How To Design a Memorable Logo in 8 Easy Steps

Think of the worst logo you’ve ever seen – what do you think of? If you’re having trouble thinking of one, that’s not surprising.

Good logos stick. Bad ones don’t.

Reading: How to create a nice logo

This is what separates logo design from other branding materials. Web banners, ads, and social media posts each have their own design goals, but none are as memorable as a logo.

Your logo is not your brand – you build it separately – but it becomes the face of your brand. It appears on your website, products, marketing, store signage, and pretty much every other place people interact with your brand.

This in-depth guide will walk you through every step of the branding design process to create a business logo from scratch – from choosing a color to hiring a designer – with the help of real in-house graphic designers.

How to design a logo from scratch step by step

1. Develop your brand identity
2. Look for design inspiration
3. Choose colors that reflect your brand
4. Choose a logo design style
5. Choose a font
6. Create multiple raw versions
7. Get feedback
8. Upgrade your winning design

1. Develop your brand identity

Brand identity design is an umbrella term for your brand’s visual elements: everything from your brand colors to your logo to the way elements of your brand are designed. These visual elements work together to make your brand stand out in the minds of your customers.

Before you start sketching designs for your logo, you should have an idea of ​​your brand identity. First ask yourself the following questions:

• Why did you start your company?
• What values ​​are important to you as a company?
• What makes you different from the competition?

Your brand differentiators – what matters most to you and what will be most recognizable to your customers – lie in the answers to these questions. Before you put your pen to paper, before you choose your colors and aesthetic, ask yourself who you are.

Don’t worry if you can’t answer these questions right away. They are a starting point meant for reflection. But once you think about it, you’ll be in a better position to create a logo that will effectively set you apart.

To help you better understand this process, we worked with real in-house designers at the Shopify office to create a logo for LawnPure – our very own non-real line of organic, citrus-based, chemical-free lawn care products.

We started by creating a mind map of our brand values. Mind mapping is a visual brainstorming technique. You start with a central idea (in this case, your brand) and outline your thoughts by connecting keywords and related concepts around that central idea.

Mind mapping can be done alone or in a group and is a great tool for refocusing your ideas or generating new ones. In branding, it’s perfect for building consensus around a coherent brand identity.

From our mind map we were able to develop a conceptually strong brand that makes it easier to answer questions that would help us understand what differentiates our brand from the competition:

Why did we start our company?

We started our company because we wanted to maintain a healthy green lawn that was safe for our children and pets to play. Current chemical fertilizers are great for maintaining a green lawn, but are often toxic after treatment.

Vinegar-based fertilizers are safer, but not nearly as effective. When we couldn’t find an effective natural fertilizer, we decided to make our own.

What values ​​are important to us as a company?

At LawnPure, we value ethical, safe methods of lawn care and insect population control. We believe that the key to human prosperity lies in the scientific research and development of safe, effective and sustainable lawn care products.

We are advocates for environmental sustainability. We believe that humanity has an obligation to protect our environment for our own safety and for the safety of future generations.

What sets us apart from the competition?

Agricultural biotechnology (or “agritech”) is plagued by corporate greed, unsafe practices and careless disregard for the planet’s sustainability . We’ve seen enough lawsuits over health and environmental issues to know that large agritech companies care more about corporate profits than the safety of their customers, employees and future generations.

What makes LawnPure different is ours Change request for implementation. Our team of scientific researchers dedicate their lives to developing safe, effective products for long-term, sustainable agriculture.In a world of corporate carelessness, LawnPure is like a breath of fresh air like your naturally manicured lawn.

Considering our brand identity allowed our creativity to flow. We hadn’t finalized the perfect logo design yet – but we were able to figure out what values ​​we wanted our design to project.

2. Look for design inspiration

Getting started is often the hardest part of any creative endeavor. It’s good when you have an idea, but sometimes the problem is having too many ideas at once.

Analysis paralysis occurs when you have so many ideas that you get bogged down in over-analyzing and become unable to make a decision.

To avoid analysis paralysis, don’t think creating as a task, building something out of nothing. Instead, think of it as a puzzle: the logo already exists in your mind, you just need to put the pieces together using established design principles.

Learn to speak the language of logos by looking at as many great logos as possible. Think about what made your favorites so memorable.

If you’re looking for places to check out great logo designs, here’s a list:

• Logoed: Logoed’s simple, single- Browse a frequently updated collection of stunning logos by scrolling the page.
• Logospire: This huge collection of user-submitted logo designs will help you unleash your creativity to let go.
• Brand New: Brand New is a blog covering designs and redesigns of new and notable brands across industries.
• LogoLounge: This blog allows graphic designers to upload their latest logos. LogoLounge is perhaps best known for publishing a series of books showcasing artwork featured on the site.
• Logo Design Love: The Graphic Designer David Airey curates this design blog that reviews logos and marketing designs from around the world.

Design-related hashtags: Many social media communities use specific design-related hashtags to showcase their graphic design work.

Instagram is a particularly good place to do this because of its visual nature the site. Next time you browse the gram, check out some of the most popular design hashtags:

• #logo
• #logodesigns
• #logodesigner
• #Graphic Design
• #Graphic Designer

3. Choose colors that reflect your brand

Colors are more fundamental to the perception of visual stimuli than many people realize. Studies have even shown that color can affect the mood of your users, making it crucial to their purchasing decision.

The colors of your logo end up on your website, in store signage, in social media feeds , marketing emails, and any other place where a user interacts with your brand. There is no universally “better” color, but each color says something different. They want to make sure you’re saying the right thing.

With that in mind, let’s go through the psychological effects of certain colors:

Brown

Brown is an earthy hue that’s often associated with all-natural ingredients , homemade goods and freshly baked treats. Due to the color of tree bark, sticks, fall foliage and rich soil, brown can also give your brand an outdoor aura.

Orange

Like a blazing fire, orange radiates warmth, energy and passion. The color of the sunsets is also reminiscent of summer – especially when combined with lighter blues and softer greens.

Yellow

Orange’s highly saturated sister, yellow, also emits light, energy, and heat. But if orange’s warmth is a blazing chimney, yellow’s is the intense heat of a midday sun shining over Baron Dessert.

Yellow tends to evoke happy feelings, but use it sparingly. A little yellow can add an air of optimism to a reliable brand, but a lot can be maddening.

Green

Green is a color with two personalities, green can evoke an organic aura that brings something to consider lush rainforests, environmental awareness and a sense of tranquility. And yet green just as easily becomes the color of money, greed, envy, and nausea.

Pink

Pink is a softer, gentler color, used at various times in history seen as a softer, gentler color for both male and female. Although modern consumers are likely to associate pink with femininity, in a broader sense it evokes kindness, romance and love.

Red

Bold and unforgiving, red tends to stand out, which is why it has become such a dependable color in branding. Like pink, red tends to evoke romance. But while pink’s romance is delicate and graceful, red’s romance is passionate, loud, and sensual.

Purple

The Rasputin of colors⁠, purple is a shadowy, mysterious stranger with an almost magical appeal.Given that violet dyes historically had a reputation for being rare and expensive, it’s no secret why violet is associated with wealth, excess, mysticism, magic and indulgence.

Blue

The color of a clear sky, blue tends to evoke feelings of confidence, lightness and peace. However, blue has also proven to be the least appetizing color. Try to avoid this when selling groceries.

Black, Grey, White

Sometimes the best color for your brand is no color at all. Shades of black, white, and gray typically evoke a sense of calm, balance, or clarity.

Use Multiple Colors

Most logos are monochromatic. Single colors are easier to coordinate, and using just one color simplifies your brand’s other graphic design elements. Solid color logos can also be redesigned in different colors for different purposes.

The FedEx logo is typically displayed in blue and orange. However, the company has created alternative color logos for specific departments.

The more you can simplify your design, the better. Complex designs are harder to remember and less likely to stick in your customers’ minds.

How do you create color combinations for your logo?

When you decide to create a multicolored logo, it is important to pay attention to which colors you use together. Although color theory can be quite complex, there are many online tools to help you follow a color scheme quickly:

• Paletton: Paletton’s color wheel lets you create color schemes with simple, interactive sliders.
• Coolors: Coolors allow you to create random color harmonies, lock colors you want to keep in your palette, and adjust other colors together to create a fully customizable palette. You can also generate palettes from uploaded images.
• Colormind: Colormind is particularly well-suited for web designers as it includes an easy-to-use tool for achieving readability and color harmony on web pages by previewing the colors on them Page in real-time while adjustments are made to the palette.
• ColorSpace: ColorSpace is best for developers as it automatically generates CSS code to include the color palette you create on your webpage.
• Canva’s Color Palette Generator: Canva generates color schemes randomly or from images. What makes Canva’s tool unique, however, is its ability to search for color palettes using keywords.

We chose LawnPure – the all-natural, organic pesticide – very early in the development process Citrus base⁠ – that green would be the base color of our logo. Eco-friendly and reminiscent of a healthy lawn, green seemed a perfect fit.

We started by trying to replicate the color of a healthy green lawn. In theory this seemed logical, but in real life colors are not perceived as they appear on screen.

Variations in light, distance and a host of other factors can affect visual perception and how the same object appears in many different shades⁠ – even in the same image.

Be prepared to play around with your base color for a while before finding the perfect fit. The visible spectrum is so vast that the slightest change in hue, saturation, or lightness can dramatically change the mood of your brand’s color.

We’ve changed some basic icons and text, and compared some possible hues. Even slight color differences seemed to communicate something completely different.

Lighter, more saturated tones were attention-grabbing and playful⁠, but also had a cartoonish, youthful feel. A good color for toy or comic sales perhaps, but not right for LawnPure.

Darker, earthier greens seemed to draw on nature, which is how we felt the LawnPure brand would do, especially when paired with Brown, orange and dark red.

Play around with different color arrangements to see how they change the mood of your logo.

Still, something wasn’t quite right about them. They exuded a “back to nature” quality, but were also more reminiscent of military camouflage. A color combination like this might work great for a sturdier brand that sells hunting supplies or camping gear, but it didn’t sit well with LawnPure’s peace-loving hippies, who sell eco-friendly lawn care products.

See also: How to Start a Forex Brokerage Step by Step

Initially, going green seemed easy, but after hours of experimenting, it felt like we hadn’t made a decision at all. “Green” can mean lime green, seafoam green, or forest green – but which green is LawnPure Green? After saying no to so many shades, we finally found exactly the green we were looking for.

LawnPure Green (hex code #00B151) is a purer mild green, that’s not too saturated, it’s dark and has just a hint of blue – barely perceptible, but enough to conjure up images of a lush field under a bright blue sky. This was LawnPure’s trademark color.

We thought about combining LawnPure Green with other colors. Mixing it with bright pink and orange tones looked amazing and gave it a summery touch⁠ conjuring up the taste of juicy fresh peaches, strawberries or watermelon. Great for fruity summer drinks or berry-scented candles, but not quite right for LawnPure.

Mixed with sky blue and sandy beige tones, it came much closer to the image of a well-groomed summer lawn. Maybe too close: Something about these color combinations felt artificial. It might work for a golf course pro shop, but it still wasn’t quite the LawnPure brand.

Finally, there was brown. Mixing it with brown seemed to make the most sense since it’s the color of rich earth. But this combination seemed less aesthetically pleasing. Darker shades of brown didn’t pair very well with LawnPure Green. Lighter shades of brown looked better, but more reminiscent of rocky, parched, barren land than fertile farmland.

In the end we decided to leave the second color in the air. We weren’t turning down additional colors just yet, but it was clear that every other color used would be minimal. For the time being, the main color of the brand was set and we could start sketching ideas.

4. Choose a Logo Design Type

Whether you’re designing a new logo from scratch or using a logo template, it’s a good idea to understand the different types of logos.

Monogram logos

Monogram logos, also known as lettermarks, are made up of letters, often the initials of the brand. Think NBC, GE, HBO, NASA. Monogram logos are simple but help people remember the company behind the logo.

For example, what is the easiest to remember and say: IBM or International Business Machines?

Wordmarks

A wordmark logo (or logotype) is a typeface-based logo that shows the company name. Think Visa, Disney, Jeep.

Logotypes work best for businesses with a memorable name. The catchy name and the expressive typography create a strong brand association. They are also customizable and can be used for various marketing and promotional materials while representing your business.

Image marks

Image marks are graphic-based logos. When you see one, you immediately recognize it as a company logo. The Apple logo, the Instagram logo or the Target bullseye are examples of this.

Abstract Logos

An abstract logos is conceptual. It consists of an icon made just for your company. Your logo doesn’t relate to anything that exists in the world, like a bird or an apple. It should express the uniqueness of your brand. Think Airbnb, Microsoft and Pepsi.

Abstract marks are difficult to create if you have no design experience. It’s best to hire a professional logo design consultant who can translate colors and shapes into meaningful symbols for your business.

Mascot

A mascot logo represents your business with an illustrated character. Often they are colourful, cartoonish and funny. A mascot logo humanizes your brand and acts as an ambassador for it.

Businesses that sell to children and families, as well as esports teams, should use these designs. Popular mascot logos you’d probably recognize include Planters’ Mr. Peanut, Mickey Mouse, or M&M’s Spokecandies.

Combination marks

A combination mark combines a word or letter mark with a figurative mark, abstract logo or mascot. You can place the text and icon side by side or integrate them together to create the logo.

Combination characters help people instantly associate your business name with an image or icon. Widely recognized combination brands include Ralph Lauren, Burger King, Converse.

5.Choose a Font

Your new logo may not contain any text, but it will incorporate much of your graphic design, including your web copy, signage and a variety of other branding materials. For consistency, it’s important to consider what fonts your brand wants to use when designing your logo, even if you don’t use them in the logo itself.

Font vs. Font

The The terms “typeface” and “typeface” are used interchangeably in most contexts, so it is common to assume that they are synonymous. There is one important difference, however: a font is a distinctive set of typographic symbols and characters, often divided into variant sets such as italics and bold. Each of these variant sets is a font.

The four basic font styles and when to use them

There are many models for sorting fonts⁠. Some focus on style, some on historical significance, and still others on endlessly fragmented subcategories. However, the most common system sorts fonts into four basic types.

Serif font styles

The word “serif” describes a small line or an attached dash to the end of a longer one dashes in a letter or other character. Serifs are the oldest typeface, dating back to inscriptions used in the Latin alphabet.

• Characteristics: Serifs are often associated with history, tradition and antiquity and are used to evoke wealth, elegance and authority.
• Use: Serif fonts can make attractive display fonts and are traditionally used for body copy in printed matter such as newspapers, books, and magazines. Luxury brands targeting affluent audiences also commonly use serif typefaces.
• Use in branding: Old and transitional serifs have a more “classic” feel. Modern and “slab” serifs (fonts with a thicker serif stroke) feel more contemporary, innovative, and creative.

Sans serif fonts

Sans serif fonts, sometimes called gothic, have no trailing serifs of character strokes. Sans serifs have less line width variation and tend to be easier to read when backlit⁠, which is why they’re most commonly used in text on computer screens. In print media, they are most commonly used in headlines, but can sometimes be used in body copy as well.

• Characteristics: Sans serif fonts are more commonly associated with simplicity, modernity, and minimalism. As for design, they work well with an abundance of negative space and create a glossy, sophisticated feel.
• When to use them: Sans-serif fonts are versatile and good to be used for screen texts and headlines. Brands typically use sans serif fonts when trying to convey a sense of contemporary, elegant simplicity.
• Use in branding: Sans serif fonts tend to be easier to read on screen than in print , so they are used more often in body copy on websites than in magazines and newspapers. In general, sans serif fonts convey a more neoteric vibe and are more commonly used by brands trying to convey a sense of innovation and modernity.

Font Styles

Fonts are derived from handwriting or calligraphy. Fonts are more fluid than sans or serif styles and are often used in more whimsical contexts. Font styles are versatile and can be used by both formal and casual brands⁠.

• Features: As a derivative of handwriting, scripts have a tendency to “humanize” text. Script fonts often have a lot of personality, so they’re particularly good at changing the mood of your text.
• When to use it: Scripts should be used sparingly. They are poorly suited for long, expansive body text, as they are generally less legible. However, when combined with a serif or sans serif typeface, fonts can be a very effective means of emphasis.
• Use in branding: Formal scripts convey a sense of luxury, romance and passion. Informal scripts can give your brand a more folksy and unpretentious vibe. Scripts are better for emphasizing words and short sentences, especially if it’s a word you want your customer to pause on.

Decorative Fonts

Decorative (or display) fonts are difficult to categorize as they that’s exactly what they are without typographical conventions. Decorative fonts can convey a variety of moods, but generally focus on a specific theme, motif, or aesthetic. More recently developed fonts tend to be decorative and are often designed specifically for a particular brand.

• Features: Decorative fonts can be very tricky as they are stylistically varied but generally more difficult to read, making them bad for body text. Titles might look better in a decorative font style, but even here designers should be careful: overuse of almost any decorative font has a tendency to look cheesy. Decorative fonts also become outdated quickly, as they tend to tie in with aesthetic trends.
• When to use it: It’s a good idea to avoid overuse of decorative fonts. Individual characters can be customized well or incorporated into logos, but make sure you have the license rights to use the character in your custom logo.
• Use in branding: Decorative fonts are infinitely diverse, making it impossible to narrow them down to a single use. Decorative fonts are commonly used in logos, and it’s common for larger brands to have entire fonts created just for their own use. Non-character fonts (like emojis) are also commonly used to appeal to younger customers.

What does my font say about my brand?

Like color, a slight difference in font can say very different things about your brand. It’s okay to have more than one branded font, but the key is consistency. Constantly switching between drastically different typefaces can give your branding an overall indecisive feel that turns into customer distrust over time.

If your brand uses a specific set of fonts, make sure you have specific guidelines on when to use which fonts. When the fonts are changed frequently and randomly, they tend to inspire a sense of distrust and fear.

Finding the right font might not come straight away, but you can narrow down your choices by considering a few key factors alongside your brand identity.

Just like color, brand identity is the most important factor to consider when it comes to your font. Different font attributes tend to evoke different brand qualities:

1. Lines: Thick vs. Thin

Bold, thick fonts, like asymmetrical slab serifs, tend to evoke authority and stability. Thinner fonts tend to convey a greater sense of elegance and progression.

2. Emphasis: diagonal vs. vertical

Designers refer to a font’s “tension” when describing the angle at which the thinnest parts of a character’s stroke are aligned.

Brush fonts and italic text would be described as sitting on a diagonal axis, while block text would be described as sitting on a vertical axis. Fonts on a vertical axis tend to look more formal and traditional, while fonts on a diagonal axis look more casual and welcoming.

3. Contrast: low vs. high

When it comes to a font, “contrast” describes the difference in thickness between thin and thick strokes. Low-contrast fonts tend to be easier to read but look less formal than medium-contrast fonts. High contrast fonts tend to look more modern and authentic.

4. Mood: Formal vs. Informal, Classic vs. Modern, Dramatic vs. Calm

More difficult to determine is the “mood” of a typeface. Older serifs and typefaces look more formal and classic, with older typefaces feeling more dramatic. Newer sans serifs tend to convey quiet modernity, but can be either formal or informal.

Decorative fonts can be any of the above, but are generally more dramatic. Ask yourself what attributes you attribute to your typeface and if these are the same attributes you would attribute to your brand.

6. Create multiple raw versions

Back at LawnPure we started brainstorming our brand typeface in parallel with the logo creation process.The LawnPure brand sees itself as innovative, modern and futuristic, so typefaces with a classic vibe didn’t feel right.More dramatic typefaces didn’t work with our brand either – LawnPure is it’s quiet, like fresh grass on a hot summer’s day.

We decided to play around with some quiet, modern fonts to see what we found:

As with the logo, our first instinct was to mimic the look and feel of grass. We wanted something that felt alive and thriving. Serif fonts felt “fixed” and generally did not express this quality very well. Sans serif fonts were better⁠ – but still didn’t feel right.

Thin lines tended to feel less formal than thick lines, which was a good thing. However, they also felt pedestrian⁠ in a way that didn’t fit LawnPure’s innovative nature. Thick lines felt more innovative but seemed to convey a dramatic, less tranquil vibe. We needed something that landed in the middle.

We also tried some scripts that can be used for highlighting. Scripts have the active, wavy quality of weed on a windy day, so we thought this could work well with the LawnPure brand.

Our scripts definitely had a more informal and interesting character. Script fonts certainly had the wavy quality of grass, but in large doses they felt a bit too retro for LawnPure. Here we had the idea of ​​combining fonts. We tried a few combinations but nothing seemed to stick.

Our favorite script was Southern Aire as it looked the closest to grass. We’ve tried combining this font with some other, more formal sans serif fonts to see what works.

Our problem was the more we tried to make the script look like grass , the less legible it became words were. The more legible we made the font, the less it looked like grass. We tried to combine two fonts that just didn’t go together. In the end we gave up cursive. But testing it this way was an important step in creating our final logo.

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If you design your own logo, you will probably face such problems. Design involves a lot of trial and error. You might spend an entire afternoon experimenting and at the end of the day have nothing to show for it, other than knowing that narrowing down your options means less work tomorrow.

When you’re done, the font we’re designing for the best held exemplifying our brand values ​​was Rhino Sans.

Rhino Sans was formal, but not too formal. The lettering felt calm, modern, and unique. It was occasionally unreadable, but we didn’t intend to use it for body text.

One thing we didn’t like about it was the “W” which was wider than the other letters. At this point we decided to combine our grassy font idea with Rhino Sans. We tested a few things:

We also encountered a problem here. The more we changed the “W” to look like grass, the more illegible it became. It’s important to emphasize here the hours of trial and error that can go into creating even a seemingly simple logo.

We tried all possible scripts. We played around with the characters’ dimensions, tweaked individual lines and angles, used the characters’ outlines as a template for our own hand-drawn characters – but whatever, the logo just didn’t quite fit yet.

That’s when we decided it would be best to specially design our own “W” to look like grass. If you prefer to draw your logo by hand, you can go this route. Our personal preference was the Pen tool in Photoshop.

7. Get feedback

The creative process is different for everyone. Some may start with sketches, while others jump straight to Adobe Illustrator. The design phase involves a lot of trial and error, so don’t get discouraged if things don’t work out.

At some point, you’ll feel like you can’t tell letters from shapes, or good logos from bad. When this happens, it may be time for feedback. Feedback is incredibly important to the creative process because it’s the only way developers have to “test” their ideas.

You can get feedback from almost anyone, just make sure you don’t rely on a single person. It also helps if the people providing feedback are in your brand’s target audience.

To get the best feedback, ask specific questions about how each person perceives your brand based on the logo. Hearing that your logo is “good” or “bad” isn’t helpful, but knowing how your brand comes across isn’t helpful.

Here are some ideas for questions to ask when receiving feedback:

• What’s the first thing you notice?
• How would you you characterize yourself? my brand?
• What do you remember most about the logo?
• Is there anything that confuses you?
• If you could remove one aspect of the design, what would it be do? it be?

It’s hard for someone to be sure how they would react to your brand in real life, so avoid asking questions like “Would you buy this?”. or “Is that interesting?” More specific questions get more specific answers and better feedback.

After playing around with the LawnPure logo, we had a design ready for feedback:

8. Polish up your winning design

Using our chosen font, we spelled out the company name and then drew blades of grass that would make up the ‘W’. The thing about logo design is that if you spend hours meticulously making adjustments to the same image, you can start to lose the understanding of what made the logo good in the first place.

If you have feedback collect, the strength of your designs will become more apparent. You’ll notice parts of your design that may not stick the way you envisioned. In the meantime, aspects that you haven’t given much thought to will prove to be widely successful. Feedback can surprise you.

This happened to our design. We’ve been trying to make the grass logo look more like grass for so long that we forgot to make it look like a “W”. The most common feedback we received on our first draft was that it was unclear how to pronounce “LallnPure”. We went back to the drawing board to expand things.

The second feedback had to do with the kerning on the last “e” in LawnPure. We used the font’s default spacing, but since the size and dimensions were changed significantly, the “e” seemed a little too far away.

We took the feedback, made the suggested revisions, and finally our polished logo was ready:

Top Logo Maker to Design Logo for Free

In the startup phase of your business, hiring a new employee, even a freelancer, may not be feasible. In that case, you are left with two options: design your own custom logo or use a free online logo maker.

If you’re short on time and need a professional logo ASAP, then get a free one Logo generator is the best choice. There are many suitable logo makers online, but beware – low quality logo makers generally result in low quality logos.

To help you make a decision, we have compiled a list of the best free logo makers currently online:

1. Hatchful

Hatchful is Shopify’s free logo design tool aimed specifically at the ecommerce industry. Hatchful works by asking questions about your brand’s personality and industry, then creating designs that are unique to your business. From there, you can use Hatchful to customize fonts, colors, icons, and layouts.

With its e-commerce goal, Hatchful’s development process draws heavily on the fundamentals of visual marketing and the relationship between brand values ​​and Design.

For business owners who are well versed in these areas but might need a little help with the creation process itself⁠, Hatchful has all the design features you need.

Besides, because it is so Geared towards e-commerce, Hatchful offers free, full-featured branding packages that include high-resolution versions of your logo ready for business card templates, social media profiles, website banners, branded merchandise, in-store signage, and more.

2 .Canva

Canva’s free suite of graphic design tools includes many logo templates that can be customized with the intuitive drag-and-drop editor. Canva is great for hands-on users⁠, especially those looking for complete creative freedom. However, the limitless design possibilities can be overwhelming for first-time visitors. If you have less design experience, a more accessible logo maker from this list might be better.

3. LogoMakr

LogoMakr has a streamlined, step-by-step logo creation process that’s easy to understand for beginners. Featuring a database of over a million searchable graphics, a text toolbar, and a simplified, easy-to-arrange layer system similar to the layers tool in Photoshop and other more complex design software.

4. Ucraft

Ucraft’s logo maker is great for creating minimalist logos under time pressure. Ucraft offers three basic design options – text, icons, and shapes⁠ – as well as a drag-and-drop interface for easy-to-customize logos. Although design options are limited, Ucraft’s simplicity makes it a great tool if you need a logo in a pinch.

5. MarkMaker

MarkMaker’s logo maker has very limited customization options, but it makes up for it by being one of the easiest logo makers to use for beginners. Its unique process is something like an AI-powered graphic design robot. MarkMaker feeds you an endless list of instantly generated logos, asks you which logos you like, and then creates more designs based on your preferences.

There are pros and cons to the logo resources on this list. We encourage you to try them all to find the best fit for you.

Logo generation tools are great for creating professional logos at breakneck speed, but every free logo maker has limitations, not to mention the fear of encountering strikingly similar logos from competing brands.

For many full-time entrepreneurs, free online logo makers just aren’t enough. Not because of the logos themselves (there’s no doubt that you can create a stunning, original, and on-brand logo with these tools), but because of the shortened creation process.

Entrepreneurship tends to attract people who benefit from creative expression and innovative problem solving. For people like this, the opportunity to hone their skills and cultivate their branding skills by designing their own logo is just too good to pass up.

What is a company logo for?

A logo is an icon that represents your brand and your brand’s personality through the simplest possible image. You can use it to easily brand anything and instantly connect with customers. Great logos embody your brand in the minds of your customers. Without one, they have nothing to hold on to. Here’s why:

• People learn from visual cues:If you want to communicate something about your brand to your customers, science says that images are more effective than words, to convey this.
• Logos allow you to create branded items: Branded items can be given out at trade shows, given to potential customers and even sold in-store. A good conversation can be forgotten far more quickly than the branded pen that a customer finds at the bottom of their bag.
• Logos provide a visual foundation for graphic design: Brand consistency is a key element for making a lasting impression. By having a definitive representation of your brand at the lowest level, you have something to draw on when designing other marketing elements.
• Logos help you stand out from the competition:Certain symbols or icons are associated with specific industries. Remember how many medical supply stores use variations of a red cross in their logos. When many companies are competing for the same market, it is important to differentiate yourself in order to be noticed and remembered.

A logo offers many benefits, so it’s not hard to see why almost every business has one. Working without a logo looks unprofessional. It seems illegitimate, even untrustworthy. In many cases, it can even help to create a logo for a personal brand.

Professional Logo Design Tips

If there’s one thing to take away from all of this, then you should not underestimate the importance of your logo. Logos are subjective. While there’s no right or wrong way to create one, here are a few tips to keep in mind during the design process.

1. Keep your color scheme simple

Solid color logos are more customizable and simplify color choices. The more colors you use, the more complicated the customization becomes.

Some of the best logos are the least complicated – think Nike’s Swoosh or McDonald’s golden arches.Ted Kaye of the North American Vexillological Association says flag designs should be simple enough for a child to draw from memory. The same goes for a good logo.

Don’t over-complicate your design. Don’t pack too many icons into one logo. Simple characters are much easier to convey than complex scenes and are more likely to be remembered. Consider the endurance of Apple’s iconic design or Volkswagen’s symmetrical VW logo.

2. Create Logo Variations

Create variations of your logo in different sizes and proportions. Adding it to everything from websites to pens will have you wishing you had planned different sizing options.

Don’t make too many variations. Avoid rearranging too many elements and don’t change the design.

3. Get Inspired by Famous Logos

Explore logos and get inspired by other brands, especially those in your industry. Remember not to imitate logos too closely. Not only is it plagiarism, but it also hinders any chance of your logo getting noticed.

4. Avoid trends

Be contemporary. Even if your brand has a more “classic” character⁠, it still needs to assert itself in the modern world. Countless brands draw on classic design attributes, but total neglect of decades of design theory will be disconcerting.

Avoid being too trendy. Logos created in an era obsessed with a specific color, design, or aesthetic quickly become obsolete.

For example, the Toronto Raptors’ original logo was designed in 1994, at a time when bright pastels, sharp-edged designs, and Jurassic Park were at the peak of their popularity. Initial merchandise sales were high, but the logo quickly became obsolete and after some minor changes, it was finally phased out in 2014.

5. Work with logo designers when you need one

It’s okay if you don’t want to design a logo yourself. Logo design is difficult if you are not a visual person. Maybe you are more business savvy and better with numbers. You can always hire a logo designer or agency if needed.

A professional designer can help you create a great logo for your brand. You can combine your brand personality with organic shapes, color arrangements and fonts. You can brainstorm some logo ideas together and find something that fits your brand.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when considering hiring a designer to create your logo:

• Do I have the budget? Logo designs can cost anywhere from nothing if you use a free online logo maker to tens of thousands of dollars if you work with a professional designer or agency. On the lower end, expect to pay around $50-$300 to hire a reasonably experienced designer.
• Can I afford to burn money on a logo I don’t use? When you hire a designer, you’re paying for their time, not the logo itself. Because of the possibility that the final product will not live up to your expectations and be thrown away, designers and business owners usually negotiate a “kill fee”; an amount paid to the designer whether or not the logo is used. Keep this in mind when budgeting and make sure to account for potential kill fees.
• How much time can I afford for logo design? There is more to designing a logo than sitting around waiting for a “eureka” moment. The process is typically a collaborative one, with designers presenting you with several rough options and relying on your feedback to refine their work.
• Do I have a good eye for design? Logo design is not easy. If so, you wouldn’t consider hiring a designer. Some business owners excel at expressing their brand values ​​in words, but struggle to translate those words into an image. Designers, on the other hand, usually excel at translating words into images. If your skillset lends itself more to management than creativity, hiring a designer is probably the way to go.

If you’re looking for a designer who knows e-commerce like the back of his hand, browse our marketplace for Shopify experts. Shopify experts can help with all sorts of design customizations and can be filtered to find an expert in your price range or with experience in your industry.

Create a logo you feel comfortable with

Strong, memorable brands usually have strong, memorable logos. Going through this process to create a simple image might seem like a lot of work, but when you consider that the design has a long-term association with your brand, it’s worth it.

Every big brand started small. You don’t have to sacrifice quality design just because you’re in the early stages of your business.The idea of ​​designing the perfect logo might seem daunting at first, but hopefully now that you have a better understanding of logo icon principles and the steps of the design process, you are better equipped to create your own with confidence.

Illustrations by Eugenia Mello

See also: How to Create Your Own Server at Home for Web Hosting

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