If we ask you “What’s in a word,” how would you answer?

Well, you can take a page out of Google’s book.

Nowadays, people don’t only use it to refer to the $132.1 billion-worth company. They also use it to refer to the action of “searching via Google” (like “Just Google it!”). Some even use it as an adjective (think “Google-worthy” topics).

Before its inception though, you wouldn’t find the word Google in the dictionary. That’s because the name came from a typo of the mathematical term “googol.”

From there, company’s wordmark logo became one of the most recognizable today.

This then brings us to the next question:

Wouldn’t it be awesome if your own brand logo can have the same impact on consumers?

How exactly can you come up with a powerful wordmark design though?

Keep reading to learn how to use the best typeface for your logo!

Know Thy Enemy’s Typeface

First things first: Find out what typeface your direct competition already uses.

The last thing you want, after all, is for anyone to mistake their typeface with your brand name. Also, your brand is one of a kind, so that means your logo should be too.

As such, take the time to do some background-checking on your competitors. Look at what they use for their typefaces. Steer clear from these and use another, or better yet, have one engineered (AKA custom typeface) for your business.

It’s also a good idea to keep yourself in the loop of the latest logo design trends. This way, you can figure out whether your ideas make the cut or if you should trim them from your final decision.

Shoot the Serif or the Sans-Serif?

What does Sony and The New York Times have in common?

A Serif typeface, that’s what!

FedEx and Microsoft, on the other hand, use Sans Serif typefaces.

With these examples, can you now distinguish the difference now between a Serif and a Sans Serif?

Simply put, Serifs have those fancy features on the ends of each stroke (think Times New Roman, Garamond, and Georgia). Sans Serifs (like Arial and Tahoma) don’t.

It’s for this reason that you’ll find Serifs used in normal body texts while Sans is for smaller texts (like web copy, for instance). But this is only one way to differentiate the two.

Since we’re talking about brand logos, when should you use which then?

It depends on the type of mood, emotions, and perceptions you want to instill in consumers.

Say, for instance, your brand’s offers have something to do with kids. In this case, a Sans may work in your favor, since their simplicity makes them easy to recognize. It’s simple, clean, and minimalistic, making it a good way to create a logo with a modernized look.

Legibility in All Sizes

Whether you go for a Serif or a Sans, you need to make sure your chosen wordmark font keeps its legibility in all instances.

No matter what the font size is. Regardless of what channel (print or digital) you put it in.

A critical consideration for this is the typeface’s weight. How thick (or thin) is it? Do you need to add a bit of texture to it or keep it solid?

You also need to make a case with your typeface’s case. How readable is it in all uppercase (and lowercase) letters? What does it look like with a combination of uppercase and lowercase?

The important thing is to experiment and try out all possible sizes and case combinations. This way, you can ensure consumers can read your logo – whether printed out or displayed on computer/laptop screens, tablets, or smartphones – without any problem.

The Right Color Can Make or Break Your Wordmark Logo

More than one billion people from all over the world know right away what they’re looking at when they see the six-letter Google. (Maybe apart from China, where it’s banned.)

Most, if not all, can even tell right away what colors make up the company’s logo. In other words, when they see the combination of blue, red, yellow, and green, Google’s most likely the first thing to pop into their mind.

This should already tell you that your logo’s color scheme tells a lot about your brand.

First, different colors set off different emotions. That includes consumer behaviors – buying decisions, in particular.

Red, for instance, stirs feelings of urgency. That’s why stores love them for discount or sales signs.

Blue, on the other hand, signals safety, security, and trustworthiness. You need only to think about companies like Bank of America, IBM, Paypal, Facebook, and Oreo among many others.

Black exudes sophistication (why, hello there, classy little black dress). It also represents authority and power, which is why you’ll find it in the logos of Mercedes-Benz, Nikon, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, etc.

All these said, you need to consider color scheme as important as the typeface when creating your word-only logo.

Reinforce Your Brand’s Uniqueness with a Character Feature in Its Logo

Vans most likely wouldn’t be as recognizable if it wasn’t for that line extending from the V in its logo. The same goes for the XX in Exxon Mobile. Or that lopsided E in Dell’s logo.

What we’re saying is that it’s possible to make typeface logos recognizable and recallable with only a single character feature. Of course, this doesn’t work for all brands, but it’s something that you should consider if you want to make your unique logo even more unique.

Wow Your Customers with Only A Single Look at Your Logo

Creating the best wordmark logo takes research and planning. But so long as you follow these tips, you’ll leave your customers exclaiming wow at first sight. In fact, your logo can make your brand a household name.

Want more tips and tricks that’ll help you get your logo imprinted in your customers’ minds? Then make sure you check our other blog posts out!

There is something undeniably attractive about good logos with animals. They resonate with us in a way unlike text-based designs or those using inanimate objects.

A few great examples are the World Wildlife Fund and Penguin Books.

With a glance, they evoke emotion. Whether it’s playfulness, compassion, or some other feeling, animals have a way of speaking volumes.

So how do you design a strong logo using these powerful, wordless messages?

Find out with our tips on how to create symbolic animal logos.

Tips on Creating Symbolic Logos with Animals

Creating a great animal logo takes a bit of planning and forethought. We walk you through the critical thinking that goes along with logo design to help you achieve the best results.

Decide What Animal Best Represents Your Business

Before you even begin sketching out designs, ask yourself:

• What do I want my brand to stand for?
• How do I want consumers to feel when they look at my logo?
• What animal represents my organization best?

You can’t just pick your favorite animal. For example, a snake wouldn’t be a good representation of a local home and garden store. Neither would a kitten pair well with a nearby shooting range.

Every animal has its own reputation which influences the kind of impression it makes on viewers.

Start with exploring animal symbolism. Many cultures have specific interpretations of various animals and what they represent. Even if you or your consumers don’t believe in these old symbols, their descriptions are useful.

Find lore relative to your demographic and research what emotions each type of animal evokes. Try to track down one that aligns with your brand and what you want it to represent.

• Are you clever and quick like a fox?
• Does your company find its success through owl-like intelligence?
• Do you reign over the industry like a lion?

Find an animal you can relate to your brand, then make sure you can explain why it fits. Once you have the right animal in mind, you can move on to the design phase.

Decide How to Use Your Brand Colors

If you haven’t already chosen your brand colors, the animal you choose may be an influencing factor. However, if your brand already has an established palette, don’t feel the need to change it to suit your animal’s natural design.

Keep your color scheme simple. Animals may showcase many colors, but simplicity is important when creating a logo. One to three colors is a good range to stay within.

Think not only about what colors pair well together but also what they mean. Like the animal you chose, colors have certain emotions they evoke. Use the wrong one and you may end up confusing your audience.

For example:

• Red evokes hunger, passion, or urgency
• Blue can be calming, serene, or sad
• Yellow is joyful, optimistic, and exciting
• Green represents life or growth

Couple these with your animal’s symbolism and you can reinforce its meaning. Don’t limit yourself to “natural colors”.

Remember, an animal logo doesn’t have to be realistic. You can get creative with your color scheme.

A great example of this is the Zebra from Fruit Stripe bubble gum, who was anything but black and white. Think outside the box. Capture emotion as well as attention.

Once you decide on your brand colors, you can start working on your animal logo design.

Choose a Style of Graphic that Represents Your Brand’s Personality

Whether you’re browsing stock or going with a custom design, the graphic style of your animal logo says a lot about your business. Make sure you think about impressions as you consider your options.

A cartoon style logo won’t match the cut and dry image of law firms or other white collar agencies. Likewise, a plain, realistic logo for a creative agency may fall flat in the eyes of your target client.

You can combine your animal logo with text or let it stand alone. Put together several different variations to explore your options. Once you have a selection you like, consider not just what you think but how your potential client base will react to each one.

Go with what your clients will respond to best, even if it’s not your favorite. After all, they are the individuals your logo is aiming to attract.

Make Sure Your Design Looks Good in All Formats

One of the biggest mistakes new logo designers make is not thinking about how the logo will be printed and used. As part of your brand’s face, it will be displayed in many ways, shapes, and forms:

• On your website
• In brochures
• On your business card
• In flyers and news clippings
• On vehicle wraps
• In Mailers
• Etc.

Because of this, you have to consider both scale and grayscale.

You know your logo looks good as-is, but what if its reduced to a 1″ x 1″ scale? Is it readable? Is it recognizable?

The same goes for enlarged designs. Designs can look surprisingly different based on how big or small its represented. Make sure your logo is flexible enough to suit all occasions.

Consider also how it looks without color. Sometimes you won’t be able to add your brand’s palette to your logo. There may be instances where grayscale is the only option.

In this case, you want to make sure your logo doesn’t lose its personality. Test it before you finalize your design by viewing it both in color and black and white. Make sure you don’t lose any of the detail or the impression you’re trying to convey.

Create an Awesome Animal Logo Without Photoshop

You don’t have to be a Photoshop genius to design quality logos with animals. In fact, all the tools you need are right here, online.

Get started on your free logo and discover how easy it is to create the perfect design for your brand. The steps to use our logo maker are so simple, anyone can do it.

Ready to get started? Open our logo maker now and let your creativity run loose.

The popularity of reality-bending films give us some clues about people’s interests. Films such as The Matrix, Inception, and Doctor Strange present questions about what is known and what lies beneath.

We become engrossed in talking about concepts of what we see as well as what we don’t see.

When you face the challenge of catching in a potential customer’s mind you want to find a way to front-load and backdoor your message at the same time. You want something that catches the eye immediately.

However, adding in something that takes a minute to reveal itself provides added reinforcement.

For the front-loading, we’ve been coming up with shapes and objects to accomplish that for a while. We know logos have some profound impact on consumers.

For that backdoor into consciousness and lingering appeal, we need to go further into visual psychology with negative space logo concepts. How do you use them in your design? Read on for everything you will need to get started.

Negative Space Logo Design

Negative space design broaches into realms of mysticism. The principles of light and the functioning of the visual cortex play their part in how images are produced.

The interpretation and the fascination we have with them comes down to that gap left for transcendent ideas.

We get a charge out of that ah-ha moment when we notice something that was always there, but not readily apparent. Despite ourselves, we like to both learn and grasp hidden concepts.

So, you may be asking “What is negative space?” Let’s start with that and get you grounded so you can explore the limits of perception.

Go Negative

In a certain sense, negative space is the area between other images. Think of a photographic portrait. The foreground contains the person and the background is usually neutral to not steal focus.

Negative space is that gap between the two components of the image. When no background exist and it is flat, that whole area becomes negative space.

There’s some interesting psychology around what we do and do not see in an image. When negative space is present it can lead us to see something in the nothing between.

Consider the original work of Frank Miller’s Sin City. Instead of drawing in black ink on white paper, he inverted the image by drawing with white ink on black paper. It gives the work a remarkable finished emotional depth.

Which leaves us with the concern of how to create a negative space logo. Start by thinking outside and inside of your boxes.

Be Clever

Utilizing negative space when creating a logo requires you to think about both the seen and the unseen. Modern graphic design programs make this somewhat easier than the mind-bending feats of the past.

Consider how the layers in such a program can be placed on top of or underneath each other.

Get clever in placing an image within the shape of a letter o the gap of that letter. Shapes like R, P, and A offer a lot of room to tweak and create a secondary image.

Letters make for good places to manipulate negative space for two reasons. First is that using lettering in logos has a solid track record of efficacy. Second, humans recognize the basic shapes of letters and scan and identify them quickly.

This is part of the basis for how fonts work in the first place. A font takes the basic shapes of letters and changes them. They do so to invoke emotional responses or enhance readability at different sizes.

Different typography allows us to shape a message to be friendly, evoke a sense of unease, or build confidence.

Think Cookie Cutters

When trying to spot logo negative space opportunities, it is best to think about cookie cutters. The shape of the plastic or metal outline creates a negative image.

The space in between, the cookie, can be thought of as the positive space.

As you cut through the dough and pile up your positive shapes, you may notice that the area left sometimes resembles other shapes. This kind of overlapping provides another way to use negative space.

Another classic example is the yin-yang symbol. What exists on one side is seemingly taken out of the other.

A logo can benefit from similar mirroring and enhance its impact. The logo enhances a component by removing it from the positive space and representing it in the negative.

Lurk From the Shadows

Another trick in the box of how to use negative space is shadow enhancing. Much like Frank Miller did with Sin City, reversing the expectations and paint with the white to make the black disappear.

Shadows provide the most black and white way to see negative space. When you see a shadow in the world, you can get an idea of the shape casting the shadow because the shadow resembles, in part, the object.

Shadow puppets work by blocking light and creating an image. You may not have known you spent your childhood figuring out negative space, but there it is.

Creating a negative space logo with shadow effects creates a 3D illusion. It works the same way that drawing a 3D cube on paper does. We imagine what cast the shadow and we ‘see’ that object next to it.

The interplay of shadow and foreground also has a specific psychology to it. We tend to think of things in strict positive/negative of black/white as being serious or professional. It works much like the emotional attachment we have to colors.

Shadow doesn’t have to be only black and white. Two mixed colors can work just as well. The idea of shadow is to represent the quality of blocked or cast light.

Make It Yours

It can take a little bit of time to catch on to the interplay of elements in a negative space logo design. That same difficulty in creating the logo is part of what makes it effective in lingering with consumers.

Looking to get started in designing a logo now? Check out our tutorial to learn more about logo design step by step.

Logos are expensive.

Graphic designers make good money using the tools of the trade to make a logo for your brand. And they should.

After all, they are signing over the intellectual property that will hopefully propel your business into branding success.

Your logo is the face of your brand, but some people can’t afford to hire an expensive graphic artist.

For those people, the idea of learning Photoshop and paying for a costly subscription may not be the best solution.

Luckily, there are alternatives that are not Photoshop, and that’s what we will discuss here.

1. Choose an Online Logo Maker

There are a number of online logo tools to choose from, we recommend ours.

Using OnlineLogoMaker, you have access to how to’s and tutorials that will help you craft your logo in no time at all.

All you need to do is register for an account with your name and email and get to work on the logo that will drive you to brand recognition in no time.

We even offer support, so you don’t have to go it alone should you get stuck on a project. That’s why we are the best program to make a logo.

Steps to Using OnlineLogoMaker

Here’s how to use OnlineLogoMaker to increase your brand presence:

1. Navigate to http://www.onlinelogomaker.com
2. Register for a free account or log in
3. Select Create a New Logo
4. Start drawing

Getting a professional logo has never been easier.

2. Hire From Fiverr

A great option for those seeking an inexpensive logo without the Photoshop skills is to hire a freelancer on Fiverr.

Sometimes this results in outsourcing work to other countries, but with many options to choose from you can find a designer that understands your vision.

The great thing about Fiverr is good designers get a lot of work, and therefore have a lot of reviews. You can see, in advance, if you’re partnering with someone who is likely to deliver.

With prices starting around $5 for a logo design, it’s going to be your most hassle-free bet.

How to Hire a Freelancer

Use Fiverr to find the right person for the job!

1. Go to Fiverr.com
2. Type ‘logo design’ in the search box
3. Select a designer in your price range with lots of positive reviews
4. You’ll be prompted to create an account before purchase — Bonus: it’s free to create

Don’t miss out on professional design services when a new logo is at your fingertips.

3. Look For Free Alternatives

Through the advent of web applications, there are a number of Photoshop simulators and alternatives to buying the program itself.

These differ from online logo makers, which tend to be more simplistic because Photoshop simulators offer a number of robust features for savvy users.

These can be used to make everything from logos to marketing materials, ads and more. But be careful, because they do tend to have a learning curve.

How to Find the Right Not Photoshop Simulator

If you’re looking for something with all the capabilities of Photoshop, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Google
2. Search “Photoshop Simulator”
3. Select from products available
4. Choose a simulator that you like
5. Start a design

Photoshop simulators have many tools, like retouch and smudge tools. And they use layers to create unique vector images for those seeking a new logo.

4. Find a Logo Mobile App

Depending on what phone you use, your mobile app store likely has logo design tools available for your consumption.

Just navigate to your app store and type in “logo design” to see what’s available.

These range in price from free to a couple of bucks. Some will have in-app purchases, like templates, that might offer a design you fancy.

Generally, this is a cheap and easy option for getting a logo made to be visible online. But to ensure your logo has the print quality you desire, you are likely better off using one of the other tools mentioned above.

What to Look for in a Mobile Logo App

These may seem like a dime a dozen, focus your search around:

• The option to create high-resolution images suitable for print
• Lots of free or inexpensive template options
• Full range of colors and design choices

They have an app for that! Using a logo app makes logo design attainable for small businesses and freelancers.

5. Focus on Minimalism

Minimalism is all the rage. That’s a good thing for those seeking how to make a logo design without Photoshop.

It’s okay to follow the rule of “K-I-S-S”:

• Keep
• It
• Simple
• Smartie

See what we did there? We think you’re smart for wanting a simplistic logo design. And graphic designers might agree, considering minimalist logos are on the rise.

Minimalist Design Pillars

The minimalist principles of logo design include:

• Simplicity
• Selective typography
• Strategic use of whitespace
• Attention is given to the design proportion
• Make it memorable and timeless
• Keep it clean

With these pillars in mind, you can draw up a logo design in no time.

6. Take Google Drawings for a Spin

If you’ve had to work collaboratively at all recently in your career, odds are you’ve used Google apps.

A new tool launched by Google called Drawings helps users like you define your brand.

Using Drawings you can do some of the same things as Photoshop but in a more simple format.

As a logo tool, Drawings allows you to select and arrange fonts and shapes to create simple designs. You can add and change colors, select photos, or free draw.

How to Use Google Drawings

Here are some quick tips for effective use of Google Drawings:

1. Log into your Google Account
2. Select the Google Apps Logo and click on Drawings
3. Familiarize yourself with the icons in the toolbar
4. Use the toolbar to begin your design

For those already familiar with Google Apps, a big bonus to using Drawings is the resemblance to other Google tools you’ve already learned.

If Not Photoshop, What?

Gone are the days where business owners have to ask, “If not Photoshop, then what can I use?”

There are a lot of good, free and inexpensive options for small business owners looking to get a great design.

These include mobile apps, web apps, Google apps and more! For other great tips on how to brand your business, visit us here.