Introduction
Whenever you think about your favorite brands, it is their logos that come first in your mind—this much is the power of a logo.
In fact, a logo is the face of a company that helps customers identify and communicate. It is the most critical branding element for a business, especially when it’s a startup. Being a startup, your target audiences aren’t aware of your products or services that you would be offering, giving you a challenging task to market. But things can be easier if your startup logo is attractive and memorable.
But the million-dollar question is how to create a logo that stands out and helps you in brand building?
Actually, there are a few options available you can use to get a logo, logo maker being the most affordable (absolutely free, but you don’t need to pay if you download the design files). You can choose other options: hire a designer or agency, and launch a design contest on a creative marketplace such as Designhill, 99designs, and Designmantic, etc.
Logo maker vs. designer/agency vs. design contest
Well, each design option comes with specific pros and cons that you need to consider before opting for one.
Logo maker: Logo makers or logo creators are DIY tools that anyone, irrespective of the design skill. They are a boon for businesses running on a shoestring budget but want a professional-looking logo instantly. All you need to be a little creative, have some inspirations and ideas, and most importantly, in-depth knowledge about the industry.
The best part of using a logo maker is that it lets you create a logo on your own in just a few minutes. You don’t need to be a pro-designer to use it. Also, they aren’t heavy on the pocket—their packages start from as low as $15.
But this option has a downside too. It is a fact that only a professional designer knows the fine details of logo design; hence, the design created by a professional logo designer would be far better than what you could create on your own. Therefore, we would suggest you go for any of the two other options if you can afford it.
Design Contest: It’s an ideal choice for businesses of small and medium budget. If you want a professional graphic designer to work on your logo design project for your startup without investing too much, this will suit you.
The whole design process takes about 10 days. Once you launch a custom logo design contest on platforms like Designhill or 99designs, you’ll get dozens of design entries by several professional designers from across the world within a week. It lets you choose a design that best narrates your brand’s story. Once you choose, you can get multiple changes within a stipulated time frame to make it more personal.
Hiring a designer or agency: This is the most professional but expensive way of getting the work done. In this arrangement, you work with a designer on a 1-1 basis, ensuring you get the best quality. Usually, big organizations with a reasonable budget prefer this option.
The benefits of getting your job done by a professional designer or design agency are:
- More professional design
- Professional designers or agencies know about the latest design trend, and therefore, they can suggest you the best option that suits your business the most.
Things to keep in mind while creating a logo
There are certain things that you must consider when you create a logo for your startup.
- Your logo will be placed on various marketing collateral—both online and offline—and you should consider this while creating your logo. You may need to use it on your website, mobile application, social media, business cards, letterheads, and so on. Make sure your logo fits all of them perfectly without losing the quality. Think about the colors, size and shapes.
- Budget is one of the most crucial factors that decide which option of logo creation you choose. If you’re a startup, you may not have enough funds to hire a designer or design agency. A logo maker or design contest will be an ideal choice for you.
- Don’t copy. You may take inspirations and ideas from other logos, but copying will land you in serious legal trouble. Also, make sure you’re not using an image similar to others. So if you’re creating a logo on your own, do a Google reverse image search to make sure you’re using a unique image.
- Think from a broader perspective—will this logo be still relevant when your business takes a different direction or add more services/products? Think logo-term.
Top logo makers for designing a logo on your own
You’re a startup, and we assume that you don’t have much fund to spend on a custom logo design. In fact, startup owners shouldn’t opt for an expensive way to have logo designs as they have many other things to do—from office set up to manufacturing of products and from website development to marketing, and many more. Startups should always look for ways to minimize CapEx and set aside considerable amounts of money for business operations and others.
That’s why we would suggest you dive a little deep into your industry to find out what will work best for you. Analyze your competitors’ logos and take ideas and inspirations from them.
Top logo maker tools to create a logo on your own
Designhill: Designhill logo maker is a top-notch DIY tool powered by artificial intelligence. Its easy-to-use interface enables even novices to create a professional-looking logo for your startup. This tool has plenty of professionally-created templates that make logo creation fun, seamless.
Considering the key elements such as ease of designing, a wide range of templates, icons, fonts, pricing, etc., the Designhill logo creator becomes the first choice for start-ups with a fewer budget.
Fiverr: It is very similar to Designhill, Fiverr is an excellent logo creator you can use to create an eye-catching logo maker. The platform also lets you hire a designer to work on a 1-1 basis and launch a design contest.
99designs: This is one of the most popular platforms with great libraries of templates, icons, fonts, and layout. Its interface is easy, and anyone can use it to create a stunning logo.
Also, you can hire a designer from across the world to work on your logo design project.
Canva: Canva is a complete suite of graphic design. You can create many other things along with logo designs, be it brochure design, business card designs, or any other designs. Although this platform is free, you may need to pay a small amount of money for specific backgrounds, images, etc.
Tailorbrands: This is yet another affordable tool to create a professional-looking logo, besides many other graphic designs.
Final thought
Your logo is one of the most critical branding elements. That’s why you should pay the utmost heed while creating your startup logo. If you go through this article and follow the tips mentioned above, you can be able to create a logo design that would help your brand stand out from the crowd.
Do you know any other logo design tips that you think are worth considering? Let us know in the comments below.
