How to Design a Logo That Speaks Your Brand

Here’s our step-by-step guide on how to design a logo that speaks to your brand.

How to Design a Logo to Establish Your Brand Identity

Step 1: Get to Know Your Target Audience

As with all great business decisions, the first thing you always have to think about is who you’re selling to. Knowing who your customers are is very important in setting the direction for your logo — from design to color and even font.

Learn more about your demographic before deciding on anything. Know more about who they are — what they like, what makes them tick, and what catches their attention. At the end of the day, your logo should matter not just to you but to your customers as well.

Step 2: Understand Your Brand

After learning more about your audience, take the time to reflect on your brand. What are you offering to your audience? How are you planning to improve their lives with your products and services? What makes you unique among your competitors? Once you’ve answered these questions, create your brand story.

Your brand story should reflect in your logo. This is what makes it authentic and original — two qualities that draw people in and will make your logo memorable. Just take e-commerce giant Amazon’s seemingly simplistic logo, for example.

Amazon’s logo features its typeface with a yellow arrow starting from the “a” and ends up pointing towards the “z”. Coincidence? Definitely not! This represents Amazon’s playful take on selling everything from A to Z. If you look closely, the arrow also looks like a smile, which represents the happiness they bring to their customers.

Step 3: Figure Out Your Color Scheme

Since logos are visual representations of brands, colors play a huge part in making it stand out among the sea of logos out there. Remember: the color/s you choose for your logo will appear across all your marketing collaterals and even your products. Choose wisely!

If you’re going for more than one color, be sure they complement each other. You can also opt for just one color, or even grayscale, as long as it ties in with your branding. Understand what colors mean and how you can connect this to your brand story.

Step 4: Keep It Simple

One thing you’ll notice among really successful companies and those that have been around for decades is that most of them probably have really simple logos. It’s a formula that works, and you’ll achieve better brand recognition and recall with an uncomplicated logo.

Just think about Apple’s apple-with-a-bite logo or Windows’ eponymous four squares. Even without my description, these companies’ logos will flash through your mind as soon as you hear the name. This is the kind of recognition you hope to achieve for your brand through your logo. You have a better chance of succeeding in that with an uncomplicated logo.

Step 5: Figure Out How and Who Will Make Your Logo

In this technological day and age, there are hundreds of free logo design software and online tools you can use to create your logo if you’re just starting out. Here are some of our recommendations:

Canva: offers an easy-to-use interface and dozens of pre-made design elements to choose from
Squarespace Logo Maker: perfect for making modern, minimalist logos

If you have money to spare and want to design your logo yourself, you can check out Logo Maker. It offers a lot of tools and pre-made elements to help you design your logo. After you finished the design, you just have to pay $39.95 to buy the logo.

If you prefer having your logo done for you, you can check out 99designs, which holds “logo contests.” Multiple designers from around the world will submit a custom logo in a bid for your business. The site also features a lot of logo design ideas categorized by industry to help you get started in figuring out what you might want for your own logo.

Even if you’re not the one who’ll be making the logo, it’s still important to know how to design a logo that will effectively communicate what your brand is about. In this way, you can better guide the designer in creating logo design ideas that you can truly call your own. Your logo says a lot about your brand. It’ll go a long way in helping you achieve brand awareness and recognition in the market.

Which logos do you think speak a lot about their brand? Share your insights with us in the comments section below.

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