If you need someone to design your logo but you are on a small budget, you might be tempted to find a graphic designer on freelance websites such as Fiverr, Upwork...and you will certainly get offers for as little as £20. Some designers based in India or Asia might actually deliver a nice art work for this price, beware though of what could go wrong and cost you a lot more in the end!
A few weeks ago I replied to a post in a Facebook group, and offered a lady a price of £50 to design a logo for her library in Budapest. Her brief was quite simple (she wanted an arctic fox, in drawing lines, with the name of her library, that she could also use as a stamp). She agreed and I did a bit of research on Google, and gathered a few images of arctic foxes for inspiration. But soon after she sent me a message to ask what payment methods I was offering. Unfortunately I had not anticipated this and did not have the PayPal option, only bank transfer. And this was costing her 40 euros fees. So she told me she was going to choose another graphic designer who was a bit cheaper and accepted PayPal payments, which was absolutely fair of course (I have learnt from this mistake). Out of curiosity, I asked her to send me her logo when it would be ready, which she kindly did. What a surprise !!!
The logo was the exact copy of an image I had found on Google (see above)! The so-called designer had actually just removed the copyright mention “rh potter 2009”. I warned the client that she could not use this logo or she might have to pay copyrights to the actual designer of the image (a tattoo designer)...I think she is still waiting to get a refund...as her logo is still missing on her Facebook page.
So be extra vigilant when you mission a graphic to work on your logo design. The first thing to do is check on Google’s image search or on TinEye if you find similar images. Then write and sign and agreement with your designer that allows you to register the logo as your trademark. If you are using somebody else’s image without permission you will be held liable. Read this article from Quora for more information about liability and copyrights.