Your logo plays a vital role in your business’s branding. It helps to build recognition with your target audience. Your logo is one of the important branding assets that help people to identify your business. Additionally, a company’s logo can affect the buying decision of your customers. Many people tend to shop from businesses with recognizable logos.

Designing a visually compelling logo can help you make a strong first impression. It’s one of the first things customers are going to interact with, so make sure it properly communicates your brand identity.

It can be time-consuming and daunting to create a logo. However, a good logo is the cornerstone of any trustworthy business or personal brand. People looking at your logo should learn who you are and what your business does, why you do it, and how. If they cannot understand what your business does, then you should change your logo design.

Having a proper logo is important for promotional practices as well. Once you create your logo, you can include it on social media, presentations, and marketing materials like fliers, brochures, posters, business cards, and more.

If you are serious about creating an outstanding logo design for your business but don’t know where to start, you are in the right place. In today’s article, we will walk you through some effective logo design tips for beginners. With these tips, you will be able to create a logo design that helps you stand out from the competition.

Let’s start!

6 Benefits of Having a Business Logo

Before we dive into the logo design tips for beginners, it is worth learning some of the benefits of creating a logo for your business.

1. Powerful Marketing Tool

The logo you create to represent your business is a great marketing tool if used correctly. A business’s logo is very crucial for branding and letting your customers and prospects know about your products and services. The right logo can help you build a solid customer base.

2. Increases Brand Awareness

The logo is the first thing people notice when coming across a business or a brand. 75% percent of customers recognize a brand by its logo. Visuals are worth a thousand words. This saying makes a lot of sense, especially when it comes to branding.

Having a memorable logo will help you stick in prospects’ minds. The more eye-catching your logo is, the more brand recognition you will gain.

3. Reflects Your Brand Identity

It is possible to reflect your brand’s image through your logo. This will make your business more attractive to consumers. For instance, if your business is more about innovations, your brand could be more modern and creative.

4. Grabs People’s Attention

A unique and visually appealing logo will attract people’s attention, which is exactly what you need. If you succeed in grabbing people’s attention and keep it, you can get more paying customers. As we have already mentioned, people are more likely to buy from a business with an eye-pleasing logo.

5. Distinguishes You from Competition

It does not matter how perfect your products or services are. If the logo does not stand out, you will never achieve the success you want.

A visually-appealing logo on your website and social media can make a huge difference when it comes to your reach.

6. Builds Brand Loyalty

As your business grows, your logo will become more widely recognizable. More people are going to learn about your brand and what your business is about. The more popular your business becomes, the more trustworthy your business will seem to people.

Take Adidas, for example. When you’re looking for sportswear, and you see their logo, you’re more likely to make a purchase from them. That is because you know the logo and associate it with a brand you can trust.

Once you manage to build trust with your logo, you will be able to build brand loyalty too. So, if you are not investing in creating a proper logo design for your brand, you are leaving a lot of money on the table.

14 Powerful Logo Design Tips for Beginners to Try in 2023

Now that you know how beneficial a logo is for your business, it is high time to get into some simple but valuable logo design tips for beginners.

1. Learn Your Audience and Competitors

The logo you create should communicate what you offer clients and what value they can expect to gain from you. Neglecting your audience and their needs can lead to negative consequences. More specifically, they will not connect with your logo or not get the message you want your logo to convey.

This is why you need to learn your audience through market research. Learn your competition and get to know your customers. This information can help you understand why they would like or would not purchase from you.

You can also brainstorm a few words that best describe your brand and how you would like it to be perceived. Put yourself in the shoes of a person from your target demographic and take into account what would be more important to them.

Apart from learning your target market, you also need to pay attention to the competition. Check out what logo ideas your competitors are using, what resonates well with your audience, and what you should avoid. While stalking your competitors, think about what makes them stand out from the crowd and how you can win the competition with your logo design.

Set yourself apart from others. If other businesses in your industry are using the same tactics, maybe you should opt for some other visual elements to stand out. If almost everyone uses traditional logos, maybe you could design a fun and modern logo to grab attention.

2. Identify Your Brand Values

Nowadays, many customers care about the values of the brands they purchase from. Your logo gives you a great chance to show customers what values your business has.

Logos that reflect your company’s values come with several benefits.

• It allows customers to know what you care about the most
• It allows grabbing the attention of customers who have the same values as your business
• Brand values enable you to distinguish yourself from competitors

To efficiently showcase your brand values, concentrate on expressing them clearly within your organization. You can brainstorm ideas with your team and make a list of ideas you exchange during the meeting. Then, you can discuss how to incorporate those ideas into your brand story and create a logo that presents your brand image the best.

3. Use a Story

You can create a logo that tells your brand story. Customers would be happy to know what makes you unique, how it all started, what made you create this brand, and what you are trying to achieve.

By using a story in your logo, you will be able to:

• Convey your message more easily
• Leave a good first impression on your customers and allow them to have a clear understanding of what your business is all about
• Communicate what makes you unique
• Evoke the emotions you want to convey

Not using a story to help guide your logo can leave you at risk of creating something too generic and indistinguishable from other logos in your industry.

You can see this type of storytelling in the logo for the luxury brand Gucci. The logo famously has two Gs that face each other. This logo was designed to represent the initials of its founder and bring to mind the history of the brand.

4. Create a Rough Sketch

Once you are done with brainstorming, take a pencil and paper to sketch all ideas. Don't get disappointed if you don’t manage to create what you want the first time. Keep revising. Use old sketches to get inspiration for crafting new ones.

Sketching enables you to put shapes exactly where you want them to be. It is also useful when it comes to describing logo design ideas to clients or your team.

5. Test Out Your Sketches

Once you have prepared a few sketches on paper, choose the best ones. Don’t overthink too much. Pick the designs you like the most, and choose them to show to others.

Share these sketches with your friends, colleagues, and family. If possible, show these drafts to someone who best matches your buyer persona. This will allow you to get opinions on your artwork from different people, including your customers.

Ask for honest feedback, and don't be afraid to receive criticism. These negative comments will only make your final logo design better.

6. Keep Your Logo Design Simple

One of the most crucial aspects of logo design is simplicity. If you want people to instantly recognize your logo, you need to avoid using a variety of visual elements. Such design elements only make it harder for people to memorize your brand. In other words, with a complex logo, you won’t be able to establish a personal connection with your audience.

Keeping your logo simple enables customers:

• To immediately get the message your logo communicates
• To build strong associations with your logo
• To quickly recognize your brand every time they see your logo

McDonald’s, Apple, Starbucks, and other famous brands are great examples of how a simple but powerful logo should be. As you can see, these brands have not used too many design elements but still managed to stay top of mind.

7. Be Unique

A good logo should highlight your brand's uniqueness and not be easily confused with a different business. To achieve this goal, concentrate on creating a logo that tells your unique story, values, and vision through different design elements, colors, fonts, and images. Remember that uniqueness is an important for design and visual communication if you want to get it done successfully.

The benefits of having a distinct logo include:

• Increasing brand recognition
• Standing out in the competition
• Allowing customers to build strong associations with your brand

A logo that lacks originality will make it difficult for people to separate your design from others in the industry. Besides, it is less likely to grab the attention of prospects and maximize your marketing efforts.

8. Choose the Right Colors

The next crucial step is to choose colors to make your logo more visually appealing. However, if you are unsure which colors would fit your design, it’s recommended to conduct thorough research and learn the basics of color theory.

More specifically, you can learn what emotions certain colors elicit and see how you can include them in your logo. However, you should avoid overusing colors. Too many colors can hinder your logo from communicating its main message. So, it would be best to stick to minimal colors.

Using minimal colors in a logo lets you:

• Create an easily recognizable and memorable logo
• Concentrate on evoking certain key emotions

Let’s take Netflix and Spotify as examples. Their logos are easy to remember because they use minimal colors. However, it does not mean you should necessarily use minimal colors. You can use different colors as long as they harmonize with each other and don’t look chaotic.

9. Pick a Font

Fonts are essential elements to use when creating unique logos. There are many famous logos that we recall for their creative use of typefaces. For instance, the logo of the famous luxury jewelry brand Tiffany & Co. comes to one’s mind immediately due to the font used in the company’s logo design.

You need to take the font into consideration. A memorable and distinct font can reflect the personality of your brand. The most popular font style used by 179 largest global companies was Sans Serif (71․6%) in 2022.

To find out which fonts and styles your target audience likes the most, you can also conduct A/B testing and research groups. If you neglect your audience’s preferences, you won’t be able to create a logo that excites customers. Instead, a bad logo will only damage your brand growth.

Using the right font comes with several benefits:

• It makes your brand message clearer
• It communicates your brand personality, values, and story better

If you are still unsure which font to use for your brand, look at logos of other popular brands to get some inspiration. For instance, Toyota used the Helvetica style. It gives a clear and modern appearance to the logo.

10. Keep Your Logo Proportional

Using the golden ratio can be a great guideline for you to create a visually appealing and proportional logo at the same time.

The golden ratio enables you to keep various design elements proportionally. The ratio ensures the image portions are in balance. Not following a proportion will make a logo look messy. Images with the right proportion seem more beautiful and in harmony to people, so using proportions in your logo design can help you leave a long-lasting impression.

Keeping logos proportional is necessary:

• To keep all visual elements in balance
• To create a visually compelling image

Twitter, National Geographic, and Apple are great examples of brands that use the golden ratio appropriately. For instance, Twitter’s logo uses perfect circular shapes that form their logo design, and these circles abide by the Golden ratio proportions. With this simple but actionable way, you can create a logo that is eye-pleasing and proportional simultaneously.

11. Use a Tagline

When used correctly, taglines can help further increase the value of your brand and convey more about what you have to offer to your audience. The tagline used by Nike is not merely a famous saying that everybody knows. It certainly sums up the famous sports brand. The tagline is competitive and powerful, like the athletes you can see in Nike’s advertisements.

If you want to use a tagline, ensure it adds some value to your logo. There is no necessity to include a tagline that doesn’t contribute to the overall message of your logo. In case you decide to use a tagline, focus on the value and emotion your logo is supposed to elicit.

If used correctly, a tagline:

• Can help you strengthen your logo message
• Allows your customers to know what to expect from you when you describe what you offer

However, using a tagline that is vague or too long can ruin your brand reputation and image immediately.

12. Ensure It is Readable

Someone looking at your logo for the first time should be able to read it easily. Your brand name and tagline need to be readable. If the logo is difficult to read, you miss an opportunity to engage with prospects and create a positive impression.

Readable fonts allow:

• Your brand name and message are distinguishable
• Customers to instantly and easily absorb what message you want to deliver
• Your logo to be more memorable and pleasing to customers

So, when creating a logo, take your target audience into account. Using font styles that are too complicated and complex will only harm your branding efforts. Instead, opt for simple lettering solutions.

13. Ask for Feedback

As a logo is part of your branding and plays a vital role in how customers perceive your business, it is important to ask for feedback to see whether you are on the right track or not when designing your logo.

One way to do this is to reach out to logo design specialists. You can have a short consultation and ask them what they think. Since they are experts in design and have all the necessary experience, they can give you useful logo design tips for beginners and guidance. More specifically, they can provide recommendations regarding color, font, and other design elements.

Additionally, you can ask for feedback from your friends, colleagues, and family. They are not experts, but they can share their honest opinion about how they feel about your logo design. Their thoughts and recommendations can be valuable when revising your logo design.

14. Revise a Few Times

Once you have prepared a draft of your logo, make sure to revise it a few times. Pay attention to whether it precisely reflects your brand and its values. Your revisions enable you to take the initial idea of the logo and edit it to fit what you want your brand to communicate.

You can organize focus groups. Encourage people to participate in a discussion about your logo design before it appears everywhere. Ask them to share their feedback. Based on the feedback you have received from the participants, you will be able to understand what works well and what should be improved.

Doing several revisions means:

• The final result of your logo design will accurately represent you
• You can experiment with various colors, fonts, and other design elements
• You can work directly with your target audience to understand what type of logo they like the most

Conclusion

Creating a logo design might seem daunting and overwhelming at first. However, following the above-discussed logo design tips for beginners can be helpful.
Once you understand some basic logo design concepts and put them into practice, the process gets more enjoyable.

The key thing is not to be afraid to take risks and experiment. The more you try new fonts, typography, shapes, patterns, colors, and other visual elements, the sooner you will be able to create a logo design that fits your brand and communicates your company’s values.