#6 Create a Logo (655-6)

Rapid Startup Design Process: Review Steps

A mixture of the first
 two logos below

A logo?

Yes, a logo helps you pull together your idea to something that conveys the message to the world in the most efficient way. Pictures do indeed buy you a 100 words.

There are excellent sites to create logos for free. Note: I don't get any kickback for those links or any others

My Top Choices

Free Logo Services - My favorite

• Process: Enter name (two lines) - Industry - Style - Font- Layout - 
• Easily change color or manipulate layout. You can create everything you need without an account. 
• With an account (free) you can save it and go back and edit it later. Highly recommended.
• A white background is a default (a time saver).
• Perfect for this purpose.  
• Easy to change colors

Logo Joy 

• Process: Enter name - pick 5 logos you like - add color
• Requires login to save. Worth the trouble and no cost.
• Icons are pretty dull. 
• Layout and use of color are more impressive. Customizable. Great with text variations. 
• Easy to change colors, font spacing and supports gradients.
• It is easy to get excited about design since the tools are so well done. Hold back and go with something simple at first. You can come back later

DesignMantic -

• Process: Choose Abstract/Symbol/Lettermark - Font - Color - Business 
• You can't see your edit without logging in 
• Only supports one line of text as per image to the right. This is a huge limitation (but you can paste in the extra text later if you want more lines)
• Logos are pretty small on the website. Only useful for quick visualization but per the image to the right, sufficient for this purpose. 
• Advanced work requires you activate the full editor which is powerful but takes a lot of time. Remember, a real logo will need to be created by a graphic designer. 

Not recommended for this purpose

• LogoMakr - Icon search engine is more generic. A build your own solution. Too complicate for this purpose
• Design EVO - Choose an image BEFORE putting in your name. Not useful since images aren't tailored and you can't see how it looks
• Canva’s Online Logo Maker - The first question Sign up. No thanks
• Free Logo Design - Name & Industry only. Too simple
• VistaPrint Logo Maker - Not quick. Has a way to start from scratch. Not useful for this purpose
• ... there are many many others...

Build your first logo and set 1-hour Timer! If you spend more than 30 minutes getting your first logo and another 30 refining the logo then you are wasting your time.

1. Pick a tool above. Some have better clipart. Some are easy. Some are complicated but have more functionality. They all do the same thing - they quickly create a logo for you. 
2. Make subtle changes in layout. Don't get hung up on your poor graphics layout skills. This logo will not be the real logo for your company. You'll need a graphic designer for that task.
3. Make subtle changes in color. Don't worry about the exact color now. The logo designers are excellent at changing colors. 
4. Use the snipping tool to grab a screen capture and save the low-resolution version. That's all you need now. 
5. Sit back and think about what you like or dislike. What is it missing? Is it compelling? Does it fit? How does the name look?

Don't pay for it. I'm not being cheap. Once you start buying things you get attached to them and are unwilling to let them go. Keep your credit card in your wallet. That advice follows through all of the strategies. As soon as you start spending money you lose the willingness to dump a bad idea. And there is a 99% chance that your first idea is a bad one. Most sites will try to make you pay for a "high quality" version. You don't need it.

Take another hour and build a few more. If you haven't identified 3 or more decent logos in 2 hours then you are taking too long. Now you have something that you can give a graphic designer something that shows what kind of images you like, what text you want to show (if any) and what colors appeal to you.

Get some input. Confirm with others that you have a logo that accurately describes a company that you want to create and meets your objectives. If you can't accomplish that, then perhaps this idea is already dead. Think up another.

A mixture of the second two logos

1. Choose the best logo
2. Show it to someone. Folks should be able to look at your logo and think, "That sounds like a neat idea, tell me more". If they don't love it show them the others and ask why one is better than another.
3. If everything bombs then dump them all and create another set logos
4. Later, you may need to edit to make the background transparent if your background isn't white (XnView Image/Convert to Color choose 256, Image/Edit Palette select background, check "enable transparency" save

If you have a compelling logo then move on...