How to Make a Logo: Logo Design Tips for Entrepreneurs

What is a logo? 

A logo is a visual element that represents your business . It’s often the first image of your business that people see. Along with the colors you choose, the logo will provide the foundation for the way your brand will look and, ultimately, feel.  A good logo can help attract the right audience, while a bad logo—one that sends the wrong message—can turn off potential clients or customers. 

What makes up a logo?

A logo often combines both words and images into a single visual item, which can be tricky to achieve. Although logos are the product of many thoughtful decisions, often the strongest ones are quite simple. Here are some elements to consider:   

• Typography: You may want the entire name of your business on the logo, but remember that you have options. Sometimes an abbreviation or just an initial is enough. Some companies also include their tagline in certain versions of their logo, but everyone’s favorite social network only needs one letter.

• Imagery: The graphic element of your logo can be abstract or concrete. That means, it can be a seemingly random shape or a specific symbol like a cat or a moon. Or maybe all you need is simple lines or dots around the typography you’ve chosen. The iconic sphere that comprises the Pepsi logo is a recognizable shape used in a somewhat abstract way.

• Color: Each color signifies a set of feelings, and you’ll want to consider what emotions you want associated with your business when you choose colors. Eventbrite wants to be associated with fun so their primary color is orange.

• Context: Lastly, think about where your logo will appear. On your website is a likely spot but it may also show up on product packaging or business cards, stickers, and other items that accompany the process of building brand awareness. Where your logo will live affects what shapes and colors it’ll use. For example, if you are only using it on a website, you might opt to use complicated color combinations, like gradients. But, if you plan to print it or use it on merchandise, printers may charge by the color, so using one color or only black and white may be more cost-efficient. And if you are using it on social media, you may want a square version that’s easier to read in a profile image. For example, Eventbrite inverses its color (and of course uses a square shape) for its smartphone app so that it stands out among the other apps.

  For example, Skysthelimit.org uses full-color, black, white, or square versions of our logo depending on the context.

Why are logos important for my business?

Like we said at the start, the logo is often a potential client, customer, or partner’s first look at your business. It establishes the attitude you want your business to project. A good logo gives a business an easily recognizable symbol, provides a way for your business to stand out, and can even work as a signal to your potential clients and customers that this product or service is for them.

Differentiating your brand from others is critical to business survival. So is communicating the benefits of your brand. Research from MIT’s management school suggests that brand logos offer a viable means to help brand managers achieve these tasks. They found that the brand logo can be an integrator of the marketing efforts of the brand, a reflector of such effort and the icon of what the brand means to its customers. In short, a good logo can be a synthesizer of a brand that is readily used by customers for identification, differentiation and positive associations.