Best Way to Create a Logo for Your Business
Don't worry! This step-by-step guide will teach you everything you need to know to create a perfect logo for you and your business. From defining your brand's identity, to creatively integrating the message you want to reflect from your logo, read on to learn the best way to create a logo for your business.
Important Steps for Designing a Perfect Logo
Follow these 12 steps for creating a best logo possible for your business.
- Understand why you need a logo
- Define your brand identity
- Find inspiration for your design
- Check out the competition
- Choose your design style
- Find the right type of logo
- Pay attention to color
- Pick the right font
- Communicate with your designer
- Evaluate your logo options
- What not to do when designing a logo
- Integrate your logo design into your brand
Step-By-Step Guide to Create a Logo for Your Business
1. Understand why you need a logo.
Getting a logo for your business is important to create brand awareness, attract customers and even to get your customers’ attention.
A logo can be one of the most powerful tools in the world to grow your brand.
It will help you stand out from the competition and show people who you are.
You need to be ready with a great logo so that when people see it, they'll know they've found what they're looking for.
2. Define your brand identity
In this section, we will discuss the best way to create a logo for your business. The logo can be used as a symbol of your company and it should be unique to distinguish your company from the others.
The first step in creating a logo is to think about what you want people to think about when they see it. You can choose colors, shapes or even words that represent your company and what you stand for.
Here are some questions you can ask yourself, to get to the bottom of your brand identity:
- Why did we start this business?
- What are beliefs and values that are important to us as a company?
- What do we do better than anyone else?
- What makes us special?
- If we could describe our brand in three words, what would they be?
- What are the three words we would want our customers to use to describe us?
3. Find inspiration for your design
The first step of creating a logo for your business is to find the inspiration. Inspiration can come from anywhere, but usually designers start with words.
When trying to find the right word for your logo, you should be looking at how it sounds and what it means. It should also be simple and memorable, but it can't be too generic. Avoid cliche names like "Team" or "Family" because they will not stand out in the competitive marketplace today.
4. Check out the competition
Creating a logo for your business is not an easy job. There are tons of companies out there that are competing in the same field. So how do you stand out?
Be sure to clearly set yourself apart from your competition. If all the other businesses in your industry are going monochrome, maybe you should opt for some color to stand out. If everyone else is traditional, maybe a fun and modern logo will attract attention.
5. Choose your design style
Now that you have a clear idea of your brand and are feeling inspired, it’s time to start translating that into design. There are lots of different elements that come into play here, from colors, shapes and graphics to typography.
When thinking about your logo, the first thing you want to do is pick the right design aesthetic for your brand. There is no one style that is right for everyone, only what’s best for your brand.
Some of the best logo design styles:
- Classic: Classy or Classic Logo Designs works well where the desired look and feel of the logo design is to emphasize an age old existing brand or to rework a classic label which shows an elegant / regal look and feel. Some luxury brands also prefer to have their logo in a similar style.
- Retro or vintage: There is a reason why vintage and retro design have been on trend for quite some time now. They instantly remind you of the past and evoke romantic feelings of nostalgia.
- Modern and minimalist: Brands often choose a clean and minimalist style to communicate how fresh and modern they are. A minimalist and modern style shows your customers that your brand is up-to-date, cool and knows what counts.
- Fun and quirky: This is a popular choice for brands with a young (or young at heart) target customer. Fun and quirky style tends to be colorful and cute and often uses symbols or illustrations to create a positive and friendly vibe.
- Handmade and handcrafted: Handcrafted style transports a clear message: this brand is individualistic and stands for handmade quality.
6. Find the right type of logo
In addition to the overall style there are 7 main types of logos you can choose from when you are creating your logo. You can pick the one that suits your company name or overall aesthetic best, or combine them to create something unique.
As we seen in the previous step that logo style should match your business, "Type of logo" is also equally important.
Mainly there are 7 types of logo, you may pick one of them:
- Lettermarks (or monogram logos): If your company’s name is a mouthful, you should definitely consider using a lettermark.
- Wordmarks (or logotypes): As you may have guessed, wordmarks are typography based and usually focus on the name of the business or brand.
- Pictorial marks (or logo symbols): A pictorial mark (sometimes called brand mark or logo symbol) is an icon—or graphic-based logo.
- Abstract logo marks: An abstract mark is a specific type of pictorial logo. Instead of being a recognizable image—like an apple or a bird—it's an abstract geometric form that represents your business.
- Mascots: A mascot logo is one that bears an image of an identifiable brand ambassador, often in the form of a cartoon.
- Combination mark: A combination mark is simply logotype and logomark combined into one logo. Text and image or icons are combined to enhance the branding message and helps clarify what a business is all about.
- Emblem: An emblem logo consists of font inside a symbol or an icon; think badges, seals and crests.
7. Pay attention to color
Colors can have a ton of different meanings. The psychology behind color is complex, but to keep it short, colors have certain emotions and ideas attached to them.
These are some colors and the psychological meaning behind them:
- Red: Red stands for excitement, passion and anger. It’s a great choice if your brand is loud, youthful and wants to stand out.
- Orange: Orange is much less used than red but it’s just as energetic. This is a vibrant, invigorating and playful color.
- Yellow: If you want to look accessible and friendly, yellow is the right choice. It gives off a cheerful, affordable and youthful energy.
- Green: Green is extremely versatile and can work for any brand really. It’s especially perfect for anyone who wants to establish a connection to nature.
- Blue: Blue is a very classic and common choice. It is calming and cool and symbolizes trustworthiness and maturity.
- Purple: Purple can be your ticket to looking luxurious. Depending on the shade, purple can be mysterious, eclectic or feminine.
- Pink: If you’re going for girly, nothing works better than pink. But that’s not all! With shades like pastel rose, millennial pink or neon magenta, pink can give your logo a grown up and cool, but still youthful and feminine look.
- Brown: Brown may sound like a strange color choice at first, but it works perfectly for rugged and masculine vintage logos. It can give your brand a handmade, unique and aged look.
- Black: If you are looking for a sleek, modern and luxurious look, black will be a great choice. A minimalist black and white logo is the way to go if you want to keep it simple.
- White: You want your logo to look clean, modern and minimalistic? Use lots of white in your logo. As a neutral color it works in combination with all other colors, but adds a clean, youthful and economical touch.
- Gray: Gray is the ultimate color if you want to achieve a mature, classic and serious look. Darker shades look more mysterious, while lighter shades are more accessible.
Combining colors
Of course you don’t need to stick with a monochrome logo using just one color, but you can combine several logo colors to tell a complete story behind the brand.
8. Pick the right font
You want to pick a font that complements and completes your logo.
There are 4 basic types of fonts you can work with to give your logo a unique look:
- Serif fonts: Serif fonts can make your logo look classic and high-end.
- Sans serif fonts: Sans-serif fonts are perfect for a modern and clean look. They don’t have the little feet that serif fonts have which makes them look very sleek and simple.
- Script fonts: Script fonts are reminiscent of handwriting. Use them to make your logo look more individualistic, like the Moon Rabbit logo above.
- Display fonts: Display fonts are decorative fonts that are highly stylized and really catch the eye.
9. Communicate with your designer (Not Compulsory)
Now that you have considered all of the necessary style points, you’re ready to start designing!
But, It is not possible for everyone to hire a designer and its not compulsory if you have a little knowledge in photoshopping. If someone in your friends or family can make it for you, then you should talk to them and make it for you.
And for those who can hire a designer, Sometimes it may take a little bit of trust in your designer, but try to stay open to suggestions. Remember, your designer is an expert and has a great feel for what makes a good logo. Giving lots of detailed and clear feedback is what gives designers an understanding of what you like. It may sound cheesy but it’s true: the best design happens when you and your designer work together.
10. Evaluate your options
Evaluating your logo options can be hard, so get some feedback from friends, potential customers and colleagues to help you make a decision.
Obviously your brand’s needs and expectations for a logo will be much different if you sell children’s clothing and need a simple logo that can be stitched onto fabric than if you make sophisticated high-end wine with an intricate label, or a high-tech app that lives on peoples’ phones.
So don’t forget to take a step back and consider the bigger picture while you’re designing your logo. This is not about personal taste, it’s about what works best for your brand.
11. What not to do when designing a logo
There are some common pitfalls that await you when you’re designing your logo.
Here are some tips on what not to do:
- Don’t give in to the Symbols of your industry. Imagine if you’re a dentist, so your logo needs to have a tooth in it? Definitely not. It will make you same as your thousands of competitors.
- Don’t make it too complicated. Simplicity is key for a memorable logo.
- Don’t try to be too trendy. Trends are fantastic, but make sure your logo won’t look dated in three years.
- Don’t settle for a low quality logo.
12. Integrate your logo design into your brand
Now that you know the best way to create a logo for your business. Once you have your logo, you’ve created the ideal basis for all the branding material your business needs. And just like that, your business is ready to show the world its brand new face!
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