I want to have a cool logo but I can’t really justify paying to commission one to my family. Conversely, I’m not going to ask an artist to work for free, because I value their work and don’t want to imply that I don’t. So, how I can I reconcile these seemingly incompatible requirements? I’m not sure, but I’ve been tossing this around:

• One or more artists submit rough drafts of their ideas,
• I select one that resonates with me and help the artist develop it,
• That artist gives me exclusive rights to the design so that there aren’t 43 instances with “my” branding, but
• The artist keeps all merchandising rights, and I help them advertise stickers, t-shirts, etc.

Releastically, that probably wouldn’t generate a lot of revenue (although I’d certainly buy some stuff for myself). However, the artist would get 100% of all income from it. If I’m the only one who buys a t-shirt, it’s not that great a deal for them. If I help them sell a hundred shirts or somehow become Internet famous, that could be a nice chunk of change, of which my cut would be $0.00.

I’m neither a businessman nor an artist, so I’m not clear if this idea is brilliant or terrible. What do you think?