How To Design A Memorable Logo In 8 Easy Steps

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Think of the worst logo you’ve ever seen: what comes to mind? If you’re having trouble thinking of one, it’s not surprising.

Good logos stick. Not the bad ones.

That’s what differentiates the design of a logo from the design of other branding materials. Web banners, ads, and social media posts each have their own design goals, but none is as focused on being remembered as a logo.

Your logo is not your brand, you create it separately, but it will become the face of your brand. It will appear on your website, your products, your marketing, your in-store signage, and anywhere else people interact with your brand.

This step-by-step guide will walk you through every step of the branding process of creating a business logo from scratch, from choosing a color to hiring a designer, with the help of real in-house graphic artists. .

How to design a logo from scratch, step by step

Develop your brand identity
Find design inspiration
Choose colors that reflect your brand
Choose a logo design type
Select a typeface
Create several rough versions
Get Feedback
Fine Your Winning Design

1. Develop Your Brand Identity

Brand identity design is a general term for the visual elements of your brand: everything from your brand colors to your logo and the way the elements are designed of your brand. These visual elements work together to distinguish your brand in the minds of your customers.

Before you start sketching out designs for your logo, you’ll want to get an idea of your brand identity. To get started, ask yourself these questions:

Why did you start your business?
What values are important to you as a company?
What Does it set you apart from the competition?

The distinctive characteristics of your brand (what is most important to you and what will be most recognizable to your customers) are found in the answers to these questions . Before you put pen to paper, before choosing colors and aesthetics, ask yourself who you are.

Don’t worry if you can’t answer these questions right away. They are a starting point, meant to be pondered. But once you’ve thought about it, you’ll be in a better position to create a logo that effectively sets you apart.

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

We began by creating a “mind map” for our brand values. Mind mapping is a visual brainstorming technique. You start with a central idea (your brand, in this case) and diagram 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 creating new ones. In branding, it’s perfect for building consensus around a consistent brand identity.

From our mind map, we were able to develop a conceptually strong brand, which made it easy to answer questions we asked. would help you understand what sets our brand apart from the competition:

Why did we start our business?

We started our business because we wanted to maintain a green lawn and healthy that was safe for our children and pets to play. Today’s chemical fertilizers are great for keeping a lawn green, but are often toxic after treatment.

Vinegar-based fertilizers are safer, but not 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 safe and ethical methods of lawn care and pest control. insect population. We believe the key to human prosperity is through scientific research and development of safe, effective and sustainable lawn care products.

We are advocates of 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 reckless disregard for the sustainability of the planet. We’ve seen enough lawsuits over environmental and health issues to know that big agtech companies care more about corporate profit than the safety of their customers, employees, and future generations.

What sets A LawnPure is our desire to implement change. Our team of scientific researchers dedicate their lives to creating safe and effective products for long-term sustainable agriculture.In a world of corporate neglect, LawnPure is like a breath of air as fresh as your naturally manicured lawn.

Keeping our brand identity in mind got our creativity flowing. We didn’t have the perfect logo design yet, but we were able to figure out what values our design needed to project.

2. Seek Design Inspiration

Getting started is often the hardest part of any creative endeavor. It’s good if 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 stuck overanalyzing them and become unable to make a decision.

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

Learn to speak the language of logos by viewing as many great logos as you can. Think about what made your favorites so memorable.

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

Logoed: Logoed’s simple, single- the scroll Page Feed lets you browse a frequently updated collection of stunning logos.
Logospire: This vast collection of user-submitted logo designs will help you get your creativity flowing.
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 that has been featured on the site.
Logo Design Love – Curated by graphic designer David Airey from 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 especially great for this. , given the visual appearance. nature of the site. Next time you’re browsing ‘gram, check out some of the most popular design hashtags:

#logo
#logodesigns
#logodesigner
#graphicdesigner
#graphicdesigner

3. Choose colors that reflect your brand

Color is more fundamental to a person’s perception of visual stimuli than many people realize. Studies have even suggested that color can affect the mood of your users, making it crucial to their buying decision.

The colors of your logo will end up on your website, signage on the storefront, social media feeds, marketing emails, and anywhere else a user interacts with your brand. There is no universally “best” color, but each color says something different. You want to make sure you’re saying the right thing.

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

Brown

An earthy hue, brown is often associated with all-natural ingredients. , homemade products and freshly baked goodies. Given its color from tree bark, sticks, fall leaves, and fertile soil, brown can also give an aura of the outdoors to your brand.

Orange

Like a roaring fire, orange radiates warmth, energy and passion. The color of sunsets also tends to invoke summer, especially when paired with lighter blues and soft greens.

Yellow

Orange’s high-saturation sister, yellow, also emits light, energy, and warmth. But if the warmth of orange is a glowing fireplace, that of yellow is the intense heat of a midday sun radiating over the baron’s dessert.

Yellow tends to evoke happy feelings, but use it sparingly. A little bit of yellow can add a touch of optimism to a trusted brand, but too much can be manic.

Green

A color with two personalities, green can invoke an organic aura that it brings to mind lush tropical forests, ecological awareness and a sense of calm. And yet, green just as easily becomes the color of money, greed, envy, and nausea.

Pink

A softer, gentler color, pink has been seen at different times in history as both masculine and feminine. Although contemporary customers probably associate pink with femininity, more generally it is reminiscent of kindness, romance and love.

Red

Bold and unforgiving, red tends to stand out, which is why it’s become such a trusted color on brand. Like pink, red tends to invoke romance. But while the romance of pink is tender and elegant, the romance of red is passionate, loud and carnal.

Purple

The Rasputin of colors⁠, purple is a dark and mysterious stranger with an almost magical magnetism.Since purple dyes have historically had a reputation for being scarce and expensive, there is no mystery as to how purple has come to be associated with wealth, excess, mysticism, magic, and indulgence.

Blue

The color of a clear sky, blue tends to invoke feelings of trust, tranquility, and peace. That being said, blue has also been shown to be the least appetizing color. Try to avoid it if you’re selling food.

Black, Grey, White

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

Using multiple colors

Most logos are monochrome. Individual colors are easier to blend, and using a single color will simplify the other graphic design elements of your brand. Mono logos can also be reinvented in different colors for different purposes.

The FedEx logo is usually displayed in blue and orange. However, the company has created alternate 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’ heads.

How do you create color combinations to use in your logo?

If you choose to have a multi-color logo, it’s important to be aware of the colors you use together. While color theory can be quite complex, there are many online tools to help you quickly track a color scheme:

Paletton: The Paletton color wheel allows you to create color schemes using easy and interactive sliders.
Coolors: Coolors allows you to generate random color harmonies, lock the colors you want to keep in your palette, and adjust other colors collectively to create a fully customizable palette. It can also generate palettes from uploaded images.
Colormind: Colormind is especially great for web designers because it includes an easy-to-use tool for achieving readability and color harmony on web pages using the view. preview of the colors in it. page in real time as adjustments are made to the palette.
ColorSpace: ColorSpace is best for developers as it automatically generates CSS code to include the color palette you’re creating on your web page.
Canva Color Palette Generator: Canva generates color schemes randomly or from images. But what makes Canva’s tool unique is its ability to search for color palettes via keywords.

We decided very early in the process of creating LawnPure, the organic pesticide all-natural citrus-based⁠—that green would be the base color of our logo. Eco-friendly and reminiscent of a healthy lawn, green seemed like the perfect match.

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

Variations in light, distance, and many other factors can affect visual perception and making the same object appear to have many different tones⁠, even in the same image.

Expect to spend a while playing around with your base color before finding the perfect fit. The visible spectrum is so broad that the smallest changes in hue, saturation, or brightness can significantly change the mood of your brand color.

By altering a few basic icons and text, we compared a couple of possible tones. Even the slight differences in shade seemed to communicate something completely different.

Brighter, more saturated shades were eye-catching and playful⁠, but they also looked cartoonish and youth. Maybe a good color to sell toys or comics, but not a good fit for LawnPure.

The darker, earthier green tones seemed reminiscent of nature in the way we felt the LawnPure brand should. , especially when combined with dark browns, oranges and reds.

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

There was one thing, however, that wasn’t quite right in them. They exuded a “back to nature” quality, but also tended to remind us of military camouflage. A color scheme like this might work great for a more robust brand selling hunting gear or camping gear, but for the peace-loving hippies at LawnPure selling environmentally sustainable lawn care products, it didn’t quite fit.

Originally, deciding on green seemed easy, but after hours of experimentation, it began to feel like we hadn’t made a decision at all. “Green” can mean lime green, seafoam green, or forest green⁠, but what green is LawnPure green? After saying no to so many shades, we finally found the green we were looking for.

LawnPure green (hex code #00B151) is a purer soft green that is not too saturated, not too dark and it has just a hint of blue⁠, barely noticeable, but enough to evoke images of a lush field under a brilliant blue sky. This was LawnPure brand as a color.

We considered combining LawnPure green with other colors. Mixing it with bright pinks and oranges looked great and gave it a summery quality⁠, evoking the taste of juicy fresh peaches, strawberries or watermelon. Ideal for fruity summer drinks or berry-scented candles, but not quite right for LawnPure.

Mixed with sky blues and sandy beige, it came that much closer to embodying the image of a well-manicured summer lawn. Too close perhaps: Something felt artificial about these color combinations. It might work for a golf course pro shop, but it wasn’t the LawnPure brand yet.

Lastly, there was brown. Mixing with brown seemed to make the most sense, since it is the color of fertile soil. But this combination looked less aesthetically pleasing. The darker browns were not very complementary to the LawnPure green. Lighter browns looked better, but tended to invoke dry, rocky, infertile land rather than fertile, arable soil.

In the end, we decided to leave the second color up in the air. We weren’t turning down additional colors yet, but it was clear that any second colors used would be minimal. For now, the main color of the brand was decided and we were ready to start sketching ideas.

4. Choose a Type of Logo Design

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.

Logos Monogram Logos

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

For example, which is easier to remember and say: IBM or International Business Machines?

Word Marks

A word mark logo (or logo) is a font-based logo that displays the company name. Think Visa, Disney, Jeep.

Logos work best for companies with a catchy name. The memorable name and expressive typeface create a strong brand association. They are also customizable and can be used in different marketing and advertising materials while representing your business.

Pictorial Marks

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

Abstract Logo Marks

An abstract logo mark is conceptual. It consists of a symbol that is made just for your company. Your logo is not related to anything that exists in the world, like a bird or an apple. It is designed to express the uniqueness of your brand. Think Airbnb, Microsoft, and Pepsi.

Abstract branding is hard to create if you don’t have design experience. It is best to hire a professional logo design consultant who can translate colors and shapes into meaningful branding for your business.

Mascots

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

Businesses that sell to kids and families, as well as esports teams, should use these designs. Popular mascot logos you would probably recognize are Mr. Peanut from Planters, Mickey Mouse, or the MSelect a Font

Your new logo may not include text, but much of your graphic design will, including your web copy, signage, and a host of other branding materials. For the sake of consistency, it’s important to consider what typefaces your brand plans to use when designing your logo, even if you’re not using them in the logo itself.

Font vs. font

The terms “typeface” and “font” are used interchangeably in most contexts, so it is common to assume that they are synonymous. However, there is an important distinction: a typeface is a characteristically distinct set of symbols and typographic characters, often divided into variant sets, such as italics and bold. Each of these sets of variants is a font.

The four basic font styles and when to use them

There are many patterns for arranging fonts⁠. Some focus on style, others on historical significance, and still others on endless fragmented subcategories. However, the most common system classifies fonts into four basic types.

Serif Type Styles

The word “serif” describes a small line or attached stroke to the end of a longer stroke in a letter or other character. Serifs are the oldest typeface style, dating back to the inscribed letters used in the Latin alphabet.

Features: Serifs are often associated with history, tradition, and antiquity and are used to invoke wealth, elegance, and authority.
When to use them: Serif fonts can create attractive display type and are traditionally used for body text in printed materials such as newspapers, books, and magazines. Luxury brands catering to an affluent target audience also often use serif styles.
On-brand usage: Old-style and transitional serifs tend to look more ” classics”. Modern serifs and “slabs” (typefaces with a thicker serif stroke) feel more contemporary, innovative, and creative.

ad example — SLH.com uses a slab-serif to represent luxury and modernity. Image courtesy of Campaigns of the World.

Sans-serif font styles

Sans-serif fonts, sometimes called Gothic, are not have serifs at the end of character strokes. Sans-serifs have less line width variation and tend to be easier to read when backlit⁠, making them more often used for text on computer screens. In print media, they are most commonly used in headlines, but can sometimes be used in body copy.

Features: sans-serifs are most commonly associated with simplicity, modernity, and minimalism. Design-wise, they work well with lots of negative space and have a bright, polished feel.
When to use them: Sans-serif fonts are versatile and easy to use . for screen copy and headlines. Sans-serif fonts are often used by brands when trying to convey a sense of sleek, contemporary simplicity.
Use in branding: sans-serif typefaces tend to be more readable on screen than in print, so they are used more often in body text on websites than in magazines and newspapers. Generally speaking, sans-serifs give a more neoteric vibe and are used more often by brands to try to convey a sense of innovation and modernity.

mcdonald — McDonald’s uses a sans-serif typeface to convey a simplistic modernity. Image courtesy of Campaigns of the World.

Script styles

Script typefaces are derived from handwriting or calligraphy. Scripts are more fluid than sans or serif styles and are often used in fancier contexts. Script styles are versatile and can be worn by both formal and casual brands⁠.

Characteristics: Being derived from handwriting, hyphens have a tendency to “humanize” text. Script typefaces often have a lot of personality, so they’re particularly good for altering the mood of your copy.
When to use it: Scripts should be used sparingly. They are not suitable for long, lengthy body text because they are generally less readable. However, when combined with a serif or sans-serif typeface, dashes can be a very effective tool for emphasis.
Use in brand: Formal scripts give off a sense of luxury, romance, and passion. Informal scripts can give your brand a more folksy, unpretentious vibe. Hyphens can be better for emphasizing short words and phrases, especially if it’s a word you want your customer to dwell on.

hbo ad with text — HBO uses a script typeface for emphasis. Courtesy of Campaigns of the World.

Decorative Fonts

Decorative (or display) fonts are difficult to categorize as their characteristic defining feature is that they renounce typographical conventions. Decorative fonts can convey a wide variety of moods, but typically focus on a specific theme, motif, or aesthetic. More recently developed fonts tend to be decorative, often developed specifically for a particular brand.

Features: decorative fonts can be very tricky, as they are stylistically diverse but generally harder to read, making them poor for body copy. Titles may look best in a decorative font style, but even here designers should be careful: overuse of almost any decorative font tends to look tacky. Decorative fonts also quickly become outdated, as they tend to cling to aesthetic trends.
When to use it: It’s a good idea to avoid heavy use of decorative fonts. Individual characters may be good to adapt or incorporate into logos, but make sure you have the license rights to use the character in your custom logo.
On-Brand Use: Decorative fountains are infinitely diverse, making it impossible to narrow them down to just one use. Decorative fonts are typically used in logos, and it’s common for larger brands to have entire typeface sets created just for their own use. Fonts without characters (such as emojis) are also commonly used to appeal to younger customers.

What does my font say about my brand?

Like color, a subtle difference in font can say very different things about your brand. brand. It’s okay to have more than one brand font, but the key is consistency. Switching between drastically different fonts over and over again can give your brand an overall feeling of indecision, which tends to morph into customer mistrust over time.

If your brand uses a particular set of fonts, make sure you have concrete guidelines for when to use which fonts. When font choices change frequently and randomly, they tend to evoke a feeling of suspicion and anxiety.

You may not find the right font right away, but you can narrow down your choices by considering a few key factors along with your brand identity.

As with color, brand identity is the most important factor to consider when it comes to your typeface. Different font attributes tend to invoke different brand qualities:

1. Lines: Thick vs. Thin

Thick and bold fonts, such as asymmetrical slab serifs, tend to invoke authority and stability. Thinner fonts tend to convey a greater sense of elegance and progress.

2. Stress: Diagonal vs. Vertical

Designers refer to the “stress” of a font when describing the angle at which the finer parts of a character’s stroke align.

Brush scripts 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 inviting.

3. Contrast: low vs. high

When talking about a typeface, “contrast” describes the difference in weight between thin and thick strokes. Low contrast typefaces tend to be more legible but less formal in appearance than the midrange contrast typeface. High contrast fonts tend to look more modern and authoritative.

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

Harder to pinpoint is the “mood” of a typeface. Older serif fonts and scripts have a more formal and classic look, and older scripts feel more dramatic. Newer sans-serif fonts tend to convey a quiet modernity, but can be formal or informal.

Decorative fonts can be all of the above, but generally feel more dramatic. Ask yourself what qualities you attribute to your font, and if those are the same qualities you would attribute to your brand.

6. Create several rough versions

Back in LawnPure”, we started thinking about our brand font along with the logo creation process. The LawnPure brand is considered innovative, modern, and futuristic, so classic-style fountains didn’t feel right. The more dramatic fonts didn’t work for our brand either: LawnPure is quiet, like cool grass on a hot summer’s day.

We decided to play around with some cool, modern fonts to see what we could come up with:

As with the logo, our first instinct was to try to emulate the look and feel of grass. We wanted something that felt alive and thriving. Serif typefaces felt “fixed” and tended not to express this quality very well. Sans-serif typefaces were better⁠, but still didn’t. get well.

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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. The thick lines felt more innovative but seemed to convey a less calm, dramatic mood. We needed something that would land in the middle.

We also tried some hyphens for emphasis. Dashes have the undulating, active quality of grass on a windy day, so we thought this might work well with the LawnPure brand.

Our scripts were definitely more casual and interesting. Script fonts certainly had the wavy quality of grass, but in large doses they felt too retro for LawnPure. It was here that we had the idea of combining fonts. We tried a few combinations, but nothing seemed to work.

Our favorite script was Southern Aire, as it was more like grass. We tried combining this font with other more formal sans-serif typefaces to see what worked.

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

When designing your own logo, you’re likely to run into problems like this. Design involves a lot of trial and error. You can spend an entire afternoon experimenting and have nothing to show for it at the end of the day, plus know that narrowing your options means less work tomorrow.

When complete, the source we thought best exemplifies our values brand name was Rhino Sans.

Rhino Sans was formal, but not too formal. The lyrics felt calm, modern and unique. It was occasionally unreadable, but we didn’t plan on using it for any body text.

One thing we didn’t like was the “W”, which was wider than the other letters. It was here that we decided to combine our grassy script idea with Rhino Sans. We tried a few things:

Here, again, we run into a problem. The more we modified the “W” to look like grass, the less readable it became. It’s important to emphasize here the hours of trial and error that can go into creating even what appears to be a simple logo.

We tried every script we could. We played around with the dimensions of the characters, tweaking individual lines and angles, using the outline of the characters as a guide for our own hand-drawn characters, but no matter what, the logo still wasn’t right.

That’s when we decided it would be best to design our own “W” specifically to look like grass. If you’re more comfortable hand-drawing your logo, feel free to go this route. Our personal preference was the pencil tool in Photoshop.

7. Get Feedback

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

At a certain point, you’ll start to feel like you can’t even recognize letters from shapes or good logos from bad ones. When this happens, it might be time for feedback. Feedback is incredibly important to the creative process, because it’s the only method creators have to “test” their ideas.

You can get feedback from almost anyone, just make sure you’re not relying on just one person. It also helps if the people providing feedback are from your brand’s target demographic.

For the best feedback, ask specific questions about how each person perceives your brand based on the logo. Being told your logo is “good” or “bad” won’t help, but knowing what your brand looks like will.

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

What is the first thing that catches your eye?
How would you characterize ? my mark?
What do you remember most about the logo?
Is there something that confuses you?
If you could eliminate one aspect of the design, what would it be? What will it be like?

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

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

8. Polish Your Winning Design

Using our curated font, we spelled out the company name and then drew blades of grass that would represent the “W”. The thing about logo design is that when you’re making meticulous tweaks to the same image for hours, you can start to lose your grasp on what made the logo good in the first place.

As you collect feedback, the strength of your designs will start to become more apparent. You will notice parts of your design that might not stick like you thought they would. In the meantime, the aspects that you did not think twice about will turn out to be a great success. The comments may surprise you.

This happened to our design. We spent so much time trying to make the grass logo look more like grass that we forgot to make it look like a “W”. The most common feedback we received on our first draft was that it wasn’t clear how to pronounce “LallnPure.” We went back to the drawing board to expand things.

The second comment 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 had been changed significantly, the “e” seemed a bit far off.

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

Best logo makers to design a logo for free

In the start-up phase of your business, accepting a new hire, even a freelancer, may not be feasible. When this happens, you are left with two options: design your own custom logo or use a free online logo generator.

If you are short on time and need a professional logo design ASAP, then logo generator is your best bet. There are plenty of suitable logo makers online, but be warned: low-quality logo makers usually result in low-quality logos.

To help you in your decision-making process, we’ve put together a list of the best free logo makers currently online:

1. Hatchful

Hatchful is the free Shopify logo design tool specifically tailored for eCommerce industries. Hatchful works by asking questions about your brand’s personality and industry, then generates designs tailored specifically to your business. From there, Hatchful lets you customize fonts, colors, icons, and layouts.

With its focus on e-commerce, Hatchful’s development process relies heavily on visual marketing fundamentals and the relationship between brand values and design.

For business owners who are well-versed in those fields but may need a little help with the creation process itself⁠, Hatchful has all the design features you need.

In addition, because it’s eCommerce-focused, Hatchful offers free, fully loaded branding packages that include high-resolution versions of your logo ready for business card templates, social media profiles, website banners , branded promotional items, in-store signage, and more.

2 .Canva

Canva’s free suite of graphic design tools includes many logo templates that can be customized with its intuitive drag-and-drop editor. Canva is ideal for practical users⁠, especially those seeking complete creative freedom. However, the unlimited design options can be overwhelming for newbies. If you have less design experience, a more accessible logo maker on this list might be better.

3. LogoMakr

LogoMakr has a simplified step-by-step logo creation process that is easy for beginners to learn. With a database of over a million searchable graphics, a text toolbar, and a simplified, easy-to-organize layer system similar to the Layers tool in Photoshop and other more complex design software .

4. Ucraft

Ucraft logo maker is ideal for creating minimalist logos at a critical moment. Ucraft offers three basic layout options: text, icons, and shapes⁠, along with a drag-and-drop interface for easy-to-adjust logos. While 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 generator has very limited customization options, but it makes up for it by being one of the easiest logo generators to use for beginners. Their unique process is like having an AI-powered graphic design bot. MarkMaker feeds you an endless scroll of instantly generated logos, asks you which logos you like, and then creates more designs based on your preferences.

The logo resources on this list have advantages and disadvantages. We encourage you to try them all to find the one that works best for you.

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

For many full-time entrepreneurs, free online logo generators simply aren’t enough. Not because of the logos themselves⁠ (there’s no doubt you can create an impressive and original brand logo with these tools), but because of the reduced creation process.

Entrepreneurship tends to attract people who thrive on creative expression and innovative problem solving. For people like this, the opportunity to round out their skill set and cultivate their branding skills by designing their own logo is too good to pass up.

What is a business logo for?

A logo is a symbol that represents your brand and your brand’s personality through the simplest image possible. It allows you to easily bookmark anything and make an immediate connection 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:

Humans learn from visual cues: If there’s something about your brand that you want your customers to know, science says that Pictures are more effective than words in communicating it. .
Logos let you create branded giveaways: branded giveaways can be handed out at trade shows, given as gifts to potential customers, and even sold in-store. A good conversation can be forgotten much faster than the branded pen a customer finds at the bottom of their gift bag.
Logos provide a visual basis for drawing in graphic design : Brand consistency is a key element in developing a lasting impression. By having a definitive representation of your brand at its most basic level, you’ll have something to build on when designing other marketing elements.
Logos help you stand out from the competition: Certain symbols or icons are associated with certain industries. Think about how many medical supply companies use variations of a red cross in their logos. When there are many companies competing for the same market, distinguishing yourself is the key to getting noticed and remembered.

A logo offers many advantages, so it’s not hard to understand why almost every company has one. Going without a logo looks unprofessional. It is presented as illegitimate, even unreliable. In many cases, it can even be helpful to create a logo for a personal brand.

Professional Logo Design Tips

If there’s one thing to take away from all this, it’s that you shouldn’t underestimate the importance of your logo. Logos are subjective. While there’s no right or wrong way to make one, here are some tips to keep in mind during the design process.

1. Keep your color scheme simple

Monochromatic logos are more adaptable, and having one simplifies the color selection process. The more colors you use, the more complicated the adaptation 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 that a child can draw them from memory. The same goes for a good logo.

Don’t overcomplicate your design. Don’t pack too many icons into one logo. Simple figures are much easier to convey than complex scenes, and are more likely to be remembered. Consider the staying power of Apple’s iconic design or Volkswagen’s symmetrical VW logo.

2. Create Logo Variants

Create variations of your logo in different sizes and ratios. When you go to add it to everything from websites to pens, you’ll start to wish you had planned different sizing options.

Don’t create variations that are too different. Avoid rearranging too many elements and don’t change the layout.

3. Browse famous logos for inspiration

Explore logos and get inspiration from other brands, especially those in your industry. Remember not to mimic the logos too much. Not only is it plagiarism, but it will also prevent any chance for your logo to stand out.

4. Avoid trends

Be contemporary. Even if your brand has a more “classic” character, it will still need to compete in the modern world. Tons of brands rely on classic design attributes, but completely neglecting decades of design theory will be alienating.

Avoid being too fashionable. Logos created in an era obsessed with specific colors, designs, or aesthetics quickly become outdated.

For example, the original Toronto Raptors logo was conceived in 1994 at a time when bright pastel colors, sharp angular designs, and Jurassic Park were at the height of their popularity. Initial product sales were high, but the logo quickly became out of date, and after some minor adjustments, it was finally discontinued in 2014.

5. Work with logo designers if 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. Perhaps you are more business savvy and better with numbers. You can always hire a logo designer or agency if you need one.

A professional designer can help you create an amazing logo for your brand. They can blend your brand personality with organic shapes, color arrangements, and fonts. You can work together on some logo ideas and find the right one for your brand.

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

Do I have the budget? The designs Logo makers can cost anywhere from zero, if you’re using a free online logo maker, to tens of thousands of dollars, if you’re working with a professional designer or agency. Expect to pay around $50 to $300 on the low end to hire a reasonably experienced designer.
Can I spend money on a logo I don’t use? When you hire a designer, you pay for their time, not for the logo itself. Since there is a chance that the final product will not meet your expectations and be scrapped, designers and business owners usually negotiate a “disposal fee”; an amount paid to the designer regardless of whether or not the logo is used. Keep this in mind when budgeting, and be sure to account for potential death fees.
How much time can I afford to spend on logo design? Designing a logo involves more than sitting back and waiting for a “eureka” moment. The process is often collaborative, with designers presenting you with several rough options and relying on your feedback to review their work.
Do I have a keen eye for design? Logo design not it’s easy. If it was, I wouldn’t be considering hiring a designer. Some business owners excel at putting their brand values into words, but have trouble translating those words into an image. Designers, on the other hand, often excel at translating words into images. If your skills are better suited to management than creativity, then hiring a designer is probably the right way to go.

If you’re looking for a designer who knows eCommerce like the palm of its hand your hand, browse through our Shopify Experts marketplace. Shopify Experts can help with all kinds of design customizations, and they can be filtered to find an expert in your price range or with experience in your industry.

Create a Company Logo You Feel Good About

Strong, memorable brands tend to have strong, memorable logos. Going through this process to create a simple image may seem like a lot of work, but considering that the design will be tied to your brand in the long run, it’s well worth it.

All great brands started small. You don’t need to sacrifice design quality just because you are in the early stage of your business.The idea of designing the perfect logo may have seemed daunting at first, but now, with a greater understanding of the principles of logo symbols and the steps involved in the design process, we hope you are better equipped to create your own with confidence. .

Illustrations by Eugenia Mello