17 Jul How to Make Your Own Logo
Making your own logo shouldn’t be hard. For startups and local businesses just getting off the ground, we believe branding is important but it shouldn’t cost a fortune. In this blog post, we’ll go over a simple process you can follow as well as tips and tools to make your own logo.
But first, let’s explain the context. One of the problems we see too often with entrepreneurs and startups is creating a logo using a logo generator. The purpose of a logo is to have a unique image that sets your brand apart from your competitors. Logo generators are not inherently bad, but because they’re free and available for everyone, any logo you design there won’t be unique. If your competitors use the same icons and colors, how will your customers tell your brand apart? When customers can’t differentiate you from competitors, they will purchase from any company with the lowest price instead of developing loyalty to your brand.
With an hour of your time and $3 or less, you can create a unique logo that’s customized to your business and sets your brand apart. From defining your industry through selecting an icon and pairing your fonts, there are easy questions to ask yourself that result in a unique, industry-specific logo.
Step 1: Define your industry
The first step in making your own logo is to define your industry. Which industry are you in, and how would you describe your product or service? Once you have your industry narrowed down, brainstorm a list of images that come to mind when you think about your business.
Think about your industry and your top 3 competitors. Are there colors and images on their website or social media accounts that you like? Is there a way to improve upon that content and make it unique to your brand? These questions focus your mind and creativity to be specific to your industry.
When you’re defining your industry, you’ll also want to think of your differentiating attributes like your company’s mission, vision, and values. At Blüm Agency, we value integrity, creativity and flexibility, and our tagline is “Helping Brands Bloom.” As a result, we chose to use floral imagery in our logo. Keep your logo simple, but connected to your purpose.
Step 2: Choose your icon
Logo designs need to start with black and white. While the basic color scheme is not always exciting if you anticipate having a colorful brand, black and white logos are the most versatile and professional on a budget.
With your brand values and industry in mind, search The Noun Project’s icon library for one of the images you brainstormed in Step #1. Scroll through the icons to find one that you like, then pay for the “Pro Download” of $3, then download the icon as a PNG and SVG (various file formats). If the icon is part of the public domain, you won’t need to pay for the download.
Step 3: Choose your fonts
Your fonts are a huge part of your brand. We’ve talked about font consistency before in our Branding 101 blog post, but they are too important not to mention again. When you choose your fonts, pick one for your company name, website titles and major headings, and another for your tagline and website paragraph or body copy. Usually, a font pairing consists of one serif font and one sans-serif font.
Because consistency makes a brand (and that doesn’t exclude fonts!), you’ll want to start with web fonts that you can use for your logo, as well as on your website. Look for your favorite font on Google’s database of free web fonts. This will be your primary font to use in your logo, as well as titles and headings on your website.
Once you’ve found a winner, look for a graphic designer-approved font pair based off of your primary font.. This will be your secondary font to use for your tagline, as well as for your paragraph and body copy on your website.
Step 4: Put it together
Now that you have your icon and fonts, the last step is putting all of the elements together to make your own logo. If you’ve worked with Photoshop before and you’re comfortable with the tools, there is a free web-based version called Pixlr where you can combine your icon and fonts.
If you’re less comfortable with Photoshop, try using Canva to create your logo. If you are most comfortable with word processing software, you can combine your icon and fonts in a new Microsoft Word document or Google Doc or Drawing.
Write your company name using your primary font in a large font size. Underneath your company name, write your tagline in your secondary font and a smaller font size. Position your icon to the left of company name and tagline. Done! Save your new logo as a PNG or JPEG file, and share your it across your website and social media accounts.
Now that you know how to make your own logo, we want to see it!
Send your logo to info@blumagency.com, and we’ll review it and give you feedback for free.