The Complete Guide to Creating the Perfect Logo for Your Business

As we dive into the holiday season, it's important to think about how well your branding is working for your business. There are tons of compelling statistics that reveal just how important branding is--like the fact that 44% of people purchase holiday gifts from companies they're already loyal to!

Understand Why Your Logo Is So Important

Before we dive into our guide to creating the perfect logo, let's talk about why logo design is so important. We mentioned already that your logo serves as a memorable staple for customers. After seeing your logo a few times, potential customers are far more likely to become first-time and recurring customers.

However, this only works if your logo accurately represents your business and generates positive feelings of trust. Plus, your logo should be timeless so that you don't need to update it in a few years' time. 

So, how can you make sure that your logo checks all of these boxes? We're here to walk you through the process.

Do Some Market Research

Before you get to the drawing board, it's important to do some market research. When creating a logo, you want to keep in mind industry standards as well as the needs and desires of your target customers. 

By now, you likely have an idea of who your target customers are, as well as your closest competition. Taking a closer look at these two key groups is simple! Let's dive in.

Research Your Audience

What common interests do your target customers share that you can appeal to? What are some of the other brands or styles that they enjoy? By looking at the social media activity of your audience, you can start to get a sense of what compels them and how you can use your branding to evoke an appropriate emotional response.

Research Your Competitors

How is your competition branding itself? What kind of logo designs are they using to create brand recognition?

As you take a look at the competition, you'll want to create two lists: a list of what you like and a list of what you don't. The goal is to learn from others, not to mimic, so gather inspiration while taking note of what hasn't been done yet.

Research Successful Logo Designs

Go beyond your competition and take a look at logo inspiration pulled from successful logo designs. Take note of the way that businesses achieve visual simplicity without losing emotional complexity. Pay close attention to the use of design elements such as graphics, colors, and fonts--something we'll talk about in-depth shortly!

Brainstorm Your Brand Identity

If you haven't given your brand identity much thought lately, it's time to revisit the subject. In addition to researching your customers and competition, it's important to look inward and think about what your business is uniquely bringing to the table. After all, great products, alone, don't build customer trust and loyalty--your business's identity or "personality" plays a big role, as well.

Your Values

First, think about your business values. What are some of the causes or purposes that matter to you and inform the way you do business? What values do you never sacrifice, even if it means taking your time or investing more in your production?

A few examples of compelling business values include:

• cutting down environmental waste and committing to recycled materials
• promoting the wellbeing of your community
• partnering with charities or nonprofits that give back to an important cause
• creating more employment opportunities for people in need

Whatever your values, it's important to build them into your branding. Customers have their own set of values that they want to uphold when they're making purchasing decisions. 

Your Image

In addition to your brand values, think about the image you'd like to create for your business. How do you want people to feel when they interact with your marketing or purchase your products and services? 

It can help to break your ideal image down in terms of adjectives. Here are a few examples of the adjectives that might help you to define your ideal image:

• exciting and adventurous
• playful and light-hearted
• professional and trustworthy
• innovative and groundbreaking
• practical and problem-solving

These adjectives can help to inform your logo design and logo style. 

Put Together a Logo Mood Board

Now, it's time for the fun part! Creating a logo "mood board" is a great way to start putting some of your research and brainstorming to work. Ask your team for their input as you think about design elements such as color, font, and style for your new logo.

Color Psychology

Have you ever heard of color psychology? The basic premise is that different colors evoke specific emotions, meaning that you can start to generate the emotional response you desire by pulling from the right colors.

For example, a logo with a white background can generate feelings of freshness, cleanliness, and opportunity. A logo with a black background can evoke feelings or expectations of power, mystery, or luxury. Warm colors, as a whole, are often perceived as energizing while cool colors are often perceived as soothing. 

Using two to three colors in your logo will allow you to create a bold design without overwhelming the senses or creating a confusing emotional response.

Font Selection

Your font will also give customers a sense of how to feel about your brand. With each passing year, we see dozens of new fonts added to the design canon. While some remain timeless (hello, Helvetica), others (ahem, Comic Sans) fall out of favor.

When you did your research, you likely noticed that great logos use fonts that align with the brand's image. For example, a curly and cute font would make perfect sense for a bakery or toy company, but you're not likely to find something that playful in a law firm's logo. The inverse is also true; the classic, professional font used by a law firm would seem out of place in a toy company's logo. 

Compare a few font choices to the adjectives you came up with earlier. Make sure that the typography you use aligns with your image and values. Stick to one or two fonts to ensure that your logo looks clean and readable.

Find the Perfect Logo Creator

You've got your mood board ready and it's time to start creating the perfect logo. Do you need to master graphic design overnight? The answer is no!

FreeLogo Design offers a logo creator that's easy for anyone to use. We have tons of templates to start from and offer customization options from top to bottom. Build off of one of our masterfully designed templates and customize your color choices, fonts, text, and graphics to come up with a design that sends the message you've worked so hard to come up with!

Why does FreeLogo Design stand out? It's actually free! You can create, save, and use your logo without spending a dime, which means that you can invest more in your advertisement campaign and your products or services.

Plus, our logo creator generates high-quality, versatile logos that you can use across platforms. Because 73% of customers use a multichannel approach when making a purchasing decision, it's important that you have a logo that looks great on social media, websites, print, and more.

Do Some Logo Testing

Once you have created your logo, it's time to put it to the test. Send your logo design to friends, family members, and colleagues and ask them what emotions your logo evokes for them. What do they expect from your business based not on what they already know, but on the logo you've created?

Because our logo maker is free to use, you can tweak your design as many times as you need. Our objective is to guarantee that you walk away with a logo design that sends the exact message you had in mind when creating it.

Creating the Perfect Logo Is Easy With FreeLogo Design

Creating the perfect logo is the first step in taking control of your brand identity. You want a logo that works as hard and as successfully as you do. With FreeLogo Design, you can come up with a logo that tells your story with a timeless, crisp, versatile design.

What are you waiting for? Head to our logo creator and start creating the perfect logo for your business!