Are you starting a new business?
Or maybe you’re considering a rebranding.
You’ll probably want a new logo made but you’re worried it’s going to cost a lot of money.
I’ll show you how you can design your own logo and save thousands of dollars!
It’s really easy and you don’t need any skill and best of all, you can do this for under $5.
If you have an idea for your logo, you’ve got everything you need!
Why design your own logo?
As someone who bootstrapped her business to a full time job with her high school allowance, I completely understand the need for doing everything yourself in your biz.
You make your own handmade goods, you handle customer service emails and you manage Facebook and Twitter.
You wear all the hats in your business.
At some point you’ll be thinking about getting yourself a classy logo, but you feel ginger about spending hundreds (to thousands!) of dollars on a graphic designer.
I’m here to tell you that it’s really easy to design your own logo and for as little as a cup of latte!
Things you need + step-by-step guide:
Here’s a little homework before we dive in.
Go on Pinterest and search “beautiful logos” or something similar to see a whole range of what’s out there.
You’ll find that most logos are just plain text, or a combination of text and a graphic.
Get inspired!
Start a private board of all your favorite logos. You might start to see a common thread between them.
So here’s what we’re going to do:
- Go to any one of these Etsy illustration/clip art shops and pick out a graphic that you feel represents your brand! Here’s a list of my favorites and they cost under $5! Optional step (you may not want a graphic in your logo)
- Black Cats Media
- Graphic Market
- Shh! Maker Design
- The Ink Nest (a little pricier, but so worth it!)
- HOHOHOdesign
- These clip art usually come as a collection, but we really want to use just one icon. Your purchase should include that individual icon you’ll need for this project!
- Go to DaFont and pick out a font! Select one of the font categories and type your shop name in the “Type your text here” field. This will show all the sample fonts with your name so you have a really good idea what you’re getting. Don’t forget to install your font. It’s as easy as dragging the font file you downloaded into a folder within your computer!
- Go to gimp.org and download the photo editing software. It’s like Photoshop, but less complicated and free!
- After installing Gimp, create a new document and set:
- the size to about 10 inches x 10 inches (how big or small you make it is totally up to you, but the bigger the easier to size down!) and
- X and Y resolution to 300 under Advanced Options. So when you print your logo it looks great on paper!
- Using this trusty Easy Guide to Logo Composition that I made below, you can design your own logo with your chosen graphic and font! Keep in mind that a great logo should:
- be easy to read
- look great no matter how small or large it is!
- look great in black and white
And that’s all there is to it!
This is the exact way I would go about it myself, so I hope this has been helpful for you as it has been for me!
If you have any questions, need ideas, have tips to share, please post in the comments below!
Unlock a Profitable Handmade Business
in Just 12 Weeks Without Using Etsy
or Social Media
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This workshop is for anyone who makes and sells a handmade or physical product, including jewelry designers, artists, paper designers, bath & body product makers and more!
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The #1 mistake people make with Etsy & social media that causes shops to FLOP
The secret to making it with your handmade shop so it's no longer just a hobby
How to make sales in your handmade shop with ease so you can finally get to 6-figures
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Long time designer here. This may be an obvious solution for a small business but the logo produced will only match small ambitions, Mei.
I agree that some may find logo design costly but that is professional designers will care as much about a client’s brand as they do.
Stock use is negligible in the long run – it’s not original, it’s not exclusive and can’t be trademarked. This means as a company grows, even if it become reputable the cost of branding goes up in relation to the income of that company – this is the nature of that industry.
So paying £300 / £500 to start with for a unique logo mark that looks authentic and is scalable becomes priceless (and more of an investment than a cost).
But like I say, small start ups may not care.
Hey Ad!
You bring up some great points. Ultimately it would depend on what their priorities are and at what phase in business they’re in. While logo design is imperative for one’s brand, it can be hard for beginners to see the value so making the investment can feel scary. It’s easier to make the connection between spending $300 on a craft show booth to make sales, than it is to invest in branding where the direct benefit is harder to measure. This is an option for people who are not yet ready to make that investment. I also think that most of us start off not having fully developed our vision for the brand yet. It grows as we do.
To further what Ad talked about above, using stock elements may also be a legal issue. Most elements like that don’t include licensing to use it for commercial use, meaning you can’t use to sell your products.
In my experience elements like those only include personal use licensing, which would prevent you from making any kind of profit through it.
As a graphic designer myself, I would caution creative businesses from DIY’ing their logo, and instead make an investment in your business and set it up for success from the get-go.
A branding expert/ graphic designer is trained to dig deep into a brand, develop a plan to accurately represent the business and create pieces that attract your ideal audience ensuring that you will reach your sales goals faster.
What it comes down to for me personally is, if you don’t see value in investing in your company and visual identity, then how do you expect your customers to see value and purchase your product?
Hey Megan! I appreciate your input and you bringing your perspective to the discussion.
Ultimately, an issue I’m seeing more now than ever is there are more and more graphic designers and/or branding experts with no training and not very much experience translating someone’s thoughts and their vision into a visual brand. And they’re charging what could be several months’ worth of revenue for a maker. It’s a huge undertaking and a very big risk for someone just starting a business:
Anyone can call themselves a graphic designer and the unfortunate reality is portfolios only showcase a designer’s best work, which is not accurately indicative of the results you would get as a client. I’ve talked to so many makers who have made the investment to work with even the greatest and most well known designers in our field only to be totally unsatisfied with the end product.
I’m not placing blame on the graphic designer community. I worked with an amazing designer at Clementine Creative when I started the Creative Hive brand. But it took me three other failed attempts with hiring designers in the past to find Carmia. This blog post implies that it’s a slippery slope and it’s not an easy world to navigate, especially for a maker just starting out with their business (most of us are not 100% confident in their own branding vision in the beginning). If the client doesn’t have a clear idea (which does take time to develop), chances are the designer cannot perform to the best of their ability either and everyone is unhappy.
This tutorial is also for makers who are very detail oriented but who may not have access or the ability to illustration or photo editing software.
I agree that investing in one’s business is imperative for growth. Branding identity and logo artwork just aren’t on top of the list for me.
Thank you so much for this post. I used your tips and they work! I created my own unique logo and it only cost me a couple of hours on picmonkey. I’ve paid over $300 USD for a logo for another business and I’ve paid as low as $50 USD for a logo. Creating my own has been the most rewarding and the one I love the most!
Except for the font u select will not download to Gimp…my font isn’t there
Thanks for this. We worked with a graphic designer for our first business. Ended up paying over$800 for a logo for a business that we weren’t sure we could even make that back on. When you start something you just never know. There are a lot of good ideas that don’t make it. That being said we were happy with the final result, though it took many revisions, and because it was a product going to market we did see value in originality. Unfortunately, as you mentioned above, we have already started to change our vision for that project so we may have wasted the $800 after all. For our new business we just couldn’t justify going through that process again. Insert your awesome article. I was able to create our vision really inexpensively. I feel like the comments on here are graphic designers just being defensive, after all they are artists. The way I see it if your business takes off just hire someone and rebrand. I have worked at two large companies that rebranded simply because the business evolved. Anyways, Thanks for sharing.
I loved your post. I’m also starting my 1st business unfortunately in the beginning when you don’t have enough money most people can’t justify spending it on a graphic designer. The graphic designers comments above were a little defensive and in my opinion they don’t really get the mind set of makers mind. Most of us are stay at home moms that really don’t have enough money already to start a new business let alone pay a graphic designer a ton a money. Most of us don’t even know what we’re doing and might change our minds down the line and realize it’s not for them. Plus anyone can design a logo or website this days. There are so many programs out there that you can use or even get trained by a YouTube channel. But I do agree with you. Almost every maker that is starting a small business is probably never going to go to a graphic designer and drop $600.00-$1000.00 before they even make a sale. In my case I would rather spend that money on my business and material and maybe if my business grows and start I start making some real money then yes, I’ll hirer someone. For me it’s not the first place I would go. I would go to Pinterest like I did today and found you. Thanks you again for your post very helpful.
This blogpost is a game-changer for budget-conscious individuals and small businesses looking to establish a unique brand identity. The tips and insights provided on creating a logo for under $5 are not only practical but also empowering. The author’s cost-effective approach, combined with accessible tools and resources, makes professional logo design within reach for everyone. This post is a testament to the idea that creativity knows no budget constraints. Kudos to the author for demystifying the process and proving that a distinctive logo doesn’t have to break the bank!