A logo is a company’s face, its business card, and a distinctive sign. Logos come in many forms: sometimes, they impress with their clever design, and sometimes, they become an object of ridicule or even the basis for memes. But all of them, abstract, verbal, text-graphic, and even monogrammed, are created with the help of special tools.
The logo should be simple and recognizable at the same time. When a logo meets these requirements, your business will become firmly associated with a particular image.
To achieve this goal, First, you need to figure out what your logo should look like. Second, it’s easy to bring a project to life by using one or more of the apps in the review below to turn images and your ideas into flawless collages. But first, we offer you some theory and story to fully experience the evolution of logo design and its importance.
A bit of History
In the modern world, almost 90% of the total mass of information is obtained by a person with the help of eyes, i.e. visually. That is why logos are so important for the successful existence and popularization of companies. But, in fact, this has always been the case.
In the history of many civilizations, there are different kinds of signs, symbols, drawings, and pentagrams. This is where modern logos originated from. Man has always tried to give meaning to symbols, to put certain ideas into them, to convey important information and even his emotions through them.
The second iconic stage in the history of logos was coats of arms, which denoted the rights of possession and identification of a person, including the belonging of a family to a special class.
This was followed by the active development of typography, which gave rise to the formation of logos as they exist today.
The first modern logos had a direct connection to the evolving system of patent law. The company “Bass & Co” for the first time in the history of brand symbols legally received the ® sign on its logo. It happened in 1876 in England. This was the beginning of mass registration by brands of their trademarks.
Logo Design Trends
The main function of a logo is to identify and distinguish a business in the user’s mind. And since it plays such an important role, you should make sure that this element is created according to all the rules. When creating a logo, it is especially important to consider typography, colors, and the intended message. Well, of course, most designers tend to create logos based on the current trends in this field. Today we are going to talk about the main trends in logo design in recent years.
Gradient Colors
Gradient has been around for several years and has been trendy for several years, starting its revival in 2020. This color scheme is especially suitable for companies looking to reflect their technological and progressive nature in their logo.
Basic Geometric Shapes
Basic geometric shapes – triangles, circles, squares, dots, and lines give the logo a simplified look. As compensation, designers can use a bright, high-contrast color palette. Or, conversely, opt for monochrome and take the minimalistic effect to the max. Negative space is another great way to make simple geometry more original and interesting.
Non-standard geometry
Logos with non-standard geometry became fashionable recently, so this logo will remain relevant for many years. However, here you should not go overboard with the bizarreness of forms, after all, the main trend of recent years remains minimalism.
Minimalism
Minimalism is worth using in logo design in case you are tasked with telling the story of a brand with a clearly defined mission and objective. The company should have a bright feature that will set it apart from its competitors. And it is this detail that would be good to convey in a minimalist logo.
Sans-Serif Fonts
While experimental typography is a bold trend that not everyone will like, sans-serif fonts are familiar and understandable to everyone. Many designers are abandoning fancy fonts in favor of minimalist grotesques. Sans serif fonts are much easier to adapt to different sizes and media, so they are more suitable for creating responsive logos.
Retro
Retro is a trend that is just gaining popularity. A company that uses a logo in the style of retro, translates a link to a certain era (in the style of which the design is executed) as if hinting at the fact that it is inherent in the fundamental qualities valued in those times.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence tools are popular everywhere, including in the world of logos. These Neural-Networks are capable of creating a revolutionary option that a designer would not have thought of. We will talk about AI-based tools separately.
Logo Design Steps
A logo is not just an image, but a visual association with your business. That’s why it’s so important to take its creation seriously.
To create an effective logo, follow these steps:
- Research your competitors. Analyze which techniques work and which don’t.
- Be inspired by examples of successful companies. Research other organizations in your industry, and pay attention to current trends.
- Determine what message the logo will convey. It should reflect the main aspects of your business.
- Do some brainstorming. Create several variations, and try different fonts, colors, and placement of elements.
- Get feedback from trusted sources. Take constructive criticism into consideration.
- Create a design using one of the tools listed below.
Logo Design Tools
It is impossible to imagine a brand or a company without its logo. The logo represents and creates an impression of the brand, the company is recognized by it. Therefore, it is extremely important that the logo design is carefully thought out and no less carefully drawn. And then the question arises – through what program you can draw a logo? And a knowledgeable person will tell you, of course, that the best programs are Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and vector graphic editor CorelDraw. However, each of these programs requires a long and painstaking study. And not every designer can confidently say that he knows at least one of the programs entirely.
There are at least two ways to solve this problem: take courses on Adobe Photoshop or another program from the list above, or use a simpler program for creating logos, with which even a person far from graphic design will be able to draw a logo is not worse than in a professional studio.
There are many free logo design services on the Internet that you can use to personalize your brand. Typically, these platforms provide free templates that you can use to customize according to your company name and colors. At the same time, it is important to know that the logo you create with these programs will not be exclusive and therefore will not be unique to you. However, as a starting point with a minimal budget, this is a great opportunity.
Logo Design Programs and Applications
Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop is usually used by advanced users and most professional designers. In this program, there are no ready-made templates, only a blank sheet and your idea. The main disadvantage of this program is that it works only with bitmap images, and the bitmap logo is inconvenient to scale. The full version of the program is paid, but you can use the free demo version for Windows and Mac.
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a graphic vector editor that can be used to create illustrations, cartoon graphics, diagrams, web pages, and, of course, logos. Illustrator is very popular with professional designers, developers of interactive projects, and video production specialists. The program is suitable for logo design on both PCs and tablets.
Adobe InDesign
This program allows you to design almost any printing materials: letterheads, flyers, posters, brochures, annual reports, magazines, and books. And, of course, for logos. InDesign is ideal for you if you plan to design print materials and work with fonts in the future. And do not forget that all Adobe programs are interconnected, files created in one program – are easily opened in another or exported to it.
CorelDraw
The big plus of this program is that thanks to its intuitive interface, it can be easily used by both professional graphic designers and beginners in this field. This program creates vector illustrations, which are described by various mathematical formulas, and the elements in them, instead of pixels are objects. When creating an object, you set its coordinates, as well as the color, thickness, and style of the line.
Inkscape
Inkscape is a free vector graphics program that is similar in functionality to CorelDRAW. It has full functionality for creating emblems. You’ll be able to draw a scalable illustration, add fill, and text, and apply filters. There are tools for cloning objects to get symmetrical pictures, and alpha blending to make seamless textures from patterns.
Affinity Designer
Professional tool for creating vector illustrations and bitmaps. Its functionality is fully suitable for designing corporate icons. In it, you can make designs for websites and print layouts. Compatible with graphics tablets, it supports Apple Pencil, which makes it easy to work on iPad.
AAALogo
The logo design application has more than a thousand ready editable templates. Equipped with a good library of icons and shapes. Supports raster and vector graphics. Allows you to export files to PNG and WEBP, SVG, EPS, and PDF. AAA logo program does not require deep knowledge in the field of graphic design and contains a huge number of different templates and many tools for designing personal logos.
Canva
Canva is a graphic editor that allows you to work not only with banners and creatives but also with logos. There are two ways to construct a logo design in the visual editor. The first option is to take one of the proposed professional templates and change individual details – colors, inscriptions, and graphic elements. The second way is to design an individual corporate symbol based on a catalog of clipart.
LogoMakr
LogoMakr is a simple service for logo customization. This free logo creation tool is characterized by an intuitive interface. However, it cannot boast the same wide functionality as the tools described above. Despite this, the program is one of the most popular among novice users, as it is extremely easy to use. Only a low-resolution logo can be downloaded for free.
AI Logo Design Tools
Hatchful by Shopify
Hatchful by Shopify is a free builder with an assistant for choosing a template to fit your company’s industry. The simple online constructor allows you to generate your unique logo in a few steps. The logo is created using the templates available on the site – AI uses suitable elements in the chosen style, independently selecting clipart and text design.
Looka
Looka is a service that combines the capabilities of a designer and an assistant. You set the conditions for the logo and then edit the resulting template. The user is invited to enter the company name and slogan, specify the type of activity, and choose the color scheme. Neural network auto-generates logo designs in different styles.
Namecheap Logo Maker
The domain name registration service has recently acquired a new feature – an AI-based logo builder. Brand identity is created using a step-by-step prompt. Users select a few preferred font types, a palette and several cliparts to be used. The generated logos can be customized. Once editing is complete, the files are available for download in various formats.
Tailor Brands
Tailor Brands is a designer with an assistant who selects logo variants based on the client’s data. On the platform, you can not only make an emblem for your business, but also design a website, protect a domain name, and order the production of business cards. Logo generation is performed according to the standard step-by-step principle – the user enters general information, chooses a style, and then the development of symbols by the neural network begins.
Conclusion
A logo is a visual element that every brand applies to identify itself. You don’t have to call designers to create a logo. You can design a logo on your own. Fortunately, there are special online applications for this purpose with free tools and advanced interfaces that allow you to create a unique logo in high resolution.
If you want to distinguish yourself from your competitors and create a positive image with your customers – make sure your logo is professional and recognizable.
As you may have seen by reading this article, the options for creating an original logo are many. Choose a tool based on your goal and skill level. Professional programs will suit experienced users, and AI-designers will be convenient for beginners.
A logo is the visual presentation of your business, be sure to keep this in mind when creating your design.
