A logo is crucial for any business, but sometimes, getting one can be expensive. If you want to try your hand at creating your own, here’s a quick and easy guide on how to design a business logo.
Step 1: Why You Need a Logo
To create the best logo for your business, you need to start with your brand’s story. Create a clear outline of your company’s what, why, and how. Think about your unique selling proposition and let your logo design tell this story.
Step 2: Define Your Brand Identity
If you haven’t done it yet, define your brand’s identity. This is more than just a logo design; it is your brand’s core personality. Identify what message you want to convey and what you want consumers to know about your brand. These will make your design choices easier to discover, resulting in a relevant and appropriate design.
Step 3: Draw Rough Sketches of Your Ideas
The next step is to find inspiration for your design. To do this, you need to do some serious brainstorming. Get everyone on the team involved, and if you don’t have them yet, ask friends and family for their input. Remember to think as your audience would do to get the logo that resonates with them the most.
Now, you need to do some rough sketches of how you envision your logo design to be. Choose the style, the shape, the fonts you want to use, and even the colors. You can also create a mood board to hold all the inspiration you gathered.
Another great way to get inspiration is to check out your competition’s logos. This will tell you which to avoid, what works for them, and what you need to add to make yours unique. Look at them closely to identify and emphasize what they’re lacking.
Step 4: Get Feedback for Your Logo
Choose the best designs from your sketches and show them to your team or anyone willing to provide valuable feedback for you. If possible, show them to someone who likely fits your buyer persona, as they can be the ones to give you the most productive opinion.
Step 5: Refine Your Sketch
Use the feedback you get and start refining your sketches. See if you’re missing something or if the feedback will improve the design. Check back on your original drawings and see if the design truly captures your brand’s personality well.
Step 6: Select Your Software
Select the software you’re going to use for your design. You can always use what the professionals use and opt for Adobe Photoshop. If you’re on a limited budget, a free platform such as Canva or Gimp will do the job just fine.
Step 7: Add Your Design Elements
Familiarize yourself with your chosen software. Start adding colors, fonts, and shapes or icons if possible. Many design software offer pre-made templates that you can use. You only need to tweak a few assets to make it your own.
This is also the step where you need to determine the logo style you want. There are no hard rules regarding this, so you need to choose the style based on your brand identity and personality. The following are a few examples of logo design styles you can choose from:
- Classic: logos such as those of Coca-Cola and McDonald’s go beyond trends and remain timeless. It shows a reliable and down-to-earth brand personality.
- Modern: to show a trendy brand identity, a modern logo is what you need. This style uses plenty of negative spaces and simple shapes and colors.
- Minimalist: simple lines and very few details mark a minimalist logo design. It shows a straightforward personality without the fuss.
- Vintage: if you want to evoke feelings of nostalgia, a vintage logo style is what you need. A beige color palette and some hand-drawn fonts typically make up this kind of logo.
- Quirky: if your target market is the youth or the young at heart, a fun and quirky logo design is your best bet. This style uses bright colors and bold fonts.
Step 8: Finalize Your Design
Once satisfied with what you have gathered, finalize your logo. You’ll most likely do many revisions, as getting it right the first time isn’t always a possibility. You can change the colors or fonts and look at them side by side to find the right fit.
Fine-tune your design and make sure that it is scalable. You may opt to ask for feedback again and make modifications until you get the right logo design for your brand. The decision is still yours, so if you’re happy with your design, you can forego any more edits and stay with what you have completed.
Final Thoughts
Logos are the face of your brand, and getting one that fits it to a tee is essential. Learning how to design a business logo empowers you to craft one that adds the novelty of doing something special for your company. However, not everyone has the time and patience to do it.
You can always work with Penji if you want a professional-quality logo at an affordable price. A subscription entitles you to unlimited logo designs and every visual asset your business will need. Watch our demo video here, or get our designers working by clicking on this link today!
