Make your Own Logo

People asked me how to design a nice logo. So in this article I’ll describe the process in detail. Let me be frank! Most small business logos are terrible! Why? Because most people don’t follow a tried and true method for designing great logos. Copy from the masters. You can either pay a marketing company a lot of money to do it, or you can make your own logo.

Now I’m not abdicating blatant copying of another companies logo, I’m just saying you should use great logo designs as a guide. I’ve designed logos for the past ten years and in this article I’m going to describe the process, so you can design your own logo. Don’t worry it’s actually simple. As Picasso said, “I’ve never seen a great idea I didn’t steal.”

First, you need to get a giant list of great logos in front of you. I’ve assembled below, 635 of the best logos I’ve ever seen. Flip through them and write down those that catch your eye. Look specifically, for the following:

• Images that have something to do with your business. Ex. If you repair cars, look for car type logos.
• Look for interesting uses of lettering that you will use. Ex. If you have an L in the name of your business, look for interesting uses of the letter L.
• Look for images that are just attractive to you. Ex. If you repair cars, look for commonly used images in relation to cars like: wheels in flames, images connoting speed, images connoting safety, images connoting cleanliness, etc.

Now take all of the logos, that caught your eye, print them out and lay them in front of you. With a pencil, so you can easily erase changes, combine the different logo designs into as many new designs as possible. This is how designers make their own logos. Their ideas don’t just pop out of thin air. Nor is their any magic behind logo design.

In regards, to choosing the right font for your logo remember that simple is better. There are three main types of fonts:

• serif,
• sans-serif,

and

• script

Serif fonts, as a whole, are considered old fashioned and easiest to read, while sans-serif fonts are considered modern. There are good versions of both, that you can use for your logo. I would however almost never use a script font for most logos. Those fonts that can be found on every computer include:

• Arial
• Arial Black
• Comic Sans MS
• Courier New
• Georgia
• Impact
• Lucida Console
• Lucida Sans Unicode
• Palatino Linotype
• Tahoma
• Times New Roman
• Trebuchet MS
• Verdana
• MS Sans Serif
• MS Serif

If you choose one of these fonts for your logo you’ll gain many benefits, but I leave it for you to choose. If you go through the process of looking for guidance from the logos below, I don’t think you can go wrong.

In future articles, I’ll walk you step-by-step through the process to make your own logo and I’m happy to help in any other ways you would like.

Note: Many people have emailed me asking that I put all of the logos on one page, instead of displaying them in a gallery viewer. Click here to see all of the logos on one page and Design a Free Logo instead of paying big marketing firms.

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5 Responses to “Make your Own Logo”

1. kevin says:

   April 29, 2010 at 10:24 am

   That's a nice tips for logo design, your tips is very helpful those who want to be logo designer, after read it, can make a good logo design, It is very good and informative ! Thanks for sharing nice information.

   Reply
2. dimitar says:

   September 5, 2010 at 11:48 am

   Please give me an idea for a logo of a company that deals with the packaging of granular products.
   -What should the logo.
   -An idea for color.
   And program that I can do my logo.WEB or something else to download.
   please and thanks

   Reply
   • admin says:

     September 5, 2010 at 3:30 pm

     I’d be happy to help. The program I would use for logo creation, because it is free, is Gimp. If you send me the name of the company, I can provide you with more exact advice from there.

     As per color, that is normally a color special to the client. Right now muted tones and shadow effects are really popular. Send me the name and I’ll provide better advice.

     Thanks

     Reply
3. mary says:

   December 3, 2011 at 2:18 am

   Hello
   we are trying to start our own business and we are looking for a logo how can you help us with that
   we will be a graphic design company/signs /flyer/ all marketing materials plus website design and developments
   that a general idea
   we want a creative name that be a brand later on.
   Thanks
   Mary

   Reply
   • admin says:

     December 4, 2011 at 8:50 am

     I made a giant marketing tutorial here Marketing Plan. I go over numerous topics and provide the tools I used when I worked in marketing.

     Creating a logo is done how I demonstrated in this article. Most people I know look at hundreds of great logos. Figure out what they think may work for them. Then they craft a new logo from the ideas that are generated. I’ve created well over a hundred logos and that is the process. If you have any other questions send me a note.

     Thanks
     Derek

     Reply