Design is Important
A logo is one of the most important elements of a business. It is a symbol that represents your brand to both you and your customers and it is used as an easy identifier when consumers are shopping. This is not an aspect of your business that you want to cut corners on, and it can be frustrating to decide where to start. It is expensive to pay someone to design a logo, and some of the high-end programs such as the Adobe Creative Suite, have a big learning curve. Fortunately enough there are many free and easy programs that can be used to help design your logo. Listed below are four of our favorite tools that can be used by individuals with ranging skill levels.
Canva
Canva is a free online tool that is a favorite for those DIYers. It gives you access to thousands of templates that are a great starting point for any project. To use the program you must first sign up. You can use Facebook, a Google account, or just a regular email. Once you have done this, there are hundreds of quality templates that you have access to for your new logo. Each template is designed for a specific document purpose. They have templates for social media posts, documents, designing logos, and much more. The application was created with an intuitive drag and drop operation, with millions of photos and shapes available to use. You also have the option to upload your own photos. Canva also has hundreds of fonts that you can choose from, this allows for increased customisation and a better representation of your brand. Below is a photo of the start to a Canva logo design.
Canva can be used on most computers and any IOS mobile device. This is great if you are on the move or have access to limited resources. Canva does have the option to upgrade and pay for the service. It is called Canva for Work, and is designed for small businesses that plan on producing a large amount of documents through the application. It provides more features, such as team collaboration, the ability to save brand logo/templates, and provides folders to help organize information. This additional features comes in at a monthly cost of $9.95 USD.
Hatchful
Hatchful is a free logo application designed by the developers of Shopify, and specifically for logos. If you want to learn more about Shopify, you can here. Hachful is a logo design application that uses AI to help suggest brand assets for your business, by combining icon and color combinations for your business. It only takes a few minutes to answer the initial questions asked on the screen, and it will provide you with a large number of new logos to test out. Each logo include pre-sized photos for most social media sites. This allows for you to have high quality logos that consumers will recognize on all social media platforms. I went onto the website and within 3 questions, they created hundreds of new logos for a fictional business “Chad’s Chucks.” An example of three of the logos are below.
Squarespace Logo Maker
Squarespace is a popular application that is known to help you build websites. They also offer a simple application to use during the logo generation process, Squarespace Logo Maker. This program provides both text and icon options that you can use when creating your logo. This application is the easiest to use on the list, with a very easy learning curve. The designs that it creates are somewhat basic, but it provides a great starting point. I again used the business “Chad’s Chucks” to provide an example of what the workspace provided by Squarespace looks like.
Squarespace allows you to download low-res and watermarked versions of your logo for free. But for $10 USD you can download a high-res version, or you can download them for free if you are already a Squarespace customers. This application is perfect for creating a simple logo that will still attract customers to your brand.
Gravit Designer
The last application we will be talking about is Gravit Designer. This is a free application that allows you to design your logo, but differently compared to the others listed above. This program is similar to Photoshop and GIMP, it includes tools such as layering, drawing tools, effects, and many more. This sort of application is more suited for an intermediate-advance graphic designer. But if you are looking to step your game up, Gravit provides video tutorials to help customers become more familiar with their application. Below is the start to a new logo for “Chad’s Chucks”.
Gravit does have a few templates that are pre-sized for specific uses such as blog posts. The application is designed to integrate with the Gravit Cloud, which is another free program. This will allow you to backup files and share them with others at your business. Gravit Designer is a great application if you are more experienced and are looking to create a unique logo, but it will take more time. Gravit is free but if you find yourself using it enough, you can upgrade to the Pro version for $80 USD.C
Even though it is intimidating to create a new logo, there are many applications to help you during this process. These applications can be used on a large variety of devices and cater to all skill levels. All of the options that we have gone over today have a free version to help you get started with your logo. A few of them charge small fees to download and use the design, but the $10-$20 dollars you will spend can give you a logo that you can use for years. Have fun designing, and if you need any help let us know.