Your brand is your perception in the marketplace. It’s your reputation, how you treat your customers, your service partners and your community.
Your logo is a symbol of that brand that makes you recognizable, helping build authority and trust, differentiating you from your competitors.
Designers rightfully charge thousands of dollars to design a logo and a collateral system businesses that are based on your brand attributes — the values upon which your company is built.
These attributes drive the look and feel of your logo and the subsequent branded collateral items: business cards, letterhead, packaging, etc.
For a startup on a budget, logo design can be a luxury
Over the last few years we’ve seen the emergence of companies like 99designs that are based on logo design contests where designers from all over the world submit their concepts.
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I’ve used 99designs a few times and have been very satisfied with the results. Identify your preferences for color, fonts, industry and style. Narrow down the responses and choose the winner. It’s very efficient and you get a surprising array of responses. Some are terrible but you’ll get at least three or four that are very good.
The latest development: machine-made logos
New applications are taking this process a step further so that you can make your own logo. Enter the same requirements discussed above —industry, fonts, color and style preferences — and these applications will present a number of logos for your review.
Four free applications based on your preferences
For these applications, you’ll be presented with these same fields to identify your preferences. Style is an important consideration — are you a minimalist or do you prefer ornate design? Some applications provide templates where you use the existing design and swap it out with your own name and tagline.
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• Hatchful is a mobile app for iOS and Android that helps you build a brand from scratch — right from the palm of your hand. It’s trusted by 140,000+ business owners. Hatchful will suggest logos from hundreds of available templates.
• Canva is likely the most hands-on logo-maker on the list and it’s great for beginners. Canva’s templates are broken down by niches such as badges, art/design, fashion, sports, food and drink, etc. For those who have used Canva for other design work — posters, flyers, postcards, etc., you’ll easily ramp up to this free logo maker.
• Ucraft helps you create a professional logo in just a few clicks. Export this as a png file for free or in svg or eps formats for $7. The high-resolution, transparent-background .png file is completely free and can be used in any online space.
• Squarespace is not only a popular website platform, it also has a great free logo-maker that’s available even if you’re not creating a website. While there are fewer options, Squarespace is notable for its ease of use.
Branding may not be part of every conversation anymore, but it has never diminished in importance. Contact Being Top of Mind to talk about your business and your brand: Janet at 510-292-1843 or [email protected].
Contact Janet at 510-292-1843 or [email protected].
