How to design your own logo

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7 steps to designing a logo

Step 1: Think about your why?  Where do you want to see this logo? What is your target market? How do you want to position your business? Will you be targeting the high-end or a budget market? These questions will make a huge difference in the “feeling” of your logo design.

Step 2: Now that you have thought about your target market and your place in the market, it’s time to discover more about your competitors. Do you want to stand out and highlight your point of difference? Or ride the coat tails of a successful business model? Regardless you want your logo to speak to your target audience and look awesome (preferably better than your competitors).

Step 3: Create a mind map of key words and the business name to create feelings you want the logo to invoke. Do some research on Pinterest or your favourite competitors to see what they are doing. Now for the fun bit… start drawing out some rough ideas - at least 10 - 20 little sketches. Always start in black and white, if a logo doesn’t work in black and white it won’t work in colour! This step may take a few days and ideas and inspiration can pop up at any time (for me its usually just before I fall asleep or in the shower).

Step 4: You should by now have narrowed down a couple of favourites that you want to explore a bit more. Take a photo of them and upload them to your computer and into any vector software you have. (I usually draw them up on the iPad first in Adobe Illustrator* before hitting up the computer).

Step 5: Once you have your ideas up in the computer in a usable way, you can start experimenting with fonts. Choosing the correct font is a very important step. Fonts can make or break a logo design. You should choose a font that compliments the logo and that is appropriate to your target market. You can get free fonts but its only for personal use - you will need to purchase a font that you decide on to ensure you can use it in your logo.

Step 6: Pick some appropriate colours. Colours can have a heap of different meanings behind them, especially from a cultural perspective so make sure you do some research into colour theory for your specific target market. 

Step 7: Evaluate the logos you have created and ask yourself these questions: 

  • Is the logo unique?

  • Is the logo memorable

  • Is the logo appropriate to the target market?

  • Does the logo reflect your brand?

  • Is the logo timeless?

If the answer is no to any of the above, you may need to revisit some of the steps above.  

To get your logo right yourself will take a lot of time and effort, perhaps even sleepless nights as you think of ideas and wonder how you are going to make your vision come to life (and learn about the computer programs to produce it). You will need a lot of patience and time to create a unique logo that you can be proud of and use every day. 

Of course there are other options to think about, your time is valuable and a professional graphic designer can bring your vision to life a lot quicker than you are likely to, which will save you time and money. If you are not going to be dabbling in graphic design every second day the effort you will go to may be better spent on what you are good at - running your business!

Design Capital specialises in Logo design and branding, If you would like to find out more, call 0421 300 972 or email: hello@designcapital.com.au.

*Adobe Illustrator is the most popular tool for a professional graphic designer and is the industry standard. It gives the user all the flexibility to really make the most of creative designs. Word of warning though, you may need to invest in some serious time and dollars to truly get the most out of Adobe Illustrator.