How to create a Good Logo (Even if You’re Not a Designer)

One of the most essential things you need when starting a business is some type of logo. It’s one of the first things on every small business owners to-do list. Of course every business owner wants a good logo design! But you are just getting started and can’t always afford to hire a professional designer. 

I’m here to tell you that YOU can design your own logo! You don’t need to hire a professional designer when you are first starting out. I know… coming from a logo & brand designer, that is a shocker.  In this post, I am going to take you (yes, you the non-designer!) through how you can design your very own logo for your business! With my tips, it will not look like a Pinterest flop, but rather like you did hire a professional designer. 

But before we go any further about your logo design, let’s make sure that a few things are clear.

Before you design your logo

You need to spend some time learning about who your target audience is. Sure your logo is your business name but it needs to resonate with your ideal client. It sets the tone of what it is like to work with you. 

A couple questions you need to ask yourself about your target audience are:

• What type of clients do I want to be working with? 
• What colors do they like? 
• How do I want them to feel when they visit my website?

If you need more clarity on who your target audience it, then check out 3 Ways To Discover Who Your Ideal Client Is

And don’t forget to download my FREE brand blueprint guide: 4 Steps To Creating A Memorable Brand. It not only helps you figure out who you want to be working with, but also how to create the foundation of your brand.

How to Design Your Own Logo

When you are first starting off, there are a lot of costs to running a business. I feel like most new small business owners should design their own logo. When you are starting out, you may have one vision but as you continue to grow, your business will start to evolve. 

I know designing your own logo may sound a little daunting, but I promise you can do it! Afterall you have your branding tour guide here (aka moi 😉), to walk you through the steps!

First step in creating your logo is to pick your brand fonts

I can’t tell you how many hours I have spent in my life looking through fonts! It’s probably at this point somewhere in the year range, no joke!

I geek out over them. But I am going to spare you all my font nerdiness and share with you a couple of my favorite brand font tips. 

How to pick the fonts for your logo

Pick 1 to 2 fonts for your logo that pair well together – meaning they work harmoniously together. One font doesn’t compete with the other. When you are trying to pick your fonts, I want you to do two things. 

Brand Font Tip #1:

First, text drive that font. Make sure that ALL the letters in that font read properly. You don’t want your J’s looking like D’s or vice versa.

Brand Font Tip #2:

Secondly, I want you to keep in mind how you want your ideal client to feel when they are working with you. Does that font reflect that feeling?

Second step in creating your logo is picking your brand colors. 

Colors really set the mood and feeling for your logo and brand! Have you ever noticed that most hospital rooms are painted light blue? It’s because it has a soothing feel to it. Colors can instantly set someone’s mood about something and give them an overall feeling.

How to pick the colors for your logo

So how do you know what color to use for your logo? Should I just pick my favorite color? The answer is no. Even though your brand is for your business and you SHOULD like the color, you have to remember it’s not just about us. You need to pick colors that give off the overall feeling of your brand.

Using the wrong colors can turn off clients while using the right colors will attract your dream clients. If you are a very bubbly wedding planner, using muted earth tone colors isn’t going to align with the overall feeling of working with you. 

If you need help choosing your colors, then check out: How To Pick Your Brand Colors

How many colors to have in your logo & brand

This question is tricky and what can make a DIY logo look unprofessional. If you are designing your logo yourself, then stay with 2 colors … 3 at the max! The more colors you add, the more likely your logo is going to look not as professional. 

Now when it comes to your brand, you can include more colors! But again less is more. For your brand color palette try to aim for 3-5 colors. This gives your brand some flexibility and allows you to create hierarchy within your website, social media graphics and freebies. 

Designing your own Logo for your business

Now comes the fun part, actually designing your logo. Of course hiring a pro to design your brand is totally an option, but it’s by far, the most expensive route. Honestly, you probably don’t have the money for this when you’re just getting started with your business. A good logo & brand designer costs thousands of dollars, and a cheap logo designer (*cough fiverr*)… whelp you get what you pay for.

Here’s the good news! You can create a professional looking logo yourself with the right tools like Canva. To be completely honest, I am blown away by Canva! It makes it so easy to design something even if you don’t have any professional design experience. Their platform is so intuitive! But it can get a little overwhelming with all the options. 

To help make it easier on you, I have created a set of Canva Logo Templates. With just a few clicks you can customize the template for your business. 

The process is easy:

• Pick your Canva logo template
• Change the business name
• And if you want to, you can change the fonts and all of the colors. The entire logo is 100% editable

It’s really that easy! 

With just a couple hours, you can cross off “create a logo” from your to-do list. AND actually be proud of it! 

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