One lesson I learned form my hunt for logo designers was to hire by hour. Maybe coincidental, but I tend to hire freelance designers from Europe at hourly rates

One lesson I learned form my hunt for logo designers was to hire by hour. Maybe coincidental, but I tend to hire freelance designers from Europe at hourly rates of $30-$70. While I did encounter mix results, all the design work was still considered very high quality. For 5 basic concepts, it ran me around 7 hours, after which adding another 5 hours for coloring, textures, shadow, typography comes out to be around $500-$700. For 3 "unique" logo and business card concepts, it seems too good to be true. Sorry about your bad experience, better luck next time!