Everyone wants cool logos for their businesses, right? The point where people run into trouble is that everyone has a different definition of cool. Every business is unique, just like every business owner. People have ideas in their minds of what they want their logo to look like, but turning that vision into reality can be a very costly process. Let’s talk about how to get cool logos made without spending a fortune, but first we’ll go over some of the ways that trying to do this yourself, or hiring expensive design firms, can get quite costly.Before you start tossing together a logo on your own because you’re in a hurry to order your first business cards (Show of hands – who has done this? It’s putting the cart before the horse!), it’s important to think about how you want your branding to look, what you want your logo to represent, how you want to look to the world of potential customers.
A professionally designed logo can cost a fortune, or a DIY logo can be almost free… but is anything really free? Let’s talk about the opportunity cost of getting “free” logos, and how to get really cool logos without paying a fortune to a designer, along with some of the other traps to look out for along the way.
Table of Contents
How Much Do Cool Logos Really Cost?
There are two routes you can take. First of all, there’s the DIY route where you try to design your own logo from scratch or using a template or tool. This is quick, but usually the end result looks very amateurish and won’t represent your company, project, or organization in the best light. Let’s face it, unless you’re a professional designer, you simply aren’t a pro and that’s okay.
You could always invest a lot of time and money into taking courses and learning how to design things professionally, but this is where we start getting into the opportunity cost. Wouldn’t you be better off focusing on growing your business instead of trying to make a perfect logo? All of that initial time that you spend trying to piece together a workable logo could be spent moving forward in other areas, while you allow a pro to take care of the logo work…
But professional logo design can get very pricey. Logos can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars, and sometimes you’ll even need to pay extra for revisions and changes to it. On top of the cost of a logo, you’ll still need to get social media assets made, business cards, fliers and brochures in some cases, graphics for a website, and so on. The cost can add up very, very quickly if you aren’t using a qualified firm.
On the other hand, if you try to go the cheap route, it’s very possible that you’ll end up with something that’s even worse than what you would have come up with on your own or been able to generate using one of those online logo maker sites that we’ll be discussing again in a few moments.
So, What’s The Answer?
If this feels like you’re already getting into some kind of overwhelming balancing act when all you really want is a cool logo for your business – don’t worry. This is where we come in. Here’s what sets us apart:
- Fair, honest, upfront pricing: Get all of your graphic design work done for one flat monthly rate.
- Quick turnaround times: We’ll get your design concepts to you quickly so you don’t have to wait before making progress.
- Professional: Our team is filled with professional and skilled design experts who will work with you to make your vision a reality.
- Affordable: Since we charge a flat monthly rate, you always know what you’re going to pay. This consistent fee saves you money, and allows us to offer a much more competitive rate than designers that you hire as a one-off service.
We’ll talk about what we can do for you in particular again before the end of the article, but now it’s time to talk more about logos, why they matter, and how to order a perfect one.
How Important is Having a Cool Logo?
Your logo doesn’t necessarily have to be trendy or modern, sometimes a more traditional or plain logo will work best. It really depends what your business is and does. A law firm will want a different style of logo than a skateboard magazine blog, right?
A logo is just part of how to build a brand with designs that will set your brand apart.
How to Make a Logo
Wondering how to create a logo? There are a number of tools you can use to create free logos online, but they are very limited. You’ll get something that isn’t original because all of these online logo creator apps use basic icons and generic text, they aren’t ever going to truly capture the essence of your business or your project.
Here are some steps that will help you make cool logos, whether you decide to try to design it yourself or if you decide to pass it off to a professional logo design team like we have here at Graphically. If you don’t want to learn how to effectively manage remote graphic designers, we’ll take care of that for you.
Step 1: Find Your Brand Identity
What is your brand all about? Do you run a small tea shop, an arcade, a plumbing business? Maybe you’re putting together an eSports team or you need some Twitch banner design? In any case, certain industries and types of businesses have certain feelings, emotions, and thoughts that they want to portray and it can vary a lot.
A tea shop probably doesn’t want to have the same type of logo as an eSports team, so finding your brand’s unique identity while still fitting into your corner of the market can be challenging but something that an experienced designer will have no problem accomplishing for you.
Step 2: Find Your Inspiration
It’s okay to take inspiration from existing designs, just make sure you’re making them your own. You can look at competitors in the same field as you from all around the world and put together a document with some of your favorites. Again, try to describe specifically what you like about each design.
Your inspiration doesn’t have to come from other logos or businesses, either. Maybe there’s a story from your childhood that speaks to you and you’d like to represent it visually or pay homage to it. Maybe you had an influential grandparent who inspired your business, and you want to make sure your logo has a piece of them in it.
Whatever your inspiration is, being able to show it to your designer will help them to give you something special. The difference between a professional designer and someone who is just playing around is the extra thought and care that goes into each design, along with the technical skill to turn ideas into reality.
Step 3: Make A Few Drafts and Sketches
Whether you’re designing your own logo or passing it off to a designer, this is a good way to help them understand what you have in mind. If you hire a graphic designer to make your logo, it’s a good idea to let them come up with some ideas on their own, too, because you’ll probably be impressed. If you make them strict to your strict vision, you could miss out on all of their creativity.
One of the benefits of our logo design service is the fact that you get unlimited revisions. You can give us some ideas and our designers will make all of them, or you can tell us the things you write down for steps 1 and 2, and let us work our magic. Either way, you’ll get as many designs and revisions as you want until you love your logo. Once we have finished designing your logo, we can make matching graphics for your website, your social media, to print on your business card, for brochures and pamphlets, and anything else you can imagine.
Step 4: Choose Your Software
Now that you have inspiration, a brand identity to follow, and some ideas and sketches on paper, it’s time to start digitally making your logo.
If you are rebranding a company, you may want to include certain nods to the former brand, or you may want a fresh slate.
If you’re doing this yourself, you’ll need logo making software. The most popular choice for illustrations is Adobe Illustrator, but Photoshop is another very popular choice for graphic design and logo making. If you’re on a budget, check out two programs called AFfinity Designer and Affinity Photo, they are alternatives to Adobe’s software that cost considerably less but can still get the job done very well.
Step 5: Learn Your Software
Once you have software, you’ll need to learn how to use it. There are tutorials on sites like SkillShare or Linda where you can learn the basics of logo design, and plenty of tutorial videos on YouTube. Learning how to use software is different than learning what to use the software for. This is a key distinction. You could know the ins and outs of the most complex software on the planet, but if you aren’t creative and you don’t know what to make using the software, it doesn’t really matter.
On the other hand, you could have the absolute best design ideas for amazing, gorgeous, cohesive logos but if you don’t know how to harness your software, it doesn’t really matter.
Learning your software is just the first step, next you’ll need to learn design, and that’s the really tricky part.
Step 6: Learn How To Design
This step will take a lot of time, patience, self-reflection, and honesty. Most people that try to make designs are not going to do a great job, at least not right off the bat.
If they’re honest with themselves, they’ll realize that their initial designs are just not great. After a lot of time and practice, you’ll start to get okay at design. It’s a good idea to save your initial projects and keep a private portfolio. Don’t make it public yet, you probably don’t want to show-off your very first works.
Looking at great design is a fantastic way to learn, or even trying to recreate existing designs in private, trying to understand why the professional designers made certain choices.
We could go on and on about this step, but frankly
Step 7: Put it All Together
You’ve figured out your brand identity and learned everything else that you need to know, it’s time to sit down and make that logo. Your own process can and should vary from the exact steps we’ve laid out here, there’s nothing wrong with that. Everyone has their own creative process and these are just guidelines.
Step 8: Make it Better
You’re never done. Once you’ve found a brand identity, inspiration, made some drafts, learned software and gone through the long, long process of learning design itself and created your logo – there’s always room for improvement. You might want to sit on your logo design for a few days or a week, if you have time, because you never knew when new ideas might prop up.
On the other hand, there’s a certain point where you need to just accept that you’re done, otherwise it will go on forever. Knowing when you’re done is almost as tricky as getting started.
Or Just Skip All Of These Steps…
If you would rather just sit back and focus on your main work, we’ll take care of the logo design process for you and we’ll make you as many cool logos as you want. We offer unlimited monthly graphic design services from talented designers who have spent years learning the ropes, learning the ins and outs, and mastering the art of logo design.
