Whether you’re working for a client or are a business owner yourself, creating a logo from scratch is no small feat. It’s very easy to look at a “simple” logo and think, “Anyone could have made that,” when in reality, logo design is much more complex than most people think. That said, designing a logo isn’t necessarily hard, either. With enough research, inspiration, and practice, I believe anyone can make a logo! To aid you in your logo endeavors, I’ve put together this short guide that outlines my own logo design process (featuring a logo I made for my late brother’s business, Excess Horsepower), as well as some important logo best practices to keep in mind!
Step 1: Research the Company, Industry, and Audience
The difference between art and design is intent. Art is intended to express ideas and emotions, while design is intended to solve problems. For this reason, you should always start your logo design process by researching the company, industry, and audience you’re designing for. Ask yourself these questions:
- What product or services does this company offer?
- What is this company’s “personality”?
- Does this company have any preferred color palettes?
- What symbols and color palettes are common in this company’s industry?
- What is this company’s target audience?
Answering these questions beforehand will help put you on the right track to design a logo that is both visually-pleasing and captures the company’s essence.
Step 2: Find Logo Inspiration
Sometimes starting is the most difficult part of the design process. Don’t panic! If you’re stuck, a good place to start is by Googling or searching on Pinterest for “*insert industry* logos” or “*insert industry* logo ideas”. For instance, when I was designing my Excess Horsepower logo, I Googled “car logo ideas” and looked through the image results:
From here, I took note of the most common colors I saw (reds, yellows, blues, and black backgrounds), as well as any specific design elements that caught my eye, such as the speedometer and capitalized sans serif fonts.
Another big tip I have is to look at your company’s name for inspiration. Names with actual words in them like “Excess Horsepower” are fun to design logos for because they come with images/symbols built-in to them. The first image that came to mind when I was designing this logo was a horse, so I searched for “horse logos” and looked through the results:
If your company name has no built-in symbols (ex. Walmart, Safeway, Albertsons, etc.), you can still find inspiration in the name itself by playing around with the shape of its letters, initials, and fonts to create something unique!
Step 3: Consider Where Your Logo Will Be Displayed
This is a very important step in the logo development process, so do not skip it! When creating a logo, you need to consider all the places it will be displayed. Will it be on a billboard? On a restaurant menu? A business card? What about as a favicon on a website (you know, that teeny, tiny little icon that’s displayed at the top of a website tab)? You need to consider how your logo will look at all different sizes, in color, and in grayscale in order to design it effectively. Having a fancy logo is nice and all, but intricate details can easily get lost when the logo is scaled down in size. Remember, design is about solving problems, not just looking pretty!
Step 4: Brainstorm + Sketch
This is where the fun begins! I highly recommend sketching out your ideas on paper first since it removes any kind of creative restrictions you may otherwise face on a computer. Even if you aren’t good at drawing, sketching out your logo ideas is still a very helpful part of the process. Sketch out every idea that comes to mind, no matter how ridiculous they may seem. Who knows, they may spark further inspiration!
Step 5: Digitize Your Design Ideas
Now that you’ve got a handful of logo ideas sketched out on paper, it’s time to bring them to life! Using some kind of vector graphics software (I prefer Adobe Illustrator), start digitizing your logos. If you’re having trouble, a great way to start is by importing a photo of your sketches into your software and tracing over your designs. Don’t get discouraged if your logo isn’t looking the way you want it to right away—designing logos takes a lot of time, and you will soon find that it isn’t as easy as it looks! My biggest advice to you during this step is to not get too attached to any one idea—keep an open mind and try all kinds of ideas!
Step 6: Refine + Simplify
Once you create a logo that you are happy with, I highly suggest that you duplicate it several times. Keep one copy of the version you like, and then use the other copies to experiment. Try different color schemes, different fonts, maybe even try excluding an element or two. If you are designing a logo for a client, this will provide them with multiple versions to choose from and may even spark most inspiration! At this point, it’s also important to simplify your logo. Remind yourself of where your logo will be displayed and test out how it will look at different sizes. When designing logos, less is almost always more!
And there you have it—my finished logo! I hope that this guide was helpful and inspiring! Even if you aren’t a logo designer, I find that creating a logo is such a rewarding experience—you are condensing a brand’s entire essence into one little symbol that customers learn to recognize and associate with your company. How cool is that? Happy logo-making!