When a local business wants to establish brand identity, there comes an important decision: how to design your logo. Ideally, it should be one that represents the business in terms of their name, what they do and what they represent.
There are many logo design services available, but this article will try to help assess which one should work for you or your clients.
Whether you are a local business that’s just starting up or a marketing agency owner that needs logos for your clients, you could either choose to hire a logo designer or simply use one of the many logo designers available online.
Hiring a custom logo designer
If you need a custom logo design for your local business, you could either choose a freelancer, or crowdsource logo designs from professional designers or work with logo design companies.
It’s important that you create a detailed brief outlining various details of the business. This will allow easier communication with the designer you choose to work with. This can lead to a more desired outcome and bridge any miscommunications
Below are some of the platforms you can use to hire a designer to design a logo for local businesses.
Fiverr
Prices: Starts at $5
Use Cases: Ideal if you’re on a tight budget
Highlights: Very affordable, options within every budget
Best for outsourcing your custom logo design to an affordable freelancer, starting at just $5. Generally, there are variations which can cost more such as access to source files, lead times, stationery kit (letterheads, business cards etc).
You always have the option to chat with the freelancer before committing to anything. You can also check their track record to find out if they are the perfect fit.
Upwork
Prices: Set by you. But projects start from $20
Use Cases: Looking for a freelancer to work with you.
Highlights: Plenty of talent to choose from. Payment by Escrow
You can post a job listing our requirements for a logo. You will then receive proposals from various designers who are interested in working with you to design a logo. You can set a budget and timeline based on your requirements too.
Alternatively, there are projects listed which you can choose from too. These start from $20.
DesignBro
Prices: $249 to $1,500
Use cases: Business requiring a logo in a rush.
Highlights: Unlimited revisions, money back guarantees.
DesignBro is ideal for local businesses looking for professional logo designers with a strict deadline. Once the order is submitted, you are guaranteed to receive the first design concept within 12 hours. You can choose a professional to work with directly or enter a logo design contest on DesignBro for tons of great options to choose from.
99Designs
Prices: $229 to $1,299
Use cases: For businesses that are not sure what they want their logo to look like
Highlights: Money back guarantees, work with top-tier designers
99Designs offers 2 options: working directly with one of the designers or starting a contest. With the direct design option, you can have much more control over what you want your logo to look like. With a contest, you can choose the logo that you think is right for your business.
DesignCrowd
Prices: $109 to $739
Use cases: Choose designers across various categories
Highlights: Money back guarantees, wide choice of designers
With over 42 project categories to choose from, you can submit your request to design a logo by providing details on your branding and design needs. Once you submit a project, on average, you can expect to receive designs within a few hours. You also have the option to purchase add-on services such as expedited turnaround, private projects, business card designs, sign NDAs etc.
Crowdspring
Prices: $299 to $1,199
Use cases: Choose designers across various categories.
Highlights: Unlimited Revisions, Unlimited focus groups (for feedback), free intellectual property protection.
This platform has over 190,000 creative professionals who have completed more than 500,000 design projects successfully. It also offers a 1-to-1 environment for customers who prefer individual interaction to managing crowd conversation.
Using logo makers online
Logo makers are ready-made, do-it-yourself, and design-it-yourself software that allows you to create a logo in minutes.
Depending on the platform you choose, some platforms ask certain questions relating to the nature of business, business name and custom colors to match the brand.
Certain other platforms are more free-form, providing you with a blank canvas and a set of icons to design your own logo.
TailorBrands
Price: $3.99/month for JPG and PNG files; $9.99/month for EPS vector files
Ease of Use: Medium
Highlights: Sleek interface, huge library of icons to choose from, numerous ready-to-use logo templates available
TailorBrands provides an easy-to-use platform. You get started by entering your company name, choosing your industry, describing your business briefly, and then finally choosing the type of logo you need (text-based, icon-based or initial-based).
The app will then try to gauge your type preferences by having you pick your favorites from a series of sample fonts. This will then help the platform automatically generate some logos based on your responses.
Should you have anything that catches your eye, you can pick one, edit the font and colors, change the icon, and eventually purchase it.
Wix Logo Maker
Price: Free sample, $20 – $50 for source files
Ease of Use: Easy
Highlights: Comprehensive template library, easily customisable
The Wix logo maker allows you to create your own custom logo design in minutes. It is easy to use and provides several design options for you to choose from. Choose one of the thousands of pre-made logos and make some changes to fit your brand identity. This amazing feature lets you develop a unique design in less time.
Though the entire process of designing and downloading the logo samples is free, if you need high-resolution files or brand materials for social media, you can purchase your logo design at any time.
Canva
Price: Free; offers free 30-day trial to download high resolution versions
Ease of Use: Medium – takes a bit of practice
Highlights: Completely free, ideal for DIY logos
The Canva logo maker is a free tool to make a professional logo. You don’t need to be a pro designer; the drag and drop editor will do the design work for you. You can customize your design using fonts and templates, then download it in high resolution at no extra charge.
Logo Makr
Price: Free for a low resolution file; $19 for full range of files (including PDF and SVG vector) and full license
Ease of Use: Takes a bit of learning
Highlights: Highly customisable, wide range of designs assets (icons, fonts, shapes etc.)
Logo Makr is a DIY logo creation site that uses simple tools to allow customers to build unique and custom logos. With thousands of available icons, vectors, fonts and shapes, you have a wide array of assets to play around with.
Though it can seem quite overwhelming at first, it could take some time to get familiar with the tool especially if you’re not a well-seassoned logo designer. They also provide a tutorial on how to work with their platform.
Looka
Price: $20 for PNG logo; $65 for multiple high-res file types
Ease of Use: Moderately easy interface
Highlights: AI-powered, Brand Kits available
Using years of research and advanced algorithms, Looka is a tool for professionals to generate compelling logo design ideas in minutes. It’s extremely scalable, providing high quality work quickly and efficiently.
From the 20+ logo examples displayed, you’re asked to pick the 5 that you like best. Based on your responses, Looka automatically generates suggestions and ideas for logos.
Importance of creating a logo for local businesses
Though designing a logo may not seem like a top priority when setting up a business, it plays an integral role in creating a strong image to your target audience.
Logos are meant to grab attention, create an emotional connection, make a strong first impression, stand out from competition, define your business activities visually and help build trust in your business.
Grab attention
A logo can be designed to quickly grab viewers’ attention and communicate a company’s core values. This is because logos are aesthetically pleasing. So even if potential customers glance at a logo for 2 seconds, they will be able to get a sense of the company’s core values and whether or not that company’s products are worth considering.
Create an emotional connection
Your logo is a crucial part of your brand and if done right, can express the personality of your business. A well-designed logo helps you to build an emotional connection with your audience and convey the right message to them.
If you’re able to successfully create this connection with your logo, your customers are less likely to forget your company. And if they’ve got good memories working with your business, they’re more likely to return for your services.
Stand out from competition
So how do you make an impression? What can you do to set yourself apart from the competition? Well, a logo is one tool that will help you achieve that. At this stage in the game, consumers are used to your competitors having logos. But when they see yours, it’s important that they remember you and recognize your brand.
Define business activities visually
A visual element adds interest and makes your logo memorable and the logo helps illustrate your business activities visually. This helps your clients to easily recognize your business and the services it provides based on just looking at the logo.
Things to consider when creating a logo
Choose a design style
When designing a logo, the first thing you need to do is pick the right style that best reflects the image you have in your mind. Logo design is key to your business’ success, so it needs to be something that sticks out from the crowd and gives an idea what your brand is all about. Among many other styles you can choose from, your brand can either be classic, retro, modern or minimalist, fun and quirky, or even handwritten.
Check if the design is scalable
Assuming you’ll be putting your logo on everything from your business cards to billboards, it needs to look good in every size – and we can configure it so that it looks great either way. As such, when designing a logo, make sure it’s scalable and shares your brand effectively at any size or orientation.
Determine the associated cost
As outlined above, the cost of designing a logo will largely depend on the route you decide to take (custom design vs logo maker). The budget you set aside for designing a logo for local businesses depends on how much emphasis you need to place on branding and design.
For most local businesses, this would be simply a matter of designing a pictorial that represents the business activity and an attractive font for the lettermark. As such, the cost will be minimal as you could use a logo maker to achieve this.
Timeline
If you are in a hurry and have a knack for design, it’s best to use a logo maker as the results are almost immediate. However, if you need a custom design and have more time to spare, a custom logo would be a good option.
Pick colors wisely
The color of your logo has the power to drive purchasing decisions. Color triggers emotions and gives meaning. When used consistently across your marketing, color improves brand recognition by up to 80%
Choose a font style that represents your brand
This is an important step as the choice of font can make or break your brand identity. If you are looking for a minimal or professional look, choose a Sans Serif font whereas if you’re looking for a creative style, Handwritten or Serif fonts would be a better fit.
Different types of logos to choose from
Lettermarks/Monogram: Monogram logos or lettermarks are logos that consist of letters, usually brand initials. They’re proven effective as your business’s initials are instantly recognizable to thousands of potential clients! Some examples include IBM, HP, HBO, BBC etc.
Wordmarks: These types of logos can be very striking. They look great on a variety of digital media, from website favicons to banners and even image headers. They focus on a company’s name and not just the visuals like initials and symbols. The popularity of this type of logo can also be attributed to their versatility. Google’s logo is a great example of this.
Pictorials: A pictorial mark (sometimes called brand mark or logo symbol) is an icon—or graphic-based logo. It’s probably the image that comes to mind when you think “logo”: the iconic Apple logo, the Twitter bird, the Target bullseye. Each of these companies’ logos is so emblematic, and each brand so established, that the mark alone is instantly recognizable.
Mascot: Mascot logos are cute, and semi-cartoonish illustrations of your business’s name or product. They help cement your brand by imitating a popular icon associated with happiness and fun. By creating a mascot logo, you’re not only coming up with a colorfully-engaging identity to represent your company, but you’re also establishing a personality that people can really get behind.
Abstract: An abstract logo is a simple graphic, unrelated to the product it represents. Before they were first introduced in the 1960s, all logos were literal representations: usually an image of the company’s name, product or mascot. Eventually, companies realized that there was more flexibility with abstract symbols, and that they could be more powerful and effective than images.
Emblem: An emblem logo is a highly stylized logo used to symbolize an institution or company. They differ from wordmarks because they have a primary visual component that is present in nearly every use.
Which type of logo is ideal for local businesses?
Though there is no right answer, the most preferred logo type for local businesses tend to be either lettermark or wordmarks. This is because it’s simple, easy to design and justifies the budget that small local businesses need to set aside.
Both options are versatile, ensuring the consistency of your brand’s message and highlighting the high-quality of your product or service.
However, there are definitely exceptions to this rule. If you are feeling more confident, and want to create a more distinctive logo from your competitors, you could consider designing either an emblem, a mascot or even a combination of the two.
