How to Create the Best Logo for Your Blog: The 8 Step Process

You decided to start a blog. Congratulations! But as soon as you started working on your blog, you realized there’s more to do than you expected. Don’t worry, that’s normal. While running a blog might seem easy, we know the truth is far from it. 

One of the first things you’ll need to do is create a logo. You want your blog to look professional, and a good-looking logo can help you do that. 

We created this guide to help bloggers and small business owners create catchy logos as easily as possible. We’ll teach you everything you need to know to create an interesting logo for your blog or website. Are you ready? Let’s jump right into the guide.

Why Do You Even Need A Logo? 

There’s not a single brand in the world that does not have a logo. Why should your brand be any different? A logo has a major contribution to your customers’ perception of the brand. With that in mind, your logo needs to be special to make your brand stand out. 

In this article, we will be talking about the importance of a logo for your new blog. You would think a logo for a blog is not really important, but you would be wrong. Every business needs a logo. Even a blog since you’re selling something to your readers. It may not be selling for actual money, but you still want to persuade your readers to visit your blog, read something you wrote and maybe make them learn something new. Let’s dive into the main reasons why a logo is a must for your blog. 

You will be competing with thousands of people when you start your blog. Even the smallest niches have a lot of competition and a bunch of existing bloggers. You have to stand out if you want your blog to get noticed. There are a million blogs out there, and you need to make sure the readers remember you when they land on your page. You can do this by writing about the things you know and by providing interesting information on topics your readers want to read about. 

Once you’ve decided what you want to blog about and created a website, it’s time to add a logo to the website. Your logo is a visual cue that helps your readers find you quicker and remember your name. Think of your brand like a date. You want to attract your customers and make them fall in love with your brand. 

The logo you choose has to make people interested in your brand. It will not just represent your website; it will represent you on your social media. Putting your logo on social media helps spread the word about your blog and make it known amongst potential readers. 

A logo is not just a visual thing you need to have as a brand. It is an essential part of your brand, so it needs to be done right. The logo helps you make a good first impression. It positions your brand and tells the readers that you are professional and qualified. It also helps build brand recognition, makes your brand stand out, and helps create your brand identity. 

A professional logo design has the power to say everything you want to say in a small picture. So make it great, make it visible and make it memorable. Don’t overcomplicate. We know that designing a logo is a tough task, but with a little time and patience. Remember, your logo must speak a thousand words. 

You also need a strong blog name if you want to stand out in a crowded space. You can use our blog name generator to find the perfect name for yourself.

The Importance of Brand Strategy

If you want your company to be successful, be at a competitive advantage and make your customers loyal, you need a well-structured brand strategy to guide you to that goal. Your brand strategy is not just your logo and your visuals. It is a set of activities that helps you gain customers and make them stay and be loyal to your brand. 

A brand strategy is a long-term plan of activities a company has to do in order to create long-term brand equity and become a serious competitor in the market. To put it differently – a brand strategy defines rules and guides on how you will communicate your brand message to the customers. You need a plan to influence customers’ minds and how they think of your brand. It shows where your company wants to go, what are your company’s goals and provides ways of how you are going to achieve those goals. 

A successful brand strategy helps create a strong brand. The benefits of having a brand strategy are many. We want to present you with a few that we think are the most important:

– Communicates core values: Define what your brand stands for and communicate this to your customers. People often buy products because they feel connected to the brand, not just for the product itself. And they are also prepared to pay a higher price for a product they think is their best option, and that represents them in a way.

– Focused marketing: By knowing exactly who your customers are, you know what they like and how to communicate with them. Narrowing that down ensures a more effective marketing campaign. When you know your customers, you can also adapt the design and the copies for your sales ads. For example, you may like a certain color and would like to use it in your design, but your customers would want a different color because they think it would fit the brand more. Who do you listen to? Yourself because you’re the owner of the company or your customers who actually buy the product? If you don’t want to close the company’s doors, you have to go with the customer’s choices.

– Better connection with the customers: Your customers are only people, and all people have emotions. Having established an emotional connection with your customers, they are more likely to buy from you because they feel connected to your brand. Customers react to everything you do, so if you’re loyal to them, they will be loyal to you. It’s simple.

Having a good brand strategy is a powerful tool that gets you unique recognition from your customers. If your strategy is successful, it will lead to a strong emotional connection with your audience and higher brand equity. You can measure the success of brand strategy by looking at immediate recognition by your targeted audience and the positive impact on your sales.

It’s also important we talk about how your logo and your brand strategy work together. We mentioned that brand strategy is more than just your visuals. Your brand strategy is what helps define your logo and your visual designs. To give you an example – if you know you’re developing a fun and playful brand, you have to pick a fun and playful logo if you want to build a cohesive brand.  

It’s important you always keep your brand strategy in mind when designing your logo. 

Define Your Brand Identity 

A brand, as well as people, has to have an identity. Brand identity is a collection of your values, how you want to communicate your product or services, and how you would want people to feel when they come in contact with your brand. It is more than just a logo. It needs to represent your brand’s personality. Think of it this way; the product leaves a lasting impression after a customer buys it. A brand identity is here to shape that impression. 

The first meanings of brand identity were connected to the brand’s visual appearance. Today, companies want to create brands that are built on stories that make brands unique on the market.  

The first step is to really understand what your brand is about and what its personality is. Define what makes it unique, and your path to making a great logo will be extremely easy. When asking yourself what the identity of your brand really is, you need to ask yourself why did you start the business, what beliefs and values are important to you as a company and what makes your brand better and special. Try to describe your company in three words and think of how you would want your customers to describe the company. 

We can describe brand identity as a set of elements that include a logo, font, symbol, or anything that differentiates the brand. The elements come together in the form of people’s perceptions of the brand and can also help you stand out from the competition. Let’s look at why a logo must match your brand identity.

A logo may seem like something small, but when a brand grows, the logo often becomes the most recognizable feature of the brand. The logo has to be unique, distinctive, and memorable. It needs to reflect your brand’s identity if you want it to represent your brand. But finding a logo that accurately represents your brand is tough and requires a lot of time and patience. 

When creating a logo, you need to keep in mind your brand identity and incorporate it into your logo. This is an important task because you want your customers to connect your logo to your overall brand identity immediately. 

Don’t forget to use your brand identity consistently. This means all your communication channels have to be consistent. Your logo is seen in all the messages, so when you start throwing around inconsistent elements, your customers can get confused. Any communication you make should reflect the brand’s personality and identity. The consistent use of brand identity makes your customers understand who you are. It is also important to be consistent with the brand colors so people can connect the colors and the messaging with your brand.

The 8 Step Process to Designing A Logo

We covered some of the theory. It’s now time to look at some of the practical applications. In this chapter, we’ll take you step-by-step through the process of designing your own logo. We’ll teach you what you have to consider when creating your logo and how to think about different elements. 

Let’s start by first searching for inspiration. 

Find Inspiration for the Logo

The first step in designing your logo is finding inspiration. This is often hard to do, especially if you’re not used to designing logos or coming up with new ideas. We’re going to show you a few tricks you can use to find inspiration. 

• Think like your audience – Put yourself in their shoes. What would they like to see in a logo? Do they prefer playful designs, or would they like to see something more traditional? Try to make as many guesses as you can. 
• Ask for advice – You can contact your close friends and family members. You can even reach out to potential readers and ask them if they have any ideas. Again, go for quantity and don’t focus too much on the quality of the ideas. 
• Have a brainstorming session – You can start inserting random keywords into Google and start looking at images. Maybe you’ll find a motive you like. 

Now that you’ve gathered a solid set of ideas, it’s time to create a mood board. A mood board is the visual representation of different ideas you gathered. You can create a digital mood board or a physical one, whichever you prefer. Try to capture the right emotions with your mood board. 

Analyze Your Competitors

We talked about the importance of analyzing your competitors in our branding guide. You have to know who you’re competing against if you want to win in the market. You and your competitors are trying to get the attention of the same people. It’s important to know what they’re making in order to do even better. 

We’ll focus on your competitors’ logos in this guide. We suggest you create a separate mood board where you past all your competitors’ logos. This will give you a solid understanding of what kind of logos people in your niche use. 

Try to look for patterns. Are there any colors that stand out? For example, you will probably notice blogs use green and earthy colors in environmental and eco-conscious niches. 

Are there any logo styles that are more common? Write down all your observations to prepare the right battle plan. 

Think About Your Audience

We often mention that your audience is the most important element of your brand. Your audience is why your brand exists. Without the audience, you have nothing. You have no readers, and you have no income. 

Make sure you pick a logo that your audience likes. Always put your audience first and your personal preferences second. You’re creating the blog for your audience, not for yourself. 

Having a vibrant pink logo on a blog about environmentally-friendly topics might seem interesting, but we’re not sure how well it will match with your target audience. These are things you have to consider when creating the logo. Make sure you’re designing your visuals for your potential readers. 

Choose Your Design Style

Logos come in different styles. In fact, there are as many different styles as there are logos. We’ll only go through the most common logo design styles to help you pick the right one for you. 

• Classic
• Retro (vintage)
• Modern (minimalist)
• Fun and quirky
• Handcrafted 

We suggest you divide your competitors’ logos into design style groups. You’ll probably learn that one or two styles prevail. For example, a lot of arts and crafts blogs use handcrafted logos. Another example is the IT world, where blogs mostly go with modern and minimalist logos. 

Try to look for patterns and decide what works best for your blog. Do you want to stand out or fit in? Pick the style of your blog logo accordingly. 

Find the Right Type of Logo

Each logo is unique and different. But, we can divide all of them into three main types of logos to help us understand the logos better. The basic logo categories are:

• Icon-based logos
• Text-based logos
• Combination marks

The categories are self-explanators. Icon-based logos are the ones that are built around a unique icon. Pepsi and Apple are two famous examples of icon-based logos. 

Text-based logos are built around the text. The most famous example is Google. These types of logos are very simple and easy to understand. 

Combination marks are the most popular logo type for online blogs. They combine a small icon and the text with the name of the blog. We something also find taglines included in the logos. 

Now that we understand the different types of logos, it’s time we pick the best one for our blog. How do we do that? You can either pick the type that’s most popular with your competitors. This means you’re picking something you know is popular with your target audience. 

Or you can pick the type that’s not well represented in your niche. This way, you’ll ensure your blog stands out. Both options are acceptable, and it’s up to you to pick which one you prefer. 

Pick Your Colors

Color theory is a complex topic, and there’s no way for us to cover everything in this short guide. But, we’ll try to give you a few actionable tips to help you pick the right colors for your blog logo. 

First, start by analyzing your competitors. You already did this in the second step. Look at the colors they use. Are there any colors that are more popular? If yes, it could be that the readers prefer these colors. 

Second, we suggest you pick complementary colors for your logo. Complementary colors lie on the opposite sides of the color wheel. An example of a complementary color combo is yellow and purple. By picking complementary colors, you ensure your logo stands out and gets noticed. 

You can read more about color theory and psychology if you want to understand more about colors. For now, following the above two tips will give you everything you need to design a memorable logo.

Pick The Typography

Which fonts will you pick for your logo? Will you create your own font to keep the logo completely unique? Just like with colors, there’s a lot that goes into font theory. For the purpose of this article, we’ll only present you with four basic font types to help you understand the basics. There are four basic font types:

• Serif fonts – These are the letters that have small “feet” at the end letters.
• Sans-serif fonts – These are the opposite of serif fonts. They don’t have the “feet” at the end of letters. 
• Script fonts – These are fonts that mimic handwritten letters.
• Display fonts – These are highly stylized and decorative fonts used to capture attention.

Our best tip is to pick the font that matches your brand personality. We often use serif fonts when we want to evoke traditional and classical designs. Sans-serif fonts go great with modern and minimalistic brands. Script fonts are very popular in the DIY niche, while display fonts often work well when we want to portray our blog as something fun and playful. 

Create Your Designs (A Few Different Versions)

We went over different elements and picked the ones that work best for our logo. It’s now time we put everything together and create our blog logo. 

There’s no simple answer on how to do that. Some logos are more text-heavy, while others rely on catchy symbols. You can play with different fonts and colors. 

Our number one tip is to create many different options. The more you try different combinations, the better chance you have to find something that sticks and matches your brand. You can try different tools to help you speed up the process. There are many different logo-makers online that can help you create an unlimited number of different logo designs in seconds. 

Make sure you follow all the tips we shared in the previous steps. If you do that, you have a good chance of designing a catchy logo that will represent your blog and talk to your target audience. 

The Tools You’ll Need to Design a Logo

Designing a logo isn’t as straightforward as writing an essay. You need a word processor to wraith something, and that’s it. The process is a bit more complicated when it comes to logos. Different designers use different approaches. It doesn’t matter which tools you use, as long as you end up with a great-looking logo. 

We tried to break the tools into a few basic categories to help you better understand everything you need to design a memorable slogan. 

Paper and pencil – Every design starts on a piece of paper. Some designers prefer tablets and electronic pens. Regardless, the principle is still the same. Every logo starts with hand-drawn designs that you use as inspiration. 

Computer – You need a computer with graphics capabilities to process the logo design. Some designs use tablets, some prefer laptops, while the majority still use old-school PCs because of their computing powers. Make sure your graphics card can support some of the most intensive software programs required to design a logo.

Vector graphics software – This is the software that you’ll use to actually create your logo. Adobe Illustrator is the most popular commercial software on the market. You can also give Inkscape a try. Inkscape is an open-source alternative to Adobe Illustrator. Keep in mind both these software have a learning curve.

Desk and a chair – Finally, you need a place where you can work. We suggest a quiet place where you can relax and concentrate. 

We understand that learning new software isn’t always easy. Luckily, there’s an easier solution for busy business owners and bloggers that just want a catchy logo. If you don’t want to spend weeks learning how to use vector graphics software, we suggest you try one of the popular logo makers you can find online. 

We created a dedicated page for the best logo makers you can use. We ranked five of the best ones to help you pick the one that best works for you. You can find the reviews on our dedicated page. 

A good logo maker will simplify the process of creating a logo for your blog. Instead of spending days or weeks on your logo, you’ll get a professionally-looking logo in an hour. 

The Pros and Cons of Using Logo Makers

Designing a logo is expensive. It takes even more time and more money if you have to make many revisions and find an agreement with your designer. That is why a lot of entrepreneurs decide to take matters into their own hands. Of course, larger companies have their own design team that creates the logo for them. 

But if you’re just starting out, spending a lot of money on a logo may not be a good financial option. You can find a lot of good and easy-to-use logo makers online, like Canva, Tailor Brands, Smashing Logo, Looka, or Wix. But like everything in starting a company, this too has its pros and cons. 

In this chapter, we will present you with a few pros and cons of using a logo maker to help you make that decision a bit easier. 

The pros:

• Easy and quick to use:

If you don’t have much experience designing a logo, the logo makers are perfect for you. They provide tools that are user-friendly and easy to master. They even provide you with some samples to choose from or take inspiration from. Online logo makers are also way faster than it takes a professional to make it. The tools are great for when you’re running out of time, and you need to create something amazing out of thin air fast.

• Inexpensive:

Logo makers are mostly free. No professional would do that for you, so that is a major plus. But there is a hack. Sometimes, when you choose an element to add to your logo, it has a watermark on it, and you have to pay to use it without a watermark. These elements aren’t expensive, but if you’re on a tight budget, you may want to use the free ones. 

• Unlimited revisions:

Having the freedom to design your own logo gives you the opportunity to play around with the design. You can make unlimited varieties of the logo and then choose the one you think will represent your brand the most. With a professional, you get a limited amount of designs and then have to choose from what they made. Any further decision-making only costs you money. But not with online logo makers.

• Customizable:

Online logo makers give you a huge variety of elements to choose from. You can choose your own font from many available options, and you can also pick your favorite style that would fit your logo best. Online logo creators also give you the option to choose the best graphics for you and change colors to whatever color would be the best for the logo. To make your logo pop even more, the online logo creators also give you a chance to select various effects like embossing, beveling, and shadowing the logo. 

The cons:

• Unprofessional and original:

Online logo makers can lack professionalism and originality, which might result in your logo being poorly designed. The logo makers also have a limited amount of options, so you can just use the elements they offer. A professional logo designer can think outside the box and create a unique logo just for you. 

• Copy and paste:

Speaking of a limited amount of elements on the free logo making websites, there’s a high chance someone else will use the same element you chose for your logo. This could be harmful to your brand, and there’s also a high chance of copyright issues. If your logo isn’t unique, someone else can copy your logo and register it under a trademark, and you can get sued. 

• Not capturing the brand’s essence:

The logo is not just pictures and colors. You want your logo to represent your brand’s identity, reflect your values and aspirations and not end up with a logo that has a literal illustration of what the company does. It has to reflect the audience you want to attract. Hiring a professional can open up a whole world of different design possibilities that you may have never thought of. Collaborating with a designer can spark your imagination. You can share what your brand is, and a designer will know exactly how to incorporate this into the logo design. 

It’s a tough choice to make. If you’re starting a new company, you probably don’t have enough money to spend on a professional designer. Choosing an online logo maker can be a good choice for you, but when you are done creating a logo, try showing it to friends and family and asking them what they think of it. Try to see if the logo you have created represents the brand and if your testing audience can see that in the logo.

How to Pick the Best Version of Your Logo? 

There is no recipe for making a good logo. Designing one has to be personal and meaningful in order to create a strong brand. A logo is one of the first contacts you have with your customers, so it is extremely important to choose one that truly represents your brand. 

Depending on your needs, there are several aspects of logo design you need to consider. Good logos do have something in common, and that is a strong foundation. You always have to start with a foundation and then build around that, adding personal and unique touches to make it better. There are 5 qualities that make a good logo:

1. Simplicity: Focus on highlighting the most important parts of a brand’s personality.
2. Relevancy: Make your logo relevant to the market you’re in.
3. Can stand the test of time: Focus on quality and remove unnecessary and unimportant elements.
4. Memorability: A good logo is one that can be remembered from the first time your customers see it.
5. Versatility: Keep in mind that you will have to use the logo in various ways, for example, on business cards, websites, and social media. 

To give you more than just theory, here are some real-world examples of great logos to help you better understand what goes into a great logo. 

• Coca-Cola

When you think of Coca-Cola, red is the first thing that pops in mind. The signature red color represents confidence in the person who drinks Coca-Cola. The typical Coca-Cola writing signifies enjoyment, and they position themselves as a drink you can enjoy after work when it’s time to have some fun. They also have a uniquely shaped bottle that tells their customers they are getting the real deal. Coca-Cola did not just stop at a logo. They also wanted to give their customers something extra, hence the unique bottle. That way, the brand develops credibility and gains customers’ trust.

• McDonalds

Who doesn’t know the great iconic golden arches. These arches are the symbol of one of the largest food chains in the world. The arches are also drawn close together to represent the letter “M”. The company chose the yellow color for the arches because it signifies happiness and because the color is so bright, you can see it at any time of the day. They also chose the color red because it is very eye-catching together with yellow. The logo is simple, easy to read, and that is why it’s so successful.

• Asana

Asana started at Facebook when the employees realized they needed a tool to help them with project management and collaborations within the teams. Asana comes from Sanskrit and refers to a specific pose in yoga. They chose the name to honor the Buddhist principles of focus and flow, which was the main motivation behind this brand. They use a lot of white in their logo to make other colors pop out in order to put some energy into it. The three dots before the brand name signify balance and collaboration. The company values teamwork which is clearly shown in the way they designed their logo. 

As we said at the beginning, there is no easy way to make a great logo. We suggest you read about some of the most iconic logos in the history of branding to better understand what really makes a great logo. 

Conclusion

There you have it. We shared everything we know about designing a logo for a blog. We went over some of the theory. We showed how your brand identity influences your logo design. We even shared some actionable tips to help you design memorable logos on your own. 

We finished the article with examples of successful logos from big companies that dominate their space. 

It’s now time you start working on your logo. You know everything you need to know to create a memorable blog logo. We suggest you take full advantage of the logo makers we recommend on our website. All we have to say is good luck!