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Need a logo for your craft business? Whether you are starting from scratch, or redesigning your logo, Sarah Guillot from Sarah Design is sharing tips for designing a small business logo.
Sarah has previously guest blogged on Cutting for Business about designing with fonts.
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Should You DIY Your Logo or Hire a Professional Logo Designer?
It’s your decision whether you create your own logo or hire a professional to create your logo. If you are on a tight budget, try your hand at creating one – especially if you have some basic design skills.
As a crafter, if you can create your own files to cut with your Silhouette or Cricut, you can create your own logo.
If you have no design skills, it’s better to hire a logo designer than trying to learn to design while creating a logo.
3 Programs to Design Your Own Logo
Adobe Illustrator
Illustrator is my number one recommendation for designing a logo from scratch. As a vector program, designs are built mathematically and can be made as large or as small as you want without losing quality.
Silhouette Studio
You can create a logo in Silhouette Studio. When saving your logo, you’ll want to make sure you save as a PNG file so that you have a transparent background.
Cricut Design Space
Cricut Design Space can be used to create your own logo, however, you’ll have to save your logo for offline use. This help article from Cricut provides a walkthrough on how to export to your computer.
4 Tips for Designing a Logo
Font Choice Matters
If your business is fanciful or fun then decorative fonts are perfect. But, if you’re a serious business then you probably want simpler fonts. Either way, make sure they’re readable!
Mix & Match
I often see logos with a script font of a word or two, paired with a simpler font that describes the service. This is the tactic I chose when creating my logo for Sarah Design.
Text, Icon, and Text + Icon
Don’t use an icon with no words. This only works for huge corporations that spend a bazillion dollars on marketing. The Nike swoosh symbol is recognizable without the word “Nike” because they have marketed their brand extensively for years. As a new business, you don’t have this luxury. So to be safe, I recommend using text alone, or text with an icon near it.
Readability
Make sure that the font, the size, the colors, etc., all work together to make your logo readable. If people can’t make it out, they will not remember you or your business!
3 Logo Creators
If you don’t have any ideas for your logo, start with an online logo creation tool.
Graphic Springs
Great for simple designs, and it is free to try. Graphic Springs has tiered pricing. For example, for $19.99, you’ll get a high resolution logo file. But, for $99.99, you’ll receive high resolution files in several formats, the graphic in your logo will be removed from their database so no one else can use it, and more.
Canva
Canva has a number of templates available for creating your own logo. If you are already a Canva Pro user, the logo design templates are included in your monthly subscription.
If you are not a Canva Pro user, it’s $12.99 per month. If you do not want to subscribe, there are a handful of free logo templates.
Free Logo Creator
Free Logo Creator is easy to use. You type in the name of your business and select a category. The website then gives you premade logo options.
If you find a design you like, it’s as low as $37 with options to upgrade.
3 Places to Find Logo Designers
Etsy
Etsy has many designers specializing in logos and branding. You can buy an already created logo, or have something custom made for you.
99Designs
99Designs is an online marketplace (owned by Vistaprint!) where you can hire design professionals – including logo designers.
Fiverr
Fiverr is another marketplace, where jobs (they call them gigs) start at $5.
Tell me in the comments: Did you design your logo?
Since 2015, Christine Schinagl has been helping crafters start and run craft businesses through her blog, Cutting for Business. As a Silhouette and Cricut crafter herself, she has a unique take on what works and what doesn’t work in the craft business world. She also enjoys teaching other crafters how to create digital SVG designs, available through the Design with Me series.