How to Create a Logo Using Google Drawings

As if starting your own small business isn’t challenging and expensive enough, online logo creation services charge anywhere from $10-$100 for a basic logo design. But do you really need to use these paid services when you’re just getting started? We recommend investing in a professionally created logo after you’ve landed a few clients.

For now, instead of paying for a logo, you can design a simple logo yourself for free using Google Drawings. We show you how to do it and the prep work you need to do.

Where to start

Before you launch your logo design business and get Google Drawings up and running, you need a little of groundwork as described here.

1. Define your brand to clarify the image you want to project with your logo.
2. Look for inspiration on sites like Dribbble and Behance to narrow down your likes and dislikes in terms of style, color, font, etc.
3. Draw your logo on paper or tablet to experiment with layouts. Focus on making it readable even at small sizes. Feel free to leave blank spaces in your logo. You can then use your final choice as a guide to create the logo in Google Drawings.
4. Choose a font that matches your brand vibe. Use a website like Google Fonts to compare various typefaces and font styles side by side.

1. Decide on a color scheme. Each color has a distinctive association to certain feelings. For example, the color blue promotes feelings of peace and trust, green invokes an organic sense of nature, while red comes across as bold and tough. These associations can also vary between cultures. These factors are important to keep in mind.

How to Create a Logo in Google Drawings

It’s time to bring your logo to life with Google Drawings. Make sure you have an active Google account before proceeding.

1. Go to Google Drawings and sign in to your Google account.

You can also access Google Drawings from your Google Drive account.

1. Create a new document. Give your document a name to make it easy to locate. To do that, click “Untitled Drawing” at the top left to give the document a new name, then press Enter.

The default size of a new document is 960 × 720 pixels. You will need to adjust this size so that your logo does not lose its quality on any platform. To change the size of the document:

1. Go to “File -> Page Setup” in the dropdown list.

1. A popup window will appear displaying the current quality of your logo as “4:3 Standard”. Select “Custom” from the dropdown menu that appears.

1. Replace the default dimensions of 10 x 7.5 inches with the dimensions of your choice. The larger the original logo is, the less chance it will appear pixelated when it needs to be enlarged to take up a larger space. If you plan to save your document as an SVG file, you don’t have to worry about pixelation due to pixel scaling. We decided to change the size of our canvas to 1080 × 1024 pixels.

1. Press “Apply” to finish setting up the document.

You can design a type-based logo, an image-based logo, or a combination of both. For this guide, we are creating a type-only logo for a room rental service with the name “Joy Stay” at a tourist location.

1. Click the button on the toolbar “Text Box” available above the canvas.
2. Click and drag your cursor on your canvas to create the text box that fits your logo type.

1. Enter your brand name in the box. Here, it’s “Joy Stay”.

1. To change the font of this text, you’ll need to select the text and click the “Font” option on the toolbar .
2. From the drop-down list that appears, select a font of your choice. We are using “Calligraffiti”.

1. Click and drag any corner of the text box to resize the text to fill the canvas.

We are also adding a tagline to our logo as a subscript to our main text.

If you would like to add a tagline as well, follow the same steps above: change the font style and change the size of the tagline. box text as needed. You can also play around with font modifiers like bold, italic, underline, etc., for added effects.

Here’s a snapshot of our modified tagline.

1. If you If you want to add graphic elements to your logo, combine and edit the shapes listed in the submenus under “Insert -> Shape”. You can also insert symbols via “Insert -> Special Characters”. Note that this menu option is grayed out if you haven’t selected a text box first.

The next step is to adjust the spacing and alignment of your text. If your logo includes graphic elements, you’ll also need to figure out how to position them in relation to each other.

We’ve chosen to center align the brand name and tagline for a clean look. You can go with this or go for a left-aligned or right-aligned look.

1. To make this change, select the text you want to align, click the Align button on the toolbar, and select the appropriate align option.

This is what our logo looks like after making the changes. (We’ve also inserted a space after each letter in the tagline.)

If you’ve decided on a color scheme, this step should be easy. If you haven’t already done so, you can experiment with the colors as you go.

1. To set the background color of the logo, select the text box, click “Fill Color” on the toolbar and choose a color from the pop-up grid that appears. If you choose to keep the background transparent, you may want to customize the color of the text. To do this, select the logo text and click the “Text Color” toolbar button to display the color palette and choose a color.

We decided to use dark cyan for the background.

1. Once you’re done with the logo design, click and drag the notch that you’ll see in the bottom right corner of your canvas. Be sure to keep the borders even on all sides of the main design.

1. Click “File → Download -> JPEG Image (.jpg)” or “File → Download → PNG Image (.png)”. Google Drawings allows you to save your document in various formats. We recommend using PNG as you can save the logo with a transparent background. This makes it easier to place the logo on a canvas of any color.

1. Before using your logo on your website, brochure, email letterhead, etc., you should resize it to the correct size without losing quality. You can use Adobe’s Image Resizer to help you. Here are some common sizes for using your logo on various online platforms and physical objects:

Common platformsStandard size Supported File Type

FAQ

1. Where can I find more graphic elements to use?

If you want a ready-made symbol or icon to weave into your logo, we recommend looking at one of these websites:

• Free3Dicon
• Freepik
• 3Dicons

Please note that not all free resources are free for commercial use or can be used without attribution.

2. Is it okay to download and modify a Google logo and use it?

No. You may use logos from Google search results and other websites for visual inspiration, but downloading or copying and pasting them for your own use is strictly prohibited.

Copyright a logo, just like With any art creation, it rests with the original creator. The logo is protected by law even if the trademark has not been officially registered. This means that the original creator can sue you for copying their work, even if you use it after making small changes.

3. Where can I get feedback on my logo design?

Here are some forums and online communities where you can request a review of your logo:

• World Brands
• r/Logo_Critique
• r/logodesign

While any feedback is welcome, focusing on your brand demographics is sure to help.

Image credit: Pexels

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