Just learned most small businesses are using logos that are 10 years old or more

I was browsing some local shop websites in my area last night, checking out fence companies for a buddy. Ended up looking at like 30 different business logos from plumbers to bakeries. I swear probably 20 of them looked straight out of 2012. Clip art graphics, jagged edges, stretched text. Then I read this stat on a design blog that said nearly 60 percent of small businesses haven't updated their logo in over a decade. That blew my mind. Makes me wonder how many customers drive right past these places because the branding looks outdated or cheap. I mean if your sign on the truck looks like it was made on a home printer in 2008, what does that say about your work quality? Has anyone else noticed this pattern with local shops in their town?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavinwood12d ago

I bought a local coffee shop a few years back and the first thing I did was pay a guy $200 on Fiverr to redo the logo from scratch. The old one had this weird clip art coffee cup that looked like something from a 90s screensaver. Within three months I had people walking in saying they never noticed the place before and thought we were new. That sign on the truck thing you mentioned is spot on, if your branding looks like it was thrown together in ten minutes customers assume your work will be the same. A $50 logo update can make you look like you actually care about what you do.

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noah_black3d ago

Man, this hits home in the worst way. I once ran a small landscaping gig and my logo was just my name in Comic Sans with a sun I drew in MS Paint. Looked like a kid's school project. One day a customer asked if I was hiring and I found out he thought my business was a front for something because the flyer looked so sketchy. Spent $40 on a proper design and suddenly people stopped squinting at my truck. The dumb part is I laughed at my own logo for years and never fixed it. Sometimes you just need someone else to point out how lazy you look.