Two weeks before Christmas I was approached to design a logo for a new startup. 2020 was obviously tough for everyone, and as a freelance brand designer I’ve certainly felt the pinch. So I was over the moon when a serious client, with actual money to spend gave me the go ahead to bring their brand to life.

My pricing structure has been thrown out the window this year, and I agreed to do the job at a quarter of my usual rate. Beggars can’t be choosers. But after I presented my first round of designs to the customer, they didn’t like them.

Instead of providing feedback for another round of amends, the client did something that has never happened to me before. They cancelled the job.

I had committed a considerable number of hours to this project, and to have the rug pulled out from under me with no payment was pretty unnerving. I had forgone any deposit to get this project over the line, and now I had spent time away from my family over the Christmas period, for zero money.

Time for a new approach.

Having my work undervalued is nothing new. Ask yourself, how much does a logo cost?

It’s a tough one. I can tell you now that 50% of my job involves answering this question. And my response is different every time. If my quote is too high the client might run a mile, and if I drop my prices to accommodate, doubt and distrust starts to creep in.

Mostly, I’ll try to feel out a budget before committing too much time to pitching. And usually I’ll receive an answer along the lines of, “We can commit a maximum of £150 to this project.” As someone with more than 10 years of experience, sometimes it’s hard not to be a little offended.

So instead of clients coming to me, asking me to fulfil a brief, I’ve decided to try a change of tack and work the other way around.

Designing a brand without a client. Then selling it.

You can buy logos off the shelf. It’s nothing new. Many sites are dedicated to providing pre-made logos. And there are logo ‘generators’, where you can plug in your business name and have a series of generic icons thrown back at you.

But let’s face it, most of them suck. And in a lot of cases you don’t actually own the logo you’ve paid to use. When it comes to trademarking a design like this, you might find that you’ve paid for a license to utilise it, rather than owning it outright.

Introducing KARMR.

KARMR is more than a logo. It is a fully-fledged brand, designed in its entirety, that is ready to go. It has a website, it has a social media presence, it has marketing assets and it can be yours to use for a fixed fee.

KARMR might be a cosmetics brand, a food item, a clothing line, a startup or more. Its themes revolve around nature and spirituality. It uses a modern, minimal and abstract logomark that transitions well across multiple formats, and works beautifully on stationary, as signage and in a digital format.

And in the name of transparency, all this could be yours for £10,975:

• Name

• Logo

• Instagram Account

• Twitter Account

• Karmr.io URL and website
  (1 year subscription)

• Brand guidelines booklet

• 10 hours design time to customise to your specific needs

• Marketing asset designs
  (business card, email signature, social icon/cover photo)

• Launch animation
  (simple 5–10 second After Effects animation of the logo transitioning onto screen, for use in web or social media)

• JPG, PNG, SVG and EPS file format exports
  (suitable for print and web)

• Unrestricted ownership and usage rights

Brands-to-go as a business model.

As well as squeezing me for every last penny, sometimes my clients have a tendency to play it safe. I have tombs of unused designs that have never seen the light of day because a client has been afraid to try something a little off-piste, or didn’t trust that a colour scheme matched their customer persona.

But by creating a brand without a product, I can let a concept play out without becoming a designer sock puppet with a client’s hand up my arse. It gives me the creative freedom to see a branding job to the finish without intervention from anyone.

And the beauty is, you can take it or leave it. If it works for you, fantastic. If not, then I have created a piece of work that I am proud of, to completion. And I get to share it with the world right now. No more waiting for a launch date to add it to my portfolio.

If it sells, I’ll receive a fixed fee for work that is already completed. And whoever buys it has a zero wait time to start their business.

I work with new business owners all the time, but rarely am I in the position of creating my own side hustle. As a business model, my interim costs in this experiment are low (domain name registration and hosting costs). My main investment is time. But because I have been allowed complete creative autonomy, it’s time spent beautifully.

KARMR is a proof of concept. If it sells, then the aim is to transition into this model full-time. But I have two more brands in the pipeline. Let’s hope there is appetite out there.

Resources:

Designing a fully-fledged brand has been done before back in 2013. Check out Hessian by Ben Pieratt. According to the website, Hessian was sold for $18,000, although at the time of writing I was unable to find the brand in use in the real world.