How to make a Logo? The Face of your Company

Hello dear reader! Today we are going to discuss how to make a logo.

A logo is often thought of when a business comes to your mind. A logo is an essential part of all businesses and can be difficult to create. 

A logo is the smallest visual representation of your business’s brand identity. It’s how the world will see you. Your logo is not your brand nor your business but it is the representation of it.

It will stay with you and will be used for all your marketing efforts from your website, printed media to your billboard. It will be used for everything so it’ll need to be great.

Whether you hire a professional logo designer or do the logo yourself, before creating a logo you should learn these principles and should know all this beforehand.

What do you need to start?

As a business owner, I know you just want to get it done, but there’s a bit of research needed before you can either do the logo or hire an expert designer to create it for you.

Gather inspiration

You might have at a minimum a slight inclination as to what you would like. It might be something simple from “I want it to have bees in it” to “ I have a whole concept where bees are perceived as creative workers.”.

It doesn’t matter where you are, you should get on the internet and search for logos, especially in your industry and analyze what you like and what you don’t like. Save all inspiration or create a mood board filled with photos you found that kind of expresses what you would like your logo to be.

This doesn’t need to be perfect but at least give you an idea. 

What if you can’t find the perfect reference, then gather other things such as photos, words that describe your perfect logo.

Be creative and open to new ideas

Sometimes we are fixed on a specific look and when we see other options we can tend to lean more into that other idea. 

You want the best logo, to accomplish this you have to keep an open mind.

Be creative and open to concepts. Through design iterations, magic can happen, Or a better design can be found.

How to make a logo

Inspiration

After you gathered inspiration and have identified all the parts that you like, now is the time to start designing.

Sketch

If you’re a designer or work with a designer, this will be an essential step to get your concept down quickly. Sketching is a way to explore many different concepts quickly without having to commit to any.

The sketches don’t need to be perfect because you can always take ideas from each to create a better one. 

I highly suggest sketching before you try to get on a program. After many iterations and sketches, when you have a couple of great ideas, it’s time to go into your program.

Vectorize

Many don’t know that your logo needs to be vectorized so that you can scale it without losing quality. A vector is a perfect mathematical equation that allows art to be created in a way that when shrunk or expanded it maintains its lines perfectly without pixelating.

The most common design tool used to vectorize is Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is often the #1 tool recommended for this. And it happens to be that Illustrator is both my mastery and my favorite tool.

But, if you aren’t skilled in Illustrator, it is highly recommended that you either hire a designer or search online for tutorials for your company logo.

Once you have your logo vectorized, you can take it to print shops to print shirts with your logo or you can send it to your website designer and more.  

Vector files and variations

After you design it, you’ll need a set of files and variations. For the files, you’ll need the original logo exported as a .PNG without background, color variations, alternate, and most importantly the vector file also known as the source file. 

The source file is the file that contains the original vectorized logo that you’ll send to the printer.

How to make a design a good logo for your business

A good logo is subjective. However, we can always know when it is bad. Either by how it was designed or how it doesn’t make sense with the business.

We can establish that a good logo needs to meet certain criteria in order to be a good logo.

Represents the business well

It doesn’t need to describe your company but it does need to represent it. It needs to help you stand out and be a good representation.

Takes into account the client’s desire

If you’re designing for a client, it obviously needs to meet the client’s needs and expectations. If your client says they need to have a butterfly, then at least one of the options provided should contain that.

Is scalable

Logos will be used for different implementations and it needs to look great either way if you print it super small or if you print it on a billboard. If it gets lost when shrunken and you didn’t create a variation, then it isn’t a good logo.

Is vectorized

The least that you want to be taken seriously and when you print your high quality logo, it’s all pixelated and jagged. If it’s not vectorized, then printers might charge you extra every time or you might have a hard time even using it on different artworks.

Conclusion: Our opinion

Whether your DIY or you’re hiring a graphic designer, make sure you always have references to the ideas that you have.

What if you don’t have a specific idea or concept? Then, I would suggest searching through the internet, thinking about the brands that you love to know what you love, or talk to a designer. 

Designers will often have a better perspective because we are constantly studying design and how it relates to a business. We are also always exposed to trends, design standards, and other styles.‍

Your logo is one of the most important assets you’ll need when starting your business, make it count. ‍

A custom logo design will set the tone for your business!