10 Ways to Make a Logo For Free

A logo is among the most prominent aspects of a business’s identification. Consumers will look first for this symbol when shopping above even the name as they sift through items on sale. For a business creating a logo takes precedence and requires considerable effort, time and often requires investment in a designer. But what about those companies who are budget-challenged with no money to put into logo creation?

Are there any ways to make logos for free? There are several ways to make a logo for free, using either online applications or offline software. However be sure to check if the logo comes with “commercial” usage rights that are needed to be used by a business.

The need for a free tool for logo creation is especially important for anyone with a small business in the startup phase. And it can be equally useful for a large corporation working towards optimal goals for success – only with a complimentary design fee.

Ways To Make A Logo For Free

Fortunately, there is a wide range of ways, both online and offline, for small business owners to make free logos, including logo making services, websites, logo design software, and offline with Adobe. Each touts the ability to provide a finished product within a matter of minutes capable of use that very day.

10 of the many free options include:

Our #1 Recommended Paid Option:

Placeit Logo Maker

Important: Although a free logo is an attractive option, keep in mind many free logo makers do not give you “commercial” usage rights, rather they only come with “personal” usage rights. If you intend to use the logo for a business that makes money, you’ll want to use a logo maker that gives you commercial usage rights, like Placeit.net, which can make you a professional logo with full rights for about $10.

Still, free design is not going to give you the optimal in creativity, ideas, appealing fonts, features, or offer the ability to copyright/trademark as with paid options. Basically, this means your concept may not be unique to you. But free is a great place to start!

Why Is a Logo Important?

The logo, sometimes combined with a slogan, is the ‘voice’ of your business responsible for speaking volumes to the company’s preferred demographic within what needs to be a straightforward image.

It’s a company’s primary tool for marketing as the consumer uses this as a means of brand recognition. It should tell a customer who the company is, what they’re about, state the overall values, and of course, what it is that’s for sale.

Creating a relevant icon that accomplishes all that it needs to can be a challenge for which many corporations choose to outsource to an expert designer. But a small startup business isn’t necessarily financially capable of this type of investment. In fact, most need to find a way to make their own symbol at no cost to their business.

Fortunately for these individual business owners, there are options available for designing logos online that are user-friendly and require no money. All you have to do is provide a brand name and select a design that will best suit your specific brand.

Free Logo Creation Disclaimer

It’s important to provide accurate information to small business owners who may be researching ways to meet startup goals at little to no cost to achieve initial success. That includes developing a company identity via the beginning logo design.

After primary goals are accomplished, implementing a more extensive investment like outsourcing for a more elaborate logo design to establish greater business recognition could be viewed as a wise company decision. Why would that make sense?

For starters, numerous ‘free’ logo makers provide you with a complimentary result, which in some cases, has a watermark and, in other instances, isn’t provided in a vector file. Without the vector file, it’s not possible to adjust the image into various sizes or use it for different purposes.

For those who have a startup, the logo makers you find online are perfect as your go-to to create your first symbol with no money required. Each of these services offers its users a pleasant experience with a relatively broader spectrum of features than you would expect for a complimentary medium aside from just creation.

And you can progress with these providers from the ‘free’ designs to more elaborate creations for which you can invest if you choose once your business has reached that point.

Process of Designing a Logo

Before You initiate the design process for your logo, whether you use a free logo maker or a designer, there are essential steps that need taking in preparation. The preparation is critical.

As you can see in a majority of favored brands, consumers recognize them from the logo design. Customers take away a specific perception based on the impact of your symbol, good or bad. If it doesn’t tell them what they need to know or leaves them baffled, it can prove detrimental to the brand and, in turn, the company.

You want to choose your design and ensure that you navigate through the creative process so that the outcome is nothing short of sensational. In saying that, there are questions to pose before you engage in the actual creation.

What purpose will a logo serve towards the success of my business?
Do you recognize your brand, and can you explain its identity through the symbol to the consumer?
Are you aware of the competition within the industry?
What defines your specific style in design?
Do you understand the importance of fonts as it pertains to a logo?
Have you become familiar with the ‘don’ts’ when it comes to developing a tool that will speak to your preferred demographic.

The ability to answer these questions gives you a premise for the logo design so that when you log on to a logo making service or approach a designer, you know who you are as a business, what you want to say to your audience, and what the brand values are. These are precisely the questions that the consumer will have when they view what you create.

What Purpose Will a Logo Serve Towards The Success of My Business?

The success of a business depends solely on attracting the target audience and beyond that limited demographic and converting them into a group of loyal customers. A logo serves as the initial draw, meaning it has to catch their interest and make them look for more information about you.

It is a powerful statement concerning the brand, the company, and yourself telling the customer whether this is something they want to try or maybe pass up. The impact is critical as it relates to the brand because all business material will comprise this symbol as will the products and services exposing the consumer to it everywhere they turn. And those viewing are going to compare logos among competitors throughout the industry.

How to Explain Your Brand’s Identity Through a Symbol

The brand’s personality needs to shine brightly for the target audience. But for that to happen, you first need to understand who your brand is to develop that personality.

After determining the aspects of your business that makes you unique from everyone else selling similar goods or offering relatively the same services, a design concept that complements those assets will be more natural to obtain.

Ask yourself how you would describe the goods or services that you intend to offer your core audience and then how do you anticipate that audience as defining the brand.

Analyze the competitors in the industry and then review your approach to determine what it is you do differently.

Each company has a set of ethics and values that they stand behind without fail for which customers come to appreciate and, for some people, become loyal based on those reasons. You need to learn yours.

If you don’t have a clear cut understanding of why you initially went into the industry, you need to take time to figure this out so that this passion can be projected onto the logo’s personality.

Are You Aware Of The Competition Within The Industry?

Inspiration comes from the strangest places. Of course, you in no way want to be a ‘copycat.’ That will serve you poorly. But there is something to be said for competitors who are doing very well with the public and those who are doing not so well, meaning you should avoid what they’re doing. These businesses are different from you in some way.

Looking at their logos, you will be able to see how they incorporated their ‘uniqueness’ into their design, and this can serve as inspiration for you when you attempt to take your special qualities to the worktable.

If you notice that each company in your same type of business is going with similar symbol schemes, do something vastly different. If they all decide on using muted colors, you should choose to be vibrant. The idea is to stand out among them and steer the audience in your direction.

What Defines Your Specific Style In Design?

What’s most important when it comes to style is which aesthetic is ideal for the brand. There are many components that comprise this element of the design such as shapes, colors, and the graphics as well as the fonts. It’s crucial when working on the symbol that you work on each section individually as it relates to the brand rather than trying to work on the whole combination to develop an entire concept. The end results will likely be much more successful.

When you choose a color, learn that many colors denote a feeling or emotion and denote an underlying message such as red in its vibrancy denotes power and brings feelings of excitement. Blue establishes a sense of calming and signifies trust. It is widely used in business as it’s preferred among a broad consumer base.

The styles vary broadly from classic, which tends to reach a wider audience since it’s timeless to retro/vintage, modern/minimal, as well as fun/quirky for which the young or those who are young at heart would fancy. If you have a difficult time deciding where your brand falls, mix them up. A brand’s personality can be a modern and fun blend.

Understanding the Importance of Font As Used in a Logo

The type of font chosen for a logo design needs to be simplistic, not confusing or complicated, easy to read, and a complement to the symbol. There are four font styles commonly used with logos.

In an attempt at a clean, modern look, the sans serif accomplishes this. As compared to other scripts, this version notes to be simple yet sleek. It’s a good representation of a brand that wants to speak as a modern or a minimalist.

For those who want to bring classic prestige to the brand’s personality, the serif font has that impression with its’ feet’ on the bottom of letters showing as somewhat, well, classic. These are particularly versatile, allowing for use with virtually any type of creation you can imagine, but they are ideal in combination with the more elegant or vintage styles.

A font that offers a lot of style and a decorative feel is the ‘display’ font. These boast the capability of drawing attention with their catchy flair.

In the vein of handwriting in the script font that goes from the more elaborate calligraphy to those that are less formal, these deem unique and individualistic. Our opinion on these: it’s essential that you do not use text that an audience has to make an effort to concentrate on to decipher it. This type of font is beautiful but may offer more benefits in combination with a very explanatory image so that the need to read it isn’t necessary.

The cool idea is to combine a couple of different fonts that can draw an eye in perhaps without a need to bring in an image like in the text-only type logo design that you see with brands like General Motors.

The Dont’s of Developing a Logo that Speaks to Your Audience

Designing a logo for your business can go exceptionally well, but it also has the potential to turn out poorly. You want to avoid mistakes that will impact your audience negatively because that will be detrimental to your brand. Being cute or overly complicated are two pitfalls that will backfire on a business. Other things to avoid:

If there are clichés that you can play off pertaining to your industry, don’t do it. It’s kitschy, and that won’t play well with the brand’s personality or the overall impression of your business for the consumer. You want to be resourceful, unique, and show that you can use a varied thought process. For example, don’t put a stethoscope into your family practice logo. Be creative, unusual.

In the same breath, don’t use a logo that no one can figure out or that’s overly complex. The key is to be as simple as possible to create memory recall for the people viewing it.

Try to steer clear of the current trends because they are just that, current. What happens a year or two down the road when there are new happenings, and this has faded. No one is going to remember or understand, a more modern generation, particularly. And if they do, you will appear dated.

Simply because you need to save money currently, doesn’t mean that you should opt for an amateur appearance with the final product. For that friend who has Photoshop experience and offers to do your logo design for just a few dollars, just say no. Using a free logo making service is a supremely better alternative which will result in a much more professional looking image.

In a sense working through this process is kind of like developing your business plan and assessing goals because, in the end, you will know ‘who’ your brand is, what it stands for, and where you want to take it.

By determining the ‘personality,’ you can create its ‘face’ and how it will speak to the public. It comes full circle for you. And then you integrate that ‘face’ into the business material so that customers will recognize the company wherever they look, whether it be on the website, business cards, or on the goods or services.

Designing a Logo for Free

In the world of business, it becomes challenging particularly for the small business owner to financially accommodate each individual marketing requirement that can ultimately lead to the accrual of a customer population large enough to solidify their success.

Among the primary necessities for any business in accomplishing its goals is a dynamic logo. Many startup small business owners who find themselves financially challenged to seek out no-cost options for this critical component.

There is a plethora of logo making companies offering the perfect medium for small companies to engage in creating their ideal image as an introduction to their brand’s identification. The processes are simple, user-friendly for those who may have difficulty with design, fast with same-day usability, and there is no initial cost.

The fee can remain free with you using the free image as your chosen piece, or you have the choice of upgrading and investing from a tier of amounts to enhance the image.

Each person who owns a business should be allowed to create a professional, visibly appealing symbol affordably. In a wide variety of the different free logo making applications, the concept is reasonably relative:

Software Programs

There are a variety of different software programs for each logo designing or making setup, each with its own type of algorithms. With each, you will enter your company name and the type of industry that you’re involved in with some instances where you can enter a tagline.

You want to remember throughout each step of the process that a logo needs to be short, impactful, simple. If your company name is rather long, you may want to forget a tagline unless that slogan is critical. And taglines should be no more than three words.

You will likely have a pull-down of industries in most cases to choose from, for instance, retail, entertainment/art, or business/consultation. In some cases, you can perhaps fill in a ‘logotype,’ which will prompt you to type in a keyword like ‘music’ or ‘food’ or ‘shopping,’ and then symbols with relation to that particular keyword will display.

Get an Idea of What you Want

In most of the free logo services, there are a massive amount of icons that were initially created and uploaded through a professional designer for a company’s use with their brand. The idea is that you choose a select few of your favorite ones based on the font, style, and layout.

It helps to already have an idea of the type you’re interested in, whether it be text only, image only, or a combination in an effort to narrow some list down considerably. There are some things you will have some preparation for from going through the outlining process that we discussed earlier. That should have given you a premise for confident choices like color, font, and perhaps style.

The Layout

The choice of the layout will be given concerning where you want the company name as compared to the icon. At this stage, you have a basic appearance for the piece leaving the system to present what comprises up to hundreds of potential designs.

Customize It

With the favorite design chosen, there is an opportunity for you to customize what you have before you. Many free design services offer an ‘editing tool’ for which you can take the concept or concepts you are interested in and work on customizing them to your preferred image.

In a majority of cases, each part of the design has the potential for customization using this tool, including rotating the symbol, dragging it to another location, opting for an alternate color, or editing the size. If the company name doesn’t please you, this can generally be fixed, including the style of the font, putting it in another area, the size of the text, And there’s no time limit for your creation.

Create Several Options

The great thing with these services is that you have the option of making and saving as many samples as you want to. For businesses who have partners or desire opinions from advisors or colleagues or other third-parties, this is a great option.

Nothing that you save will be destroyed with you having the chance to look back over favorites and working on one of those if there is a second thought regarding what’s best for the business.

The claim is that in almost all situations, logos can be available for use on the same day that you make it with any of the free services. So, you can implement it immediately for both online and offline needs concerning marketing.

How To Use Your New Logo

Once a logo design is complete and ready to use, the business is ready to introduce itself to the public. If the symbol created does all that we’ve discussed so far, the company should anxiously await the audience’s response to the brand. Be prepared to take note:

Is the brand easily recognized?
Does the personality translate?
Do they understand who you are and what you’re about?
What about the values?

You should never expect that you’re going to see immediate results. Patience is key when doing business. It takes time to reach a target audience, allow them to gain familiarity, decide they want to continue to engage with this brand, and then convert into a loyal customer. So, what should you do to make your logo a prominent fixture in their lives?

Making Your Brand Familiar Through Logo Use

Develop your business materials with the newly designed creation as soon as possible, and that is going to include letterhead, envelopes, flyers, business cards for you or any employees. With business cards, you want to ensure that you and the members of your staff inundate the public with them, whether it be at events happening locally, conventions, when a consumer buys a product or partakes in a service. It gets that logo out there to associate with your brand, who you are, and what you do.

Bring on the Premiums!

Make sure that you provide promotional materials for anyone visiting your office, whether it be pens, custom gift mugs filled with items for that particular season, magnets for car doors when driving through your local area, t-shirts for the staff. It puts the logo in public and is an excellent source of advertising. And almost everybody on the planet steals pens.

Bring Brand Consistency to Your Website

Don’t forget the website. Anyone who’s anyone has a website today with the company logo front and center at the top of each page so users can identify with the brand.

Summary

Hopefully, for the small business owner, you recognize the necessity for a high-quality logo for your business. It is the epitome of a marketing concept for any business, as this is what the customers see first. And from this, they gain their initial opinion. You never get a second chance to make a first impression.