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Free Beginner’s Guide: How To Design A Logo?

by Alice Jackson Tweet - in Logo Design

How To Design A Logo?

Last updated on October 19th, 2021

It seems basic but a logo is the most prominent identity of any business. 75% of customers identify brands by their unique logo designs. However, small business owners, who are starting fresh, usually don’t have a memorable logo design that can help them to gain customers’ attention. They often wonder how to design a logo by using a logo maker tool but fail to come up with an eye-catching design or conclusion. With proper guidance, they can also create an outstanding logo on their own to convey the brand message, just like that.

Small businesses have one thing in common, a monotonous logo design. Their logos don’t have unique designs and therefore, fail to make a first impression on the target audience. Quality-wise, such logos are no more than a random piece of design work.

Such businesses assume that if people repeatedly see a piece of their so-called design on products, they will consider it as a logo. But the business owners need to understand that a logo is not just any meaningless design. It’s your brand identity. For example, How do people recognize companies like Pepsi, Coca Cola, Nike, Puma, etc.? The answer is, from LOGOS.

For a small business to grow steadily, the first thing to ponder on – how to design a logo. You should know that a well-designed logo is the first condition for the steady growth of the new business. But, why most of logo designs are not up to standards?

A reason could be that new business owners have very less fundamental knowledge to design a logo. Consequently, they use a logo maker tool but end up creating a purposeless logo for their business.

If you as a new business owner, then you should first know the basics of a logo design to create an impressive symbol of your brand. Therefore, before you pick Designhill’s logo maker tool to create your logo, first find out what goes into making a unique logo that stands out for your brand.

Let’s First Understand A Few Basics before starting – How To Design A Logo For Business?

What Is A Logo?

A logo can be defined as a name, trademark, or symbol of an organization or company. It can also be described as a visual mark that helps in identifying a company, product or service. While, a logo seems to be a somewhat modern word, the fact is that everything that represents something has been known as a logo or symbol from ancient times.

Like, flags were used to identify and represent a community and territory. The same is still prevalent. Animal heads also once commonly represented different communities and considered as logos.

But, now the conventional meaning of logos has changed drastically. It’s not just a symbol for any entity.

It represents – The Brand, Company or Organization’s Identity.

More than that, it has been turned into a unique visual representation of brand values and brand identities of companies. Conveying a brand message is the prominent thought today behind designing a logo.

In fact, logos dominate a company’s visual identity profile to such an extent that its presence is important everywhere; in all the promotional materials. A logo is the first visual you immediately notice on a company’s letterheads, business cards, brochures, websites, etc., and all online or offline advertisement materials.

Company Logo

One of the key reasons why companies depend on a logo to convey brands’ message is that people remember an image more than words. We are quickly drawn to visually appealing objects.

A well-designed logo, therefore, looks impressive to eyes. Therefore, logos are the first impression of the companies. Then, the designer may add a shape or text so that it stands out. Business owners seek a creative design to establish an emotional connection with a target audience.

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Why You Need A Logo?

Why exactly your the company needs a logo? That is perhaps the most important question to answer precisely before designing one such icon for your organization. Well, the reasons are plenty. But, here we want you to think along these lines when you ponder the importance of a logo:

i. Make A Great First Impression

In our daily life, we tend to build a certain perception about a person at the first meeting. Often, if the impression is good, we start liking that person immediately and, mostly, keep that perception unchanged for a long time at least. That is a major reason why small businesses need a strong logo.

Similarly, a company logo makes that vital first impression on viewers when they see it in advertisements, billboards, markets, letterheads, business cards, websites, etc. Because of the impact made by the symbol, people start building a positive image about your business, which can be a key to its steady growth.

ii. Stand Out From Your Competition

Businesses can grow today only when they create a unique impression to the target customers. To combat the serious competition in your niche or industry, the outstanding design of your logo helps a lot.

If the logo design looks different from the brand logo of your competitors, people have the perception that your business too is unique. The logo, therefore, is your starting point to look different. Then, of course, you have to offer great products or services and solve customers’ problems to be useful to them and stand out.

iii. Build Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is what every business owner aspires to build over the years. But it all starts right from the logo design of a company. Since the design is a great visual to drive people’s attention, it draws potential customers to the business. But more than that, a great logo then helps brands retain those customers.

For example, social media icons are quite common to the audience and draw lots of attention. Over the years, they have been nurtured and redesigned logos as per their audience interests. Even after changes, these platforms are still able to restore their trust and loyalty.

Such a logo instills a sense of confidence in the customers. The message they get is that this is the right company they were looking for. But, how a logo helps in retaining customers?

The logo builds a corporate image of a company. So, it conveys that the company is professional, friendly, and appealing. When customers get such messages, they want to come back to that company to buy more.

How A Logo Defines Your Brand Identity?

First, know what exactly is brand. A brand is the overall emotional corporate image of a company. Many people assume that a logo is a brand. But that is not true. On the contrary, the word brand refers to the intangible assets of a company. In this way, a brand is about a company’s emotional relationship with customers.

We can say that your gut feeling about a company is its brand. The brand is, thus, all about relationships. This is the reason that people do not buy products, they buy brands since they have established an emotional connection with brands. In other words, a brand is a company’s promise to customers.

Brand Identity

Now, what is an identity? Identity is the visual representation of a brand as a whole. Since it is a visual, you can see it. Therefore, What is a brand identity? It is about how people visualize your company’s brand through colors, typefaces, and logo, etc.

Brand identity, therefore, is a collection of unique visual elements of a company. A strong brand identity means the visual elements are present everywhere consistently in a company’s marketing and promotional efforts. Everything people can see with the help of design elements is the identity of a brand.

We can say that color, design, typeface, and logo create the brand identity of a company in its consumer’s mind.

Brand Identity Is Built Using These Elements

i. Logo or Wordmark

ii. Selected colors (color palette)

iii. Standard typographic treatments

iv. A consistent style for images

v. Many graphic elements

But, how to design a logo for the brand identity? A logo has every visual brand elements such as colors, typeface, layout, grid, etc of a company. A nicely designed logo surely helps build the desired perception of your brand amongst the target audience.

Therefore, when designing a logo for brand identity, get the right answers to these key questions:

i. What is the core value of your business?

ii. How is your business different than your competitors?

iii. What is one or two things that set you apart in your niche market?

iv. How would you describe your brand in a few words?

v. How would you like your customers to describe your company and business?

How A Logo Can Help You To Beat The Competition?

When thinking about how to design a logo, study your closest competitors. Like all businesses, you too have many competitors right in your neighbourhood.

Research more about them to know what are their marketing strategies and how they drive customer’s attention. Remember that both your competitors and you have shared the same set of target audience.

The first thing to check is to have a good research on your competitors’ logos. Then, make sure that your logo design looks entirely different than theirs. This is key to build your own distinctive brand identity.

With such a logo, you are conveying the message that your products or services are unique and different from those of your competitors. That is the reason people will buy from you.

Therefore, use the colors, typefaces, icons, and other elements in your logo that others have not incorporated yet. When people first have a glimpse at your logo, the same time they would build the perception that you have something different to offer. This is how well thought of logo design helps customers to see that you stand out in the market.

What Makes A Good Logo?

What are the characteristics of a logo that works well for businesses? Well, the first quality of a great business logo is that viewers can immediately recognize it even in the crowd of logos. It also quickly conveys a brand message.

Most importantly, it looks professional that fit absolutely with the identity of a brand. Such a logo can be scaled up and reduced to any size as per the advertisement needs.

How a good logo should be:

i. It should be distinctive and unique design.

ii. It should a memorable creative piece.

iii. You can scale the logo to any size and it still looks well proportionate.

iv. Your logo should express a brand identity.

v. The logo is a timeless design, meaning that it remains more or less the same for decades.

Ask these questions to find out if your logo is a good design or not:

i. Are you able to tell what is the logo all about in just 2 seconds?

ii. Is it a unique design that people have not seen ever before in any form?

iii. Is the logo entirely different from your competitors’ logos?

iv. Can your target audience remember it?

v. Is the logo design simple so that customers can remember it?

vi. Is your logo a versatile design that can be used in all of your brand’s visuals?

vii. Will the logo design stay the same for years, with no need for a major redesign?

viii. Does it gives an aesthetic sense to viewers?

If your answer is ‘yes’ to all these questions, then we can say that your logo is a good design and it will work for your business. Otherwise, you need to gear up.

How To Choose Your Design For A Logo?

What should be the overall look of your logo? That is perhaps the toughest question to answer. If you take a wrong decision at this point, you can’t make the desired impression on the target audience. To know how your logo should look like, consider these tips:

i. Brainstorm

Sit down with your design team or a professional designer that you hired for the job. Ask them to give their views on the look of the logo. But follow the basics of brainstorming. If you don’t have the team, then a one-person-brainstorm is also perfectly ok. Here are some tips:

i. Talk about what your brand needs from the logo and what are your brand values.

ii. Discuss the colors and typefaces, if any, you will surely like to incorporate in the design.

iii. Let everyone come out with their own concepts, inspirations, themes, icons, etc. without interruption. In this way, you have all the ideas on the table from your team. Then discuss those ideas and select a few of them.

iv. Finally, you may have one or two ideas left after the brainstorming session.

v. Pick one idea that you can develop into your logo

ii. Talk About Your Logo Inspiration

Do you have some inspirational logos in mind? If so, then you can model a design after that logo. But your logo should not be a copy of the original. The inspiration should motivate you to create something equally impressive. You can also share your inspirational designs with your team during brainstorming.

iii. Consider Your Audience

Describe what social, educational, economic, cultural, etc. elements make your audience. Then, put yourself in place of those people whom you want to sell your products or services. Think of what could be the most important things for them in life. Consider such other things from the audience’s perspective to get an idea of how your design should look from their angle.

iv. Think Out Of The Box

The one feature that sets global business logos apart is their unique design ideas. A different theme or idea is the key to driving customers’ attention and winning their appreciation. You should come out with an idea that people find attractive and unique.

v. Mood Board Will Help

A mood board is a tool that collects all of your design ideas at one place so that you can visualize them at once. All those images that inspire you and color combinations, graphics, illustrations, other logos, etc, materials should be on the board. But separate each item from the other on the boards.

You can use Pinterest as your digital mood board. At this site, you can put all the material together to summarise your thoughts regarding the logo design in one place at a glance. It ultimately helps in quickly visualizing what could come out from all that collected material for your logo.

How To Find The Right Types Of Logos?

There are many types of logos to choose from when you want to know about how to design a logo. But the designers generally choose from major types of logos. For your brand, pick the one that best suits your overall brand values and aesthetics and fits with your company name.

Here Are The Main Types Of Logos:

i. Lettermarks [known also as monogram logos]

If your company name is long and people find it harder to remember, then prefer a lettermark. This type consists of only the initials of the company name. Think of the logos of HP and CNN. But such logos or monograms fail to give any hint about a company’s core business. Therefore, avoid picking such a logo if yours is a new company.

Lettermarks

ii. Wordmarks [also known as logo types]

Use this type when incorporating your company’s full name in the logo design. This way, you give a personality to your logo as you use a lot of typography. Keep in mind Google and Facebook logos as the great wordmark examples. Prefer such a logo if your brand is already a well-known name.

Wordmarks

iii. Pictorial Marks

Pictorial marks are known also as logo symbols that people can easily recognize. To create this type, pick something simplistic that connects with your brand uniquely. Keep the example of Apple and Target logos in mind.

Pictorial Marks

iv. Abstract Logo Marks

These types of logos mostly come in geometric forms, which usually do not connect with your brand directly. But such logos have some abstract thought process that can represent your brand image. Pick this design to create some mood in the design. The logos of Pepsi and Adidas are well-known examples of abstract logos.

Abstract Logo Marks

v. Mascot Logos

Mascot logos are usually preferred over the others for adding some fun as an element of your brand image. Cartoonish characters and fun colors are often the chief characteristics of these logos. Pick such logos when your audience comprises of children and families. KFC logo is a famous example of a mascot business symbol.

Mascot Logos

vi. Combination Mark

This type of logo combines the elements of a symbol with a wordmark, resulting in a design that people can immediately recognize. The symbol comes with the brand name as well, making these logos versatile designs. Burger King and Lacoste logos are ideal examples.

Combination Mark

What Is The Role Of Colors In A Logo?

Color is one of the most significant element of logo design. If you do not intend to create a black and white logo, then colors are going to play a key role in the success of your logo. Colors are responsible for making that vital first impression to convert viewers into buyers of your products or services.

Most importantly, colors are known for their power to evoke our emotions. Somewhere, our subconscious state of mind has colors as a dominant element when we think or buy something. The marketing and advertising experts take advantage of this state of mind. They use colors to evoke the desired set of feelings and emotions from us when we see a design or an object.

Logo Colors

For example, we all know that red color at the traffic lights makes us stop. We stop as we are conditioned to do so. Similarly red also generates some excitement in us, which is why it is the color of celebration in many cultures.

Therefore, graphic designers use red wherever they need to evoke passion, warmth, and love. That is how the designer incorporates a brand message through the use of colors in a logo.

How To Choose The Right Logo Colors?

Due to their unique power to evoke our emotions, colors are also known for conveying multiple meanings. Color meanings are complex. This is because the meaning of colors varies a lot in terms of cultures and regionalities.

When you incorporate colors in your logo, make sure that you know what emotions a color can evoke generally. Here is the list of a few colors:

i. Red

Red is the color to convey passion, excitement, and anger. You should pick the red color if your target audience is young and loud.

ii. Orange

Orange has been mostly used for expression of the energy of youth and hope. It is also a playful and vibrant color.

iii. Yellow

Yellow evokes youthful energy, cheerfulness, and friendliness.

iv. Green

If you are looking for a versatile color that goes well with most brand identities, then green fits the bill. But use this color surely if your brand wants to depict nature as a design element to represent growth.

v. Blue

Blue has a calming effect on viewers. It also stands for maturity and trustworthiness.

vi. Purple

Purple is the color for conveying luxury. It is also a color of mystery and femininity.

vii. Pink

If your brand deals in products related to women, then pink is the perfect choice for your logo, it comes in different shades like rose, pastel rose, neon magenta, and millennial pink.

viii. Brown

Are you thinking of designing a logo with brown? Incorporate this color for the rugged, handmade, aged, unique, and vintage looks of the design.

ix. Black

Black is mostly the choice to create a modern and luxurious look of the logo and brand identity.

x. White

White is the right pick if you wish to give a minimalistic, modern, and clean look to your logo. Since it is a neutral color, it works great with other colors.

xi. Gray

Gray evokes the feelings of maturity, class, and seriousness. Use dark grey to give a mysterious touch to the logo but use the lighter shade to make it look more accessible.

You can combine two or more colors for a better effect on your logo. This way, you can convey a brand story.

How To Choose The Right Fonts?

Another major element you should pay heed to when thinking about how to design a logo is the typeface, which is also sometimes called font. Many types of fonts are in circulation today. But, we can classify them mostly in four categories:

i. Serif Fonts

Serif fonts are the ones that have serif or little ‘’feet’’ at the end of a letter. The edges come out and stretch a little from the letters. This gives these fonts a somewhat old-fashioned look.

Serif Fonts

Therefore, designers incorporate these fonts to give logos a vintage, classic, and elegant look. Most brands that wish to give the impression of having a formal environment, such as an advocate’s logo usually have serif fonts.

ii. Sans-Serif Fonts

Sans-serif fonts are mostly used to express a relaxed environment as against a formal one in, for example, Govt. organizations. Therefore, use sans serif-fonts to show that your brand is consumer-friendly.

Sans-Serif Fonts

These fonts give the logo a clean and sleek look. Most modern brands have sans-serif fonts also to give the logo a minimalistic look.

iii. Script Fonts

Script fonts look similar to handwritten letters. You can choose from a huge variety of script fonts such as calligraphic fonts and down-to-earth scripts. You should prefer this font to give your logo a more individualistic style.

Script Fonts

iv. Display Fonts

Display fonts are decorative fonts that you can stylize to drive the viewer’s attention.

Display Fonts

Think of combining two fonts to give your logo a unique style and design.

What Is The Ideal Logo Size Or Web Logo Size?

Business owners should also know what is the ideal logo size for their website. They do all of the online business through their website. Therefore, the website logo size matters a lot to grab the attention of the visitors immediately.

Basics Of Logo Sizing

i. Logos are measured in pixels dimensions. This means that you will come across dimensions such as 500px by 500px.

ii. Vector files are the master files- Vector files are essential to scale, edit, and send them. In this way, they can be converted to any format such as JPGs or PNGs.

iii. Logo sizes come in horizontal, square, and vertical versions. They can be placed conveniently on different websites, and backdrops.

iv. To display your logo online, use a PNG file. That ascertains fast load times as these files are lossless compressed files.

The Ideal Logo Size For Your Website

After your logo design is finally ready, now is the time that you display it on your website.

For a web page, the optimal logo dimensions are 250 px (width) x 100 px (height). But you may like to customize the size as per your specific needs of the web page layout.

For horizontal layout the commonly used dimensions are:

i. 250 px x 150 px.

ii. 350 px x 75 px.

iii. 400 px x 100 px.

For vertical (square) layout consider this dimension:

i. 160 px x 160 px.

Do’s & Don’t To Design A Logo

While designing your logo, you should not be making some common mistakes and instead, adhere to the proven tips to create mesmerizing logos to target your audience.

Here is what you should do and not do when creating your logo:

Do’s

i. Research your market and target audience.

ii. Be different than your competitors in terms of logo design.

iii. Strive for creating a unique logo.

iv. Create the logo first in black and white at the sketching stage.

v. Then, if satisfied, fill the colors.

vi. Keep the design simple but unique.

vii. Pay attention to composition, spacing, and negative space.

viii. Make sure that the logo is sizable and legible.

ix. Choose fonts cleverly to give the logo a personality.

x. Pick colors to convey the desired brand message.

xi. Get feedback

Don’ts

i. Do not use cliched elements such as borrowed stock images, conventional symbols, icons or other things.

ii. Do not add too many details.

iii. Do not make the logo design too complicated. Simplicity is the key.

iv. Do not be too trendy as the trends change soon and you will redesign the symbol.

v. Do not imitate.

vi. Do not be too literal. For example, a doctor’s clinic logo has a stethoscope.

vii. Do not use more than one or two colors and fonts.

Step By Step Guide To Design A Logo On Designhill (Small Steps)

Now that you know how your logo design should look, you are ready to use the Designhill logo maker when thinking about how to design a logo from scratch. With the help of this easy tool, you can create a unique logo for your brand using the tips we gave above.

Here Are The Steps – How To Design A Logo From Scratch By Using Designhill’s Logo Maker Tool

Step 1: Go To www.designhill.com/tools/logo-maker

You will find a text field that will lead you to enter your company name. Then, insert the word / text you want to see in the logo. Then click on the Generate Logo Now button.

Designhill’s Logo Maker

Step 2: Select Your Design Style

Choose five design styles from many logos that are in the logo maker tool to tell the system about your style preferences.

Select Your Design Style

Step 3: Pick The Right Colors

Many colors are lined up in the logo maker for your choice. Select your colors that suit your brand. But you can skip this step if you do not like to add colors.

Pick The Right Colors

Step 4: Give Your Company Name And Slogan

Enter your company name. Then, give any slogan, if you have any for your logo. But the slogan is optional and you can skip it.

Give Your Company Name And Slogan

Step 5: Select Up To 5 Symbols

You should pick up to 5 symbols from many available with the logo maker tool.

Select Up To 5 Symbols

Step 6: Choose A Logo To Edit

As a result of the previous steps, you have created plenty of logos thanks to the logo maker. Then, you can make the necessary changes in name, slogan, color, etc. in a logo that you picked for editing.

Choose A Logo To Edit

Step 7: Sign Up / Login

Now you want to use the logo on your website, social media channels, etc. For that, Sign Up with Designhill to download the logo or all of the logos that you generated with the logo maker.

Sign Up / Login

Step 8: Preview Your Logo

You can have a preview of how your logo will look on different articles like T-shirts, bags, visiting cards, website pages, etc.

Preview Your Logo

Step 9: Pricing And Payment

Now, pick a price package and pay for the logo as per the package. You need to pick from the Basic, Premium, and Enterprise price packages. To pay the logo price, the system will take you to the PayPal payment gateway page. Just make the required payment and you are just one step away from using the logo.

Pricing And Payment

Step 10: Download Your Logo

Finally, you can download your logo in any of the four file formats – EPS, PDF, PNG, and SVG. All these logo files come with your full copyright ownership.

Download Your Logo

So, here we come to the end of this guide. We hope that as a beginner business person, you will be able to use the logo maker to create a unique logo for your brand. Pay attention to each of the points made in the guide to design a logo on Designhill.

Wrapping Up

When you think about how to design a logo, there are some key basics that you should adhere to in order to create a unique design. First, have a clear need for the logo and why your brand must have it. Then, know how a logo is important for your brand identity. Research your market and industry to pinpoint your target audience to stand out. Pick the right colors, fonts, etc elements to convey your message for the customers. Decide on the ideal logo size. Also, know how to use Designhill’s logo maker tool to create a logo with the help of the guide.

Get Your Logo Design

Alice Jackson is a business consultant, blogger, social media enthusiast, online market analyst, amateur designer and an avid author at Designhill. She has written on several topics including social media marketing, SEO, content marketing, startup strategies and e-commerce. When she’s not writing, she loves spending her time reading romantic novels, Connect with her on Twitter: @jackson_alice1

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