How to Make a Logo
A logo is one of the first things you’re likely to want when you first start-up a business. It is the face of your business. It will identify you on social media, business cards, banners and your website. Setting up your business from the very start with a logo will enable this promotional material to be consistent across all channels.
There are 3 options you may wish to consider:
- Hiring a local, professional graphic designer
- Hiring an online freelancer
- Doing it yourself
In this article we look at these 3 options.
1. Professional Graphic Designer
Hiring the services of a professional graphic designer to create your logo is recommended. A skilled graphic designer will translate your business’s message using eye-catching visuals. Graphic designers know what’s on trend, the variety of font choices, what colours work well together and how to make your business look impressive.
One of the first things we did when we started out in business was to hire a professional to make a logo for us. We’ve been able have a unique look and use the logo right from the start. This has enabled us to create our social media channel art, website styling and business cards with a consistent, unique and professional look.
A professional graphic designer will also be able to play around with your logo for different uses. For example, in my book Online Marketing for Baby Boomers I wanted different images to capture different ideas being presented. My graphic designer was able to play around with the core DIY Digital logo to come up with the options below.
As website developers we love it when we can start with a professionally designed, creative logo.
Before starting on your website I highly recommend you hire a graphic designer to get the colours and look of your business sorted first.
2. Fiverr
You can make a logo using a designer from Fiverr or one of the other freelancer channels. Often times these services are provided on a budget basis and will limit the number of revisions allowed. The channels rarely allow for a rich conversation about your business or your wish list.
If you go down this path we recommend looking at the logos they’ve created before. If you see a logo you like, this option might work for you. Be very specific and informative about what you want – give them ideas rather than relying on them suggesting ideas to you.
For one of our side projects, we used Fiverr to create the logo. It’s not unique, as you can see by the comparison with the logo the same designer created and based our logo on. However, for our small side hustle, it suited.
3. PlaceIT
A number of online sites exist that allow you to make a logo yourself. We’ve reviewed a number of them and PlaceIT comes out front. PlaceIT first came to our attention from one of our clients who used it to create his logo.
PlaceIT is an easy to use online platform.
The first steps are to:
- Enter your business name
- Pick your industry
The industry, or category, determines the picture choices you see from their large selection of pre-made graphics. In this example the industry of carpentry or builder would have brought up options of screw driver, paint brush and hammer. A yoga teacher or dog trainer would bring up different types of pre-made graphics.
PlaceIT then goes ahead and makes a logo for you and takes you to the edit screen.
In the edit screen you can change fonts, colours and the graphic you previously selected. Spending time on this edit screen is worthwhile. Play around with different layouts, graphics, colours and fonts until you come up with something that suits you. The system allows you to spend as much time as you like, free of cost, to try out different options.
If you create a logo you are happy with you can download it for a cost of about AUD$60.
Below is another example of a logo created using PlaceIT.
PlaceIT will also allow you to add your logo (whether created with them or not) to pictures of mugs, books, pillows and T-shirts. An example of which you can see with our logo on a mug floating in mid-air.
Final Thoughts
A memorable, unique logo will make your business look professional and set your branding up for years to come.
We recommend getting one. 
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Like more? Grab our free 14 page .pdf images guide: Understanding Images for Online Use.
Disclosure
The PlaceIT link in this article is an affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase an item, we receive a commission from the sale. However you don’t pay anymore than you would otherwise. It’s a win-win!