Starting a business can be hard, but one of the most important things that you really need when starting a business is your logo! Your business needs to have a face or a unique image to represent your company.

Chances are, you wouldn’t buy from a business or a person that doesn’t have an identity, so why would you expect your customers to do so? A great logo is a visually appealing design and serves as a symbolic representation of who you are and the services and products that you provide.

So where do you begin? Finding a graphic designer to design your logo can be a time-consuming and expensive process. Especially for you bosses on a budget, it can be a challenge to find an affordable graphic designer!

Why not invest in a skill to create your logo on your own. You don’t have to be a Graphic Design genius; all you need to have is the ability to learn and a little creativity!

Canva is a great platform that you can use to not only create beautiful graphics, but you can also use Canva to create your very own logo!

Here are the top 5 things that you can do now to create a beautiful logo in Canva and start building your amazing and profitable business!

Create An Account

Canva is an amazing tool that you can use for free to create beautiful and amazing graphics, just like a professional graphic designer! I highly recommend, after creating an account, that you sign up for the business membership, which offers you a free 2 week trial!

This offers a ton of benefits as you will be able to experiment with free photos, graphics and the option to create your own branding. After creating your professional Canva account, it’s time to move on to your branding!

Establish Your Branding Colors!

After creating your account, this is where the real fun begins! Branding is the ability to understand and establish your company font and colors. For example, my company is called The Brilliance Bar, where my three main colors are teal, gold and white.

It’s best to choose three main colors that you are drawn to, and stick with these colors. Some color combinations include gold, black and white; Light pink, gray and white (LadyBossBlogger colors), or any other combination!

Whichever combination you choose, you must remember that you should stick with these colors, as this is how your customers will continue to identify your company long term.

Establishing Your Font

After establishing your company colors, it’s time to choose your font! Canva offers three main font faces for you to choose from. This includes a header, a sub title, and your main font. The header will be the biggest font which will serve as the main title, your subtitle will be a bit smaller, and your main font will serve as your body text.

For now I would suggest choosing two main fonts that you will use for your logo. Canva offers hundreds of amazing fonts for you to choose from. Start browsing through your favorite font. This is what you will use when creating your logo.

Start Designing Your Logo

After you have established your branding colors and font, it’s time to start designing your logo! It helps to have your logo drawn out on paper first! This kind of proper planning helps the design process to become much smoother.

When designing your logo it’s important to understand that there are typically three main types of logos.

• Font Logo – where your logo is typically based on text alone.
• Symbolic Logo – where you logo is based solely on an image (for example, Nike and Apple).
• Combination Logo – where your logo is comprised of both fonts and symbols.

I am typically drawn to combination logos, where customers are able to identify you both from text and image. Canva has an amazing tool where you can search for your favorite symbol based on your industry.

• Are you a realtor? Start searching homes or keys that can be used to represent your brand.
• Are you a hairstylist? Start searching scissors or combs to visually represent your company.

The possibilities are endless. Just start searching, and the ideas will come!

Download Your Logo And Go

After creating your beautiful logo, it’s time to download your logo and put it to use! When downloading your logo in Canva, it is best to consider which type of logo file you will need. You can typically download your logo file as a JPG or a PNG file, and Canva gives you both of these options.

• A JPG file usually creates a white background for your logo, in the event that you are uploading your logo to a white surface. I have to be honest, this is typically my least favorite logo type as it doesn’t offer a lot of versatility.
• A PNG file type allows you to download your logo with a transparent background. This is the best type of download as you’re able to place your logo on any type of colored background, without having to deal with that annoying white square background.

Whichever logo you decide to design, it’s important to remember that you must simply start!

You don’t have to have the most amazing logo in the beginning, all you need is a logo that represents your company! Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection. And, honestly, the timing will never be just right!

Just think, Apple (a multibillion-dollar company) has changed their logo several times over the past decade. Just because you have a logo now on a small budget, doesn’t mean that you have to stick with your design months on even years later!

Start now with what you have. I promise that what you have is already enough!

Johanna King is a professional web designer, graphic designer and branding strategist for female entrepreneurs. It is her passion to help and teach women how to build meaningful, profitable and visually appealing businesses.

 

*Disclosure: There are some affiliate links in this post, but these are all products I highly recommend. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified and/or personally used.