How To Design Your Own Logo

What do the Nike swoosh, McDonald’s golden arches, and the Starbucks mermaid all have in common? These iconic logos are simple, memorable, and powerful – the qualities we all want in a logo.Ready to create your company logo? First, you need to think like a designer. Here are some key questions to consider:What’s your brand personality? Conservative or creative? Modern or nostalgic? Innovative or traditional? Refined or playful? Your answers to these questions will help guide your colour, image, and font choices.Where will you use the logo? A website? A billboard? Product packaging? Direct mail? T-shirts? Social media? Each of these use cases has different design specs to keep in mind.What are the logos you love? Find a handful of brand logos you love, and use them as inspiration for your design experiments.Will you want to trademark your logo? It’s often an afterthought for business owners, but ask yourself this important question now. It will help you choose between a standard, logo template or a unique, custom logo. Only the latter can be trademarked.Online Logo Design Platforms to TryEven if you don’t have the budget to work with a designer, these easy-to-use tools will help you create a professional-looking business logo:Canva Logo Maker – This logo generator tool lets you choose from a wide selection of professionally designed logo templates to customize and export the final product in the most popular file formats. The process starts with selecting a few logos you like, so the platform gets to know your style and can better curate options that fit your visual esthetic.Cost:logo creation isfree; pay only for stock images usedDesignEvo – Looking for more design flexibility? DesignEvo is like a simplified version of Photoshop preloaded with a huge library of fonts and icons. Start your logo design from scratch or tweak your favourite logo template to suit your business’s visual identity.Cost: basic logo creation with low-resolution download is free; larger, editable files are $24.99-$49.99 USD depending on the format99designs – Need a little help with the design process? 99designs will connect you to a designer to work with 1-to-1, or help you launch a contest where dozens of designers compete to create a logo you’ll love. All you need to do is provide a brief and choose the winning design.Cost:1-to-1 project rates vary by designer; contest packages start at $399 CADTake your time and experiment with different tools and designs until you get the look you want. Be sure to share the finished product with trusted advisors for feedback, to ensure your logo makes the ideal statement about your business.