HOW TO DESIGN A LOGO FOR FREE

How to design a free logo in Photoshop, Illustrator, Canva and using other best logo design software from scratch for beginners and online businesses without registration for clothing, t-shirts or any other use.

Brought to you by Mau, a professional logo designer at eDigital.

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HOW TO DESIGN A LOGO FOR FREE

TOP TIPS BEFORE YOU START DESIGNING A LOGO FOR FREE

• Make sure the visual arrangement and composition of all the elements of your logo are balanced so it is easy to get it printed on different channels and formats.
• Drawing raw sketches of your initial logo ideas is a great way to see what options you may have.

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• Remember a logo does not necessarily need to comply with a specific form. Be creative.
• Keep your logo design short and simple: this will ensure it will be easy to recognise in the marketplace.

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• Layout different colours and textures. You may find interesting perspectives.
• Map out some child versions of your company logo and brand logos. Do they create a nice formation or pattern? if putting them together?
• There is no specific method or methodology to get a catchy logo, icon or brand name.

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• Some free online logo design tools will help you sketch or model your logo ideas.
• Your logo may be pictured with your competitors’ logos on other websites, online or printed publications. Does your new free logo stand out?

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• Plan the amount of time dedicated to creating a free logo. Sometimes the idea of designing a logo by yourself may take away precious time out of your calendar.
• Make sure you include a “How to Use our Logo” section in a Branding Guidelines document. So, employees, partners or media know how to use it and know what’s permitted. You may want to outline some “bad usage” examples.

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Tip: You can experiment with different design concepts and styles without the financial commitment of hiring a professional designer. This freedom can lead to creative and innovative logo ideas that align with your marketing goals.

HOW TO DESIGN A FREE LOGO – STEPS

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• Choose some of the best free online logo design software.
• Have a minimal short word in mind for your logo. Ideally a “4 letter” word only. If not possible aim for 6 characters only.
• Start creating some sketches.

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• Decide on your top three sketches.
• ?Tip: if it is for a new brand, you may want to ask your customers to review your logo ideas, via a competition or an incentivised survey to win a gift.

• Choose your final logo version.
• Have your final logo version designed in full colour, monochrome versions, black and white.
• Ensure you save your new logo in the best possible file formats. Read below.

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VECTOR FILES

Vector files are the best for printing (logo on a t-shirt, etc.). The file should be high-resolution with minimal compression. If you need a vector editor but don’t have the $ for Adobe Illustrator, you can use Inkscape.org for free to make a vector file.

• PDF (.pdf) Portable Document Format, is one of the most popular file types, and for good reason. It was designed to be standardized, meaning it can be opened or viewed on just about any operating system, without needing the app that created it and will retain its original fonts and layout.
• EPS (.eps) There are lots of programs that can save EPS files, such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and even CorelDRAW. One big program that will not allow you to save out as EPS is Microsoft Office. Please don’t use Microsoft Office (Word, etc.) to make designs.
• AI (.ai) AI is Adobe Illustrator’s native file type. Printers will love your logo design in this format because it’s the premier vector graphic program. We use it just for converting CorelDRAW files (.cdr) to something we can open in Illustrator (.eps)
• SVG (.svg)
• CDR (.cdr) Your printers will probably need to convert your CorelDRAW files (.cdr) to something they can open in Illustrator (.eps)

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BITMAP/RASTER FILES

Bitmap files are great for the internet (social media, email, websites, etc.).

• JPEG (.jpeg) JPEG (short for Joint Photographic Experts Group) is designed to encode photographs. It’s the most popular format used on the web and has become the standard image format. It’s ideal for rich colours and gradients. JPEG does use compression, so one drawback is you have some data loss every time you save it. When working with a large file in Photoshop, it’s best to save it as a PSD or a TIFF to avoid data loss. Realistically, you only need to save it as a JPEG as the last step.
• PNG (.png) PNG (stands for Portable Network Graphics) can support millions of colours along with an alpha channel (transparency). There is no compression, so you do not lose important image data when you save the file. This format was designed especially for images on the internet, and at this point, it’s second only to JPEGs as far as popularity.
• GIF (.gif) GIF (short for Graphics Interchange Format) is one of the oldest image files. It can only support 256 colours, which makes it one of the worst choices for logo files to be printed. But if you want to make an animated logo for the web, a GIF file will be the best.
• PSD (.pds) PSD is simply a Photoshop file. It’s Adobe’s native format and one of the world’s most popular image file types. Photopea.com can also do much of what Photoshop can do if you do not have the $ to get Photoshop. It supports transparent logo backgrounds.
• TIFF (.tif) TIFF (stands for Targeted Image File Format) was originally designed as an interchange format between scanners and printers. It’s become wildly popular over the years among photographers and graphic designers because of its excellent compression. Image files tend to be larger than JPEGs, but the tradeoff is worth it for retaining the quality. So if you have a TIFF and also a JPEG. printers will prefer your TIFF as the image quality will be much better. It supports transparent logo backgrounds.

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• Save your new logo versions to a specific shared folder where it is easy for your team to find them.
• Include your new logo on your “Branding Guidelines” document
• Viola! you should have successfully created a new free logo!

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Having access to a free logo design tool means you can create additional marketing materials (business cards, social media profiles, website banners) with a consistent and recognisable logo, reinforcing your brand identity and building a positive brand reputation.