>hampered by the limitations of creative brainstorming as much as anybody
That's as good a way of putting it as any. Maybe they're better at thinking "outside the box" than someone within the company or off the street. But that hasn't really been my experience working with branding and design firms--especially if you already have at least some idea of the direction you'd like to take things.
First, it has too much detail going on. Should just reduce the number of green pages to one on each side, and increase the overall sizing. You should be able to make out all the details of a logo, 50px50px, from a distance of 24" from the monitor.
Second, all good logos work in a square-based format. Study Swami is closer to a rectangle. Perhaps trimming the overall size left/right would be better, the overall theme of it is good
Third, I think the center black line on the person is distracting. It doesn't really add value in my opinion, and both blue lines should be joined
Fourth, the color schema does evoke trust (blue and green), but I think a color gradient schema from top to bottom might work slightly better (perhaps teal, book pages uptop are lighter shade, book pages bottom are darker). Use of some shadows might elicit better effects
Fifth, I think the person should be a completely seperate color than the book, but that's just my opinion
Sixth, the curvature on the person could use some slight improvements with golden ratios. I think the person's arms should be going up not down, but again personal opinion
Seventh, I think the site overall, the text ligature and font-family should be something simpler like calibiri or Arial
------------------------------------------------------------------
As a side note you do make good points though. Personally, I am not a great logo designer I just use 99designs.com, and modify the end result in .AI if I need too.
You can usually find great logos and portfolio templates from designers, but you need a strong creative vision and design aesthetic regardless
And I appreciate your comments on the site fonts. Those are entirely my fault.
This would have replaced your fiverr exploration and gotten to the same result of using any designer more effectively.
After a bit I had a decent idea, and hired an expensive designer and gave her a clear idea of what I wanted. She then did a brilliant job, producing three or four outstanding logos. I think the logo I chose is one of the best out there anywhere.
The problem with the expensive designers is that they are hampered by the limitations of creative brainstorming as much as anybody, yet is a big part of your cost. They usually give you a limited number of designs- like 3 or 4- to choose from, and you're 'stuck' in that circle of thinking.
So if you can clarify what you want for cheap you'll better use the talent of the experts, IMHO.