A logo is a graphic symbol, emblem, or stylized word used to promote and identify your business.
You can see potentially hundreds of logos every day from worldwide companies and local small businesses alike — all you have to do is take a little stroll outside. On a day you go to the market, you’re surrounded by thousands of them.
But how do you come up with a logo idea? What kinds of symbols can you use? Can it be just text?
Let’s dive right in!
Hire a Designer Or Do it Yourself?
The first big question is, luckily, easy to answer: get a designer if at all possible.
There are ways you can go about doing this yourself (more on that below), but unless you have a decent understanding of graphic design and a good grip on creation tools, you won’t get very far, and it might frustrate you.
Hiring a designer gives you peace of mind — all you have to do is provide inspiration and references for your chosen professional to work with and come up with something to your liking.
But if you feel like giving it a shot for yourself, we’ll dive into some tips for that as well.
Websites to Hire Designers
Each of these offer different pricing options. Check which one works better for your budget:
Freelancer - Describe what you need and receive quotes from designers interested in working with you. You can choose who to work with by comparing their portfolios, ratings, and costs. Prices vary greatly for each offer.
Fivver - Works similarly to a marketplace and offers the lowest prices you will find. Here, you can search for what you need specifically and find designers who are already offering the service you want. Then, you can check their portfolio and previous customer reviews before deciding to order. Prices start as low as $5 for a simple logo.
99designs - A pricier, but extremely professional option. Here, you can either hire a designer whose style you love to design what you want, or if you’re not sure what you want, create a “contest” and 30 or more designers will participate by sending their own design. You can then choose the “winner design” and work with the professional to fine tune it. Once the job is done, the logo is all yours — copyright included. For logo design, contests start at $299. For hiring specific designers, it depends on your project, and you’re free to negotiate when reaching out to them.
Types of Logos
We’re going to talk about this in simple terms: basically, the two types of logos are the symbol logos and text logos. Sometimes, you can combine both into one logo.
You could also argue that text becomes an abstract symbol in that case, but let’s not complicate things.
Think about the Apple logo — that titular apple design. That’s a symbol logo. And so is the Microsoft logo — that four-coloured window-like square.
And now, think Coca-Cola. That’s a text logo. And so is the Facebook logo (they sometimes use the single letter “F”, but the logo itself consists of the entire word).
We do something similar with the homeyou logo sometimes, by using the rooftop triangle over the “o” to symbolise our mark, even though our logo is the stylized word “homeyou” with the rooftop included (and in small-caps).
Getting Inspiration
The best way to look for inspiration is simply searching for logos — even better if they are from your line of business.
Multinational logos provide a nice glimpse into trends as well, so be sure to check those out (the image above is a good starting point). Just remember logos aren’t just “something you like looking at.” They must have something to do with your business.
Use this research to find what kind of logos and colours you like so you can send them to the professional who will create your logo.
Careful with the Cliches
Painting businesses with a brush for a logo.
Cleaning services with a broom for a logo.
General contractors with a construction cap for a logo.
And so on. None of these ideas are inherently bad, but it only takes a quick search to see hundreds — maybe thousands — of people have already used it. Having a symbol that reminds customers of your business is crucial, but don’t be afraid to try something different as well.
Mind Copyrighted Content
Say you have found a cool element to work on your logo — a particular brush design for your painter logo. Before asking for an exact copy of it from your design professional, try checking if this design isn’t copyrighted.
Many websites sell these kinds of designs for the very reason people want them for logos. If you use a copyrighted one without the proper rights, you might get in trouble.
When working with a professional designer, you shouldn’t have to worry about this because they will naturally already have reliable sources and tools to find what you need. But if you’re trying to create something for yourself, try to find where these designs came from before using them — sometimes you can even purchase them for a small fee.
Function Over Form
A beautiful logo doesn’t mean much if the people looking at it can’t tell what your business is about — and for the home improvement branch, that’s really important. Always go for a logo that states your business.
Tools for Creating Your Own Logo
Assuming you don’t want to spend a few hundred dollars on a professional creation suite like Corel Draw* or Adobe Illustrator*, we recommend the awesome (and free) little tool known as Canva.
You can create many different types of designs, like logos, posters, banners, social media posts, and much more — all with premade assets to help you out, with an intuitive workspace that’s easy to use, and it allows you to upload custom images.
Working with fonts is also easy — they have a ton for you to try out, but you can also upload your own.
Even if you’ve never tried designing something before, I highly recommend you try it on Canva. You might be surprised at how easy it is to use.
And yes, although it has a premium version that adds more features, all of the ones I’ve mentioned here are totally free to use.
As always, let us know if you have any doubts or suggestions, and have fun creating your logo!
Do you want to grow your business and start receiving leads for jobs that will make you money today? Sign up with homeyou.
*Both of these tools have subscription-based pricing as well, which makes acquiring them for work a lot cheaper, but they are still very advanced creation tools and you would need to take some time to learn how to use them.
Comments