2020 Logo Design Trends
New logo design trends and fads appear every year. Here are the hottest logo design trends for 2020.
Stationery and letterhead refers to letters, envelopes, thank you cards, invitations (including wedding invitations), invoices, receipts, and so much more.
Whether you’re rebranding an existing business or starting a business, custom stationery and letterhead design is important to create a strong brand.
Best for personal use
free | $0 to $50 | |
Stationery and letterhead 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 startups, growing companies, agencies, marketers
$300-$800 | $800-$1,000 | |
Stationery and letterhead design options | freelance designer or design contest | freelance designer or design contest |
Quality and value | high quality, original | elite quality, original |
Who needs it? | startups, growing businesses, marketers | businesses, agencies, marketers |
Best Value! |
Best for VC-financed startups and multinational companies
$1,000-$2,500 | $2,500-$5,000+ | |
Stationery and letterhead design options | small design agency | large design agency |
Quality and value | high quality, original | elite quality, original |
Who needs it? | VC-financed startups | multinational companies |
Your company’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 stationery and letterhead 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 stationery and letterhead design. By using free design applications, or those you already own, you can craft your own stationery and letterhead 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 template makers, which provide generic stationery and letterhead designs. These online printers charge anywhere from $0 to $50 just for the design(s), but can cost upwards of $150 if you print with them, too.
Never!
We’re serious. You’ll find many free or low cost automated options that can create generic stationery and letterhead design for you. But, online stationery and letterhead templates are generic, uninspiring, template designs that will make it impossible for your customers to fall in love with your unique 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.
The truth is that free stationery and letterhead design is never free.
Don’t fall for statements that you can create a professionally designed free stationery and letterhead in seconds. This is not possible.
Look at the world’s most successful companies. Not a single one used a generic template to build their brand. 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 audience and will not give you a one-of-a-kind, professionally designed brand 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 stationery and letterhead when you make it using pre-made generic templates.
If you have a slightly bigger budget and need a high-quality professional stationery and letterhead 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 company values and your vision, and have a professional designer create unique stationery and letterhead 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 one 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 stationery and letterhead design contest is a perfect fit for individuals, small businesses, startups, growing businesses, agencies, and marketers.
If you have a big budget, and are already a well established, multinational business, 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 logo and brand 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:
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. And, importantly, it’s impossible to trademark logos featuring stock art or templates.
Beware of overused designs. They are popular with online logo generators and pop up frequently in stock art collections. These designs are neither original nor unique and will not help your business stand out from your competition. We do not allow such design on crowdspring.
Look for a designer, design company, or agency that provides truly original designs to help your company stand out from the competition.
This is one reason why crowdspring has a zero tolerance policy for the use of stock art, clip art or templates in logo design projects.
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 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, SVG, EPS, 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 stationery and letterhead 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.
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 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.
Stationery includes business cards, envelopes, thank you cards, invitations, invoices, receipts, and so much more.
A letterhead is a heading on a piece of stationery. Letterheads typically include your business name, address, and your company logo or unique design. Put together, stationery and letterheads complement each other and create professional and consistent brand identity.
Stationery and letterhead provide an opportunity to promote your logo or design, company name, tagline and your contact information. They provide a fantastic way to combine your branding with personalized messages.
This combination is very effective and important in promoting your business and improving your marketing. Strong stationery and letterhead make the business appear legitimate, helps to develop connections with clients and prospects, builds brand awareness, and improves exposure for your brand.
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 on stationery. Typically, these are found on a letterhead within the stationery. A personable letterhead contains:
There’s really not a more personal way to market your business. Stationery is made to add that unique charm and, with the correct information and design – it can make your business more attractive and memorable.
One of the first interactions between a potential customer and business involves stationery and letterheads. These introductory elements typically include envelopes, letters, brochures, folders, quotes and estimates, contract proposals, and more.
Obviously connecting with people is important to grow brand awareness. But, not every connection is positive. If your brand looks generic or non-professional, you may confuse your customers and prospects.
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 stationery. Therefore, stationery and letterheads should echo the ambiance of your logo and product designs.
If properly designed, they are impactful, memorable, and evoke emotions. Stationery and letterhead should be distinguishable from competition and give a face to your brand. They act as important starting points for potential customers or investors to take the next step with your company.
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 stationery and letterhead design. The better the design, the better the impression, and the more people it will reach.
Ultimately, your stationery and letterhead 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 stationery and letterhead have the most essential information and keep the design elements minimal.
For some stationery, such as letters, there is plenty of room to share your information in a meaningful way. But, for other types, such as business cards and receipts or invoices, you have to be concise with the information you share.
What information should there be? Must-haves include your business name, company logo, your role or position, and the best way to contact you. Whether that’s via email, social media, chat, or the good old telephone, you should have a preferred method.
If you have extra space, you can add other ways to reach you, a headshot, or some other info, but try and keep whatever you choose brief. Don’t offer too many contact options, even if you’re a member of every social network on the planet.
To go two-sided, or to not go two-sided? When designing stationery such as letters, it is important to plan out your design in a simple, yet effective way.
In fact, for all stationery it is essential to carefully plan how to meaningfully use the limited space available.
Your stationery and letterhead are a fundamental part of your brand, so it should be clean and well-structured. Multi-surface 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 stationery and letterhead 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 business or products. If you’ve picked fragile paper for letters, or have printed stationery or letterhead 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 stationery and letterheads more useful to the recipient. Your products are physical objects, and as such, they can potentially have some interesting extra features.
For example, an arts and crafts company could make an eraser in the shape of their logo. Or, a shipping company could design letters with directions on how to fold the paper into a gift 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 stationery 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, so that handing someone your stationery is impactful and meaningful for the start of a beautiful friendship.
We know you have many choices to design stationery and letterhead for your company or organization. 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 stationery and letterhead. For example, you can crowdsource your design by starting a stationery and letterhead 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.
Stationery includes business cards, letterhead and envelopes. It can also include additional items, such as thank you cards, invitations, pens and pencils, staplers, etc.
Put simply, stationery promotes professionalism. It validates the legitimacy of the company while showing the client that you value your company and its products. A good stationery design will leave a positive lasting impression.
A letterhead is a heading at the top of a document which displays the company name and the document type (i.e. an invoice). Usually, it includes the company logo, slogan or call to action, and contact information.
Letterheads contain broadcast a simple idea – professionalism. They incorporate important company information while serving as the brand’s ambassador for that specific message. A simple and uniquely designed letterhead effectively shows your clients that your brand stands behind the words you wrote.
Most people assume only big companies use letterheads. But in reality, many different sized businesses – from individuals, small companies, and large corporations, use letterheads, and so should you!
Yes. Simplicity is vital. A complex logo design will be difficult to print and reproduce and may not fully engage your audience. Take a moment and think about brands that are successful and/or famous. Most likely, you’ve thought of companies like Nike, Apple, Volkswagen, Target, McDonald’s, etc. What do they all have in common? They all have logo designs that are simple and easily recognized when printed by themselves, and when printed in solid black and white.
Three key steps create an effective and successful stationery and letterhead: 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 stationery and letterheads above, here are the key takeaways: have a simple, easy-to-read design, include only essential information (don’t crowd the product 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 uniqueness drives business growth and customer engagement.
Stationery and letterheads should clearly show all the necessary information such as your name, your company, your contact information, etc.
Here are the elements that should never be included in your stationery and letterhead design: typos or misprints, hard-to-read or small print, visual clutter or information overload, poor quality materials, no call-to-action or value proposition, outdated information.
By maintaining a clean and precisely designed product, you improve your brand’s quality and authenticity while presenting true professionalism.
Yes. Invoices, receipts, compliments slips, business cards, envelopes, and other pieces of stationery provide an opportunity to promote your logo, company name, tagline and your contact information. Whenever you send printed 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.
If you are looking for color stationery, consider the messaging that color sends to your customers. Do the colors reinforce and strengthen the intended core message/personality/mood you’re trying to communicate through the stationery, 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 letterhead and stationery design, and you should strive for a similar uniformity when it comes to the design of your website or email newsletter, or your blog.
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 stationery and letterhead 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 stationery and letterhead 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 stationery and letterhead. 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 stationery and letterhead created from templates. 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 letterhead and stationery 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.
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