diff --git a/lib/config.js b/lib/config.js
index ff2eba886..cb66ed39b 100644
--- a/lib/config.js
+++ b/lib/config.js
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 var path = require('path');
 
-var log = require('./logger').create('config');
+var logger = require('./logger');
+var log = logger.create('config');
 var helper = require('./helper');
 var constant = require('./constants');
 
@@ -239,6 +240,9 @@ var parseConfig = function(configFilePath, cliOptions) {
   // merge the config from config file and cliOptions (precendense)
   dsl.configure(cliOptions);
 
+  // configure the logger as soon as we can
+  logger.setup(config.logLevel, config.colors, config.loggers);
+
   return normalizeConfig(config, configFilePath);
 };
 
diff --git a/lib/server.js b/lib/server.js
index fcf3e9a56..d43a9c696 100644
--- a/lib/server.js
+++ b/lib/server.js
@@ -24,8 +24,6 @@ var log = logger.create();
 var start = function(injector, config, launcher, globalEmitter, preprocess, fileList, webServer,
     resultReporter, capturedBrowsers, done) {
 
-  logger.setup(config.logLevel, config.colors, config.loggers);
-
   config.frameworks.forEach(function(framework) {
     injector.get('framework:' + framework);
   });
@@ -231,6 +229,9 @@ start.$inject = ['injector', 'config', 'launcher', 'emitter', 'preprocess', 'fil
 
 
 exports.start = function(cliOptions, done) {
+  // apply the default logger config as soon as we can
+  logger.setup(constant.LOG_INFO, true, [constant.CONSOLE_APPENDER]);
+
   var config = cfg.parseConfig(cliOptions.configFile, cliOptions);
   var modules = [{
     helper: ['value', helper],