How to Design Your Own Logo Free

Logo Evolution

A great logo works with a brand identity to inform a customer what a business stands for. If hiring a graphic designer is not within your budget, you can design your own logo for free with some basic design tools and a few great concepts.

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Scanner
• Drawing Paper
• Sharpened Pencils
• Fine Art Pens
• Printer

Instructions

1. Decide what you want your logo to convey to prospective clients or customers. What is the first thing you want them to think of when they see your logo? Keep this in mind as you start the design process.

2. Research the logos of businesses or products similar to your own. This will show you what the current logo trends are for your industry. Knowing what has been done or what the market is lacking is essential to helping you design your own logo.

3. Sketch out some thumbnail concepts for your logo. This is what professional logo designers do to get started. Draw any idea that comes to your mind about a possible logo design. This includes both the mark (a symbol used in a logo) and logotype (the text used in a logo).

4. Pick three to five of your favorite thumbnail concepts and redraw them cleaner with more detail. This is called creating a rough of your concept. Don't worry about adding color. You should work with the logo in black and white until you are happy with the final result.

5. Render two of the most successful marks digitally by scanning in your roughs on a computer and recreating them in Adobe Illustrator. The preferred file format for a logo is an .EPS, which is a vector illustration in Illustrator. This file type makes it easy to make any modifications to the logo later on.

6. Explore different typefaces to see which works the best as the logotype for your design. Try both serif and sans serif typefaces of varied stroke weights. When you find the best typefaces for your needs, experiment with placement as well as letter spacing (kerning and tracking).

7. Choose which of your mark and logotype concepts works best for your needs. Print it out in varied sizes to ensure that it translates well on small and large scales. If any element of your logo becomes distorted in any way, make those adjustments until it prints neatly in all applicable sizes. Remember, this logo may be printed on a package, a business card or a letterhead---the sizes will vary.

8. Make a copy of your black and white logo in Illustrator and make any color modifications as desired to match your brand. It is common practice for a business to have black and white, grayscale and color versions of a logo. If your logo works well with and without color, you have designed a successful logo.

Tips & Warnings

• Read up on typography and logo design to gain a better understanding of the process and what designers do. This will help you develop a better logo.

• If you can't draw or don't know how to use Adobe Illustrator, it's wise to hire someone to develop a logo for you. It's better to have a successful logo that you paid for than to have prospective customers turned off by one that is poorly designed.

References

• Vital Tips for Effective Logo Design

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish