I am currently working on my own little app as a side project (who isn’t these days?), and I have determined that I’m close enough to launch that I needed to start generating a little buzz and getting at least a few interested people to signup for a limited closed beta test before it launches. Problem is, I consider myself much more of a programmer than a designer, but I still wanted the splash page to look good and get visitors familiar with the brand I was trying to create. For that, I needed a logo. So while I don’t really consider myself a graphic designer, I went ahead and followed David’s advice on the 37signals blog about doing it yourself first. And man was he right.

Just when I was seriously considering spending some of my own hard-earned cash on a logo by a professional, holding a design contest, or taking on a design partner, I instead took about 3.5 hours out of my lazy Saturday afternoon football watching to attempt to make a logo for my app on my own. I had the basic idea in my head of what I wanted it to look like, but I know that most of the time what I picture in my head and the end result rarely look even close to the same when I am the designer. Sometimes that’s okay. The end result logo (pictured) actually ended up looking very much like I had pictured in my head, and (at least in my opinion) looks great.

So with a few hours on a Saturday afternoon doing it myself first, I managed to save myself at least $300 and a few days waiting for the end result. Moral of the story: Always do it yourself first!