How can I design my own logo?
Do you remember that brand you saw a while back that had no logo….no, dam right, that’s because every brand needs a logo and if they don’t have one, they are eminently forgettable. A logo has a huge sway over how your prospective customers perceive you and your business. Your logo speaks about your company, the image it strives for and your willingness to invest in it’s appearance. With that in mind, you want your logo to look fantastic…..but how do you achieve that ? So let’s see if we can answer the age old question ‘how can I design my own logo?’.
Assuming you aren’t a professional logo designer, what we will outline here are a few steps you can take to create a logo that will look great and represent your business as best as possible.
Figure out why you need a logo, and what it needs to convey
Your logo will be the visual representative of your company, it’s 24/7 sales representative. You need it to look great, and give an impression of your business. So what would you like it to say about your brand ? Is your company fun, learning environment like a Montessori or school, if so, you would want your logo to represent this, think images of kids playing or cartoon animals. Is your brand selling dental hygiene equipment, then think bright fresh colours like greens and blue’s to give the impression of cleanliness. These are the considerations you need to employ when setting out your logo ideas.
Business is like romance, you are aiming to attract the right partners, give them the right impression of you and get them to fall for your brand. Think of your logo as your profile pic on your dating app, it needs to look great and give the right impression, you have precious little time to make that first impression, so make it count.
Where will your logo be used?
Your logo is at the very core of your business, so it’s worth considering where it’s going to be used. All of your branding should feature your logo, all of your branding should be consistent in colour and font, which is all determined by the logo design. It sets the standard for everything else that follows. Your logo will be on your business cards, your website, your stationery, packaging, team uniforms, banners, vehicle graphics and the list goes on and on. Anything and everything you want to brand, you can.
Finding Inspiration for your design
So now that we know what your logo needs to do, we can set about getting some inspiration. Start doing your homework. Sites like Pinterest and Behance are great as they feature loads and loads of design work. It’s easy to become overwhelmed, but try to recognise a style that you like, that you keep coming back to and begin to narrow things down from there. If for example you find yourself repeatedly coming back to badge style logos, then start to Google only badge logos. You may then find that this style, with a handwritten font really jangles your chain, so you can focus in on them.
Once you have a style in mind, that will make things a lot easier. It’s like going to the shops and knowing what you want. If you don’t know, then there is a good chance you will come home with all sorts of stuff, like the fella who goes to Aldi to buy something, maybe a snack and comes out with a pressure washer.
Sketch your logo
It doesn’t matter whether you failed art at school, get your pens and pencils out and start sketching. Regardless of how awful your sketches may be, the process will help to solidify what it is you’re looking to achieve. Play around with different font styles, colours and layouts. If you manage to achieve something looking even vaguely what you want, you’re on to a winner.
Free logo maker 🙁
Personally I don’t like Free Logo Design. I think you’re about to create a company you are going to be investing a lot of time in. The company will represent you and your hard work, but then you are going to dress it in some cheap suit you just bought off the rack that 1000’s of other people are walking around it. For me it smacks of cheapness and lack of faith in your enterprise, but that’s just me. If you absolutely have to do it and you don’t have a cent to your name, then free logo makers can create something for you. Yes they are generic, yes potentially millions of other people are using the same imagery, but guess what cheapskate, it’s free so quit your grumbling.
Custom logo design
The absolute gold standard for logo design is getting your own designer and having them design it for you. Tell them all you have learnt from your research and send them the sketches you have created. It will be an enormously worthwhile investment. It’s not expensive and it will give you an infinitely better result than doing it yourself or being a cheap bum and using a free logo maker.
Even better, get in touch with us and we can do it for you.