. When potential clients receive a postcard, they should be able to clearly understand your company’s values and, more importantly, what you can do for them.
Postcards are one of the first (of hopefully many!) interactions between a potential customer and a company.
Postcards are personalized for the benefit of marketing to that specific client or group. So, by including your logo, call-to-action, and other information in the postcard design, you are improving your marketing ability. But more importantly, you are sharing your professionalism and brand identity in a non-intrusive and creative way with your mailing list.
Brand Awareness is no one-and-done process. Rather, it’s a lifetime strategy for your business. As such, one of the most important aspects of branding is through visual elements such as logos, websites, and postcards. Therefore, postcards should echo the ambiance of your company.
If properly designed, they are impactful, memorable, and evoke emotions. Your customers won’t forget a unique postcard design. thatșs why your postcards should be distinguishable from the competition and should give a face to your brand.
With all that said, creativity is key. A creative design molds a unique one, and that is essential to pulling attention to your brand. If people recognize your brand, they are more likely to interact with it, and more likely to share it. And, importantly, more likely to buy from you.
You should impress people with your postcard design. The better the design, the better the impression, and the more people it will reach. And a great design will leave them talking about your company.
Ultimately, your postcards should have accurate, easy-to-read information. If people can’t easily read details like contact information or your company’s name, your design has failed. Also, make sure your postcards have the most essential information and keep the design elements minimal.
Postcards offer plenty of room to share your brand in a meaningful way. But, it is essential that you are concise with the information you share, and use that space wisely.
What information should there be? Must-haves include your company’s name, logo, how to contact your business, and why you’re sendin the postcard. The most popular contact mediums are email, social media, chat, or the good old telephone. Regardless, you should have a preferred method and clarify that on your postcard. Also, don’t offer too many contact options, even if you’re a member of every social network on the planet.
Remember that copywriting is just as important as the design.
When designing postcard, it is important to plan out your design in a simple, yet effective way.
Your postcards are a fundamental part of your brand, so they should be clean and well-structured. Multi-sided designs might work well for your brand, or it may be better to stick to one side only. In general, when in doubt err on the side of simplicity.
Yes, uniqueness and creativity are important. And, you may be tempted to make designs with unusual sizes or shapes. But, unless you can find a compelling reason to use something different, stick with the standards.
Also, think long and hard about what colors you choose for your postcard design. Keep in mind that your brand’s primary colors may not translate to a larger or smaller size. And always remember – make sure your design is optimized for readability.
Flimsy materials are like limp handshakes: they feel terrible in your hand and leave a poor first impression.
The quality of the material you choose reflects on your company. If you’ve picked fragile paper for letters, or have printed postcards on cheap cardstock, you may make people feel like they’re dealing with an unreliable or low-quality company.
Once you have your information planned out, it’s fun to try and think of interesting ways to make your postcard more impactful to the recipient. Your postcards are typically physical objects, and as such, they can potentially have some interesting extra features.
For example, a brewery could design a postcard in the shape of a beer bottle. Or a shipping company could design one with instructions on how to fold the postcard into a box. Regardless, it’s important to have a design that sets you apart from your competition.
But beware, straying from traditional shapes and sizes of standard postcards may increase your costs. On the other hand, the added delight and brand recall that special and unique designs can have may be worth the expense.
Invest a little time to make sure your design is attractive, accurate, and on brand. That way, receiving your postcard is impactful, and is a meaningful start to a beautiful friendship.
We know you have many choices to design postcards for your business or important family event. The most common method is to hire a freelance designer, and you can work 1-to-1 with an expert designer on crowdspring.
There are other ways to get your custom postcard designs. For example, you can crowdsource your design by starting a postcard design contest on crowdspring.
Nothing makes us happier than connecting people, businesses, agencies and nonprofits with talented designers.
We have a terrific community of logo designers, graphic designers, web designers, illustrators, product designers and namers. Over 220,000 talented creatives from 195 countries work on crowdspring.
When you post your custom design project on crowdspring, you’ll get custom designs submitted by designers from all over the world. You won’t have to waste your valuable time digging through bids and proposals. You’ll pick your favorite from actual designs. In fact, clients have told us that choosing their favorite is the hardest part of the whole process!
When using crowdspring for custom design services, you can focus on getting the best result possible. We take care of everything else. With our award-winning customer service, hassle-free guarantee, customized legal agreements, strict intellectual property standards and fantastic project management tools, we know you’ll be happy. And if you’re happy, we’re happy.
And if you prefer to work with a single designer, we’ve got you covered. Just like a traditional crowdspring project, in 1-to-1 projects, you decide how much your project will cost. The minimum price for a 1-to-1 project starts at $200 (which includes crowdspring’s fee) and you can always increase the award.
Designers receive 100% of your award. Our fees cover the cost to host the project, our award-winning tools, escrow and payment, and custom contracts and non-disclosure agreements.
You and the designer you pick will be able to negotiate both the scope and the price for the project. When determining your award amount, please remember to price your project based on the scope of work. More labor-intensive projects deserve larger awards than very simple projects. You can set your own budget or you can ask the designer to provide a price quote based on the scope of work. It’s your choice.
We like to have fun at crowdspring, but we take our business very seriously. Although the vast majority of the businesses we work with are smaller, we regularly work with the world’s best Brands, including Amazon, LG, Random House, Starbucks, Barilla, Phillips and many more. We also regularly work with many of the world’s best agencies - and tens thousands of entrepreneurs and startups from over 100 different countries.
We would love to help you!
Choose from 30+ categories, complete a project brief, and pick a package that fits your budget.
Collaborate with dozens of creatives, give feedback and score, and get revised custom designs.
Work with the winner to finalize your favorite design and get print/web-ready files and full IP rights.
Not into crowds?
Pick a creative and work 1-to-1
Crowdspring is an online design platform linking businesses like yours with over 220,000 design and naming experts. Instead of investing over $10,000 with a branding agency - or paying an unknown freelancer for a single design you hope you like - crowdspring delivers dozens of custom designs to choose from for every project. With over 12 years of experience, we’re the reliable, affordable solution for small business.
Usually made out of paper, a postcard is an informational tool that is used to advertise, promote, introduce, or inform on your brand and/or product.
A good postcard design is essential to capturing the attention of potential clients. This is especially true of small businesses and startups because postcards often include discounts – which attract new customers. Moreover, a postcard provides a great opportunity to showcase your brand, your company values, and your product’s benefits.
Every company, big and small, can benefit from postcards. Postcards put the face of the brand directly into the hands of potential customers. But simply just throwing together a postcard and sending it out isn’t enough. Your postcard should be meaningful and beneficial to your brand.
The sizes of custom designed postcards can vary based on need for your business. If you need a lot of information, but don’t want it to look busy, you go for a larger design. Similarly, corporate business postcards might differ from minimalist business postcards.
Postcards are used by businesses all over the world. Most brands use standard sizes to make them easier to design and ship. These most popular sizes include (all sizes in inches): 4 x 6, 5 x 7, 6 x 8, 4 x 9, 6 x 9, 6 x 11.
Your postcard doesn’t have to stick to these sizes. In fact, your postcard design can be any size or shape you want. Just make sure the size (and design) makes sense with your brand’s identity.
Usually, the paper type depends on the design. Also, most designers will suggest what the best paper is for your specific design. The most common paper types for postcards are: 14-point cardstock (thick), 16-point cardstock (thicker), and 100 lb. gloss cover (thin).
Keep in mind that while years ago, postcards were printed solely on matte, coated or uncoated paper, many more options are available today.
Apart from paper, postcards can be made from plastic, specially frosted translucent plastic, white or metallic plastic, metal, and real wood. These uncommon materials give customers a unique texture not found on paper stock. And while most postcards are rectangular in size, you can get yours with rounded corners, and in abstract shapes. Be careful though, as other materials and designs can also increase production costs.
Three key steps create an effective and successful postcard: a concept, a design, and a message. Putting each step together creates a key business asset and leaves a lasting impression.
While we outlined tips for successful postcards above, here are the key takeaways: have a simple, easy-to-read design, include only essential information (don’t crowd the postcard with too much detail), carefully plan out the design (having information on one or many sides), don’t force a design (stick to the basics if you don’t have a clear vision), use good quality material and choose the right materials for your design, and make the designs unique.
Postcards should clearly show all the necessary information we discussed above, such as your company’s name, contact information, why you’re sendding them a postcard, etc.
Here are the elements that should never be included in your postcard designs: typos or misprints, hard-to-read or small print, visual clutter or information overload, poor quality materials, outdated information.
By maintaining a clean and precisely designed product, you improve your brand’s quality and authenticity while presenting true professionalism.
Yes. Whenever you share printed (or digital) materials for any reason, the look and feel of the basic components should be similar. Similarity provides a uniformity of message and image to all who see them. In this way, you create and strengthen your brand identity.
When choosing colors for your postcards, consider the messaging that color (or colors) sends to your customers. Do the colors reinforce and strengthen the intended core message/personality/mood you’re trying to communicate through the postcard, or do they distract or neutralize?
For example, blue often communicates trust, loyalty and freshness. The color blue is common in banking or finance. Green represents life, nature and cleanliness. Also consider colors that work well with dark and white backgrounds.
Yes. As we discussed above, uniformity of message is very important in postcard design, and you should strive for a similar uniformity when it comes to the design of your website or email newsletter, or your blog.
Yes! Many people have an easier time understanding information visually rather than the spoken word. A well-designed postcard offers easy-to-read information that leaves a long-lasting impression, and gives the potential client a glimpse into your business. There’s no easier way to show a customer a taste of your business than a well-designed postcard.
We created a powerful, proven service that works for businesses of any size. Tens of thousands of smart marketers and business owners have trusted crowdspring since 2008 for professional postcard design. That’s because crowdspring is home to the world’s best creative team.
Unlike the traditional freelancer or agency, crowdspring is a crowdsourcing marketplace for graphic design. It’s like a design contest - on crowdspring, thousands of designers from over 195 countries around the world compete for your business to create a unique postcard design you’ll love. You’ll get choice for your design that you will not get anywhere else. In fact, we guarantee your satisfaction 100% – no questions asked.
Our unique model and design process addresses many of the concerns encountered when pricing the design of custom postcards. We take a lot of the work and stress out of the equation for you: you won’t need to get quotes in advance for the work, or interview designer after designer.
Your set the price for your project, and designers from around the world will post their designs to your project for you to review. When your project ends, you choose the design you like the best. It’s that easy!
Generic templates will not leave a lasting impression on your customers and prospective customers. At the end of the day, they will not give you a one-of-a-kind brand identity. There’s nothing unique, custom or brilliant about instant postcards created from templates. It's like serving boiled potatoes for each course in a meal. In the long term, generic design is bad for business. Instead, invest in your business and your brand identity by working with professional designers to create a unique, custom postcard design.
Crowdspring guarantees your satisfaction in design projects. There’s NO fine-print. We are not happy until you are. People are so thrilled with the designs they receive on crowdspring that we are proud to stand behind the work and make you an unconditional promise.
New logo design trends and fads appear every year. Here are the hottest logo design trends for 2020.
The most comprehensive guide online to creating a strong brand identity for your business or organization.
A strong logo is an important part of a company's brand identity. Keep your business safe from these seven deadly sins of logo design.
A terrific guide, including a questionnaire, to help you evaluate your existing logo or create a great new logo for your business.
Successful businesses often share a common trait: they have unique, simple, smart logos. Here are great tips to help you get started.
5 hot trends and inspirations to help you sharpen your brand’s logo, ensuring that you nail that first impression.
When reviewing your current logo or creating a logo for a new business, make sure your logo has these 10 important elements.
A logo is an important part of a company’s brand. It’s the visual cornerstone of the brand.
Pay attention and learn from famous logos. Here are the top 5 lessons businesses can learn from famous logos.
Actionable tips to help you find a unique logo for your business.
7 proven reasons why good design is good business (and how you can use design to increase your small business revenues).
The most successful brands have simple logos. There's an important connection between simplicity and success.
Stay away from generic, template based logo design. Generic design can kill your business.
Our award-winning dedicated customer support team has a 99% satisfaction rating, and can help by phone, mail and chat.
We're happy only when you are.
Our support team is always ready to help you with a free, no obligation design consultation.