Creating a memorable logo is one of the most important aspects for any new company trying to stand out in a competitive marketplace.

This is especially true in newly developing industries because no brand stands out in the minds of customers.

In the cannabis industry, the worst companies will make an obvious and boring cannabis logo that just uses an overused image, such as the marijuana leaf.

If you want a great logo that stands out, follow the steps below.

1. Simplify Your Brand

We get it. You love your company and believe in the product or service. But potential customers don’t know anything about it and will compare you to your competitors during their searches.

If your company just comes across as a company that does/sells “cannabis stuff”, it won’t be nearly as effective as a competitor with a direct message.

For example, imagine two companies make edibles. Company A’s logo is a graphic illustration of the cannabis leaf while company B’s logo is a chef holding a cookie with a cannabis leaf on his apron.

Neither logo is particularly original, but at least with company B, it’s obvious they sell edibles. Potential customers will instantly understand what they offer and will see company B as a specialist rather than a general cannabis store. The more info you can communicate in the logo the better.

But before even sketching your logo, make sure you can condense what your company offers to its customers down to just one or two words.

Even if it’s abstract like “relaxation” or “comfort”, these will help inform the look and feel of your design.

2. Understand Your Customers

Another mistake new companies make is to generalize their customers. E.g. “our customers like to get high for both medical and recreational purposes.”

This statement is too obvious and applies to almost every cannabis company. What is it specifically that customers will get from your company that they can’t get better anywhere else?

Is it the variety of choice? The quality of ingredients? The safety of your products? Once you narrow this down, you can then start thinking of your customers in a more specific and personal way.

For example, if your company is focused on the safety of your products, you will describe your customers as “people new to cannabis who are both curious and anxious about trying it. They are tired of pills and medicine and want to try something new but they are afraid of ‘bad trips’.”

This is a far more in-depth belief about who your customers are that will not only shape your logo but the entire way your company communicates and talks about itself to others.

In this example, a logo that looks more medical and professional may be better suited than one that looks casual and fun.

3. Search the Internet

Once you have a good idea about what you want to communicate, start searching the internet for existing logos and images for inspiration.

This is essential to make sure you don’t copy another company and also to ensure your logo will be truly different and stand out.

A good method is to save images and logos you like while making a note about what it is you like about it. From the color scheme and simplicity to the art style or the font, whatever stands out to you probably stands out to their customers too.

It’s important to know that it is perfectly normal for professional designers to draw inspiration and use elements from different logos to make their own.

The end result just needs to be unique and communicate what your company offers.

4. Create a Table

A good technique to help you think outside the box and create something visually different is to create a table that lists all the most important elements of your company.

For example, the edibles company could make individual columns with the headers: Cannabis, Food, Healthy, Safe, Delicious, Relief.

You then try and find (or draw) as many different images and words to represent that element. At this stage, there are no ‘wrong’ or ‘stupid’ ideas because you never know when a dumb thought could inspire something interesting. Just do as many variations as you can.

The point is to help you see that there are many different ways to represent the same thing and the more time you put into this step, the more options you will end up with.

5. Start With Pencil and Paper

Most of the world’s top designers will still start all their preliminary ideas as rough sketches because it is easy and fast.

You can start something, hate it, and start drawing something else. You can sketch minor improvements and variations quickly without worrying about quality.

You may even come back to the design you hated later and think of an interesting way to improve it.

When you make something on a computer, it’s too tempting to see it as the final design and minor changes can sometimes take much longer than you expect, which wastes time. You’re also tempted to delete designs you don’t like to keep the page clear, meaning you may miss out on a cool idea later on.

Once you have some sketches you want to try out, you can follow our tutorial to learn how to make your own logo.

6. Play With the Components

When designing a logo, it’s normal to get stuck on a few concepts or ideas and struggle to come up with something else.

When this happens, it helps to try changing how you approach the design as a whole by breaking it into components to change or combine.

For example, some logos are a design with a relevant font spelling out the company name. Other logos bring the company name into the design itself. Some even combine this by involving the design into a letter (often the first) within the name. Others are purely a unique font style that speaks to the overall tone of the company.

Try different combinations or leaving everything the same and changing just one thing. This will help you create more designs and options to work with.

7. Make it Scale

In our digital world, there are endless screen sizes people will view your content from. Because of this, website designers have created responsive sites that can shrink to mobile or enlarge to a PC without the design and spacing of the content being cut off.

From this movement, companies have begun creating logos which can be both long and short.

The easiest example of this is McDonald’s. When they have space they can show the entire McDonald’s name spelled out. If they want to save space, however, the logo can get smaller until it changes to just the recognizable yellow ‘M’.

This is effective because it prevents you from making a logo that is too complicated. The more simple it is, the easier it is for people to remember.

8. Show Your Cannabis Logo to Others

It’s perfectly normal to spend so long thinking about something that you end up with designs which make perfect sense to you but are completely lost on others seeing it for the first time.

That’s why you should make three to five options and show them to as many friends and family members as you can.

Don’t explain the logo at first, so you can get their genuine initial reaction and thoughts.

It will likely reveal problems you never thought of or even new ideas to improve what you have. Just make sure to only make changes that came up multiple times. If only one person didn’t like the color then you don’t have to change it if you don’t agree with them.

Ideally, you will be able to show your logo to a stranger and they will be able to tell you a roughly accurate depiction of what your company does or offers.

Have Fun With It

The creative process is both fun and frustrating. When coming up with your cannabis logo, just remember that there’s nothing wrong with being stuck or feeling like your ideas are terrible.

Often, those moments are the best time to try something stupid and silly to help remind you to have fun. And you never know, that cannabis leaf punching a bear in the face may spur an awesome logo idea.

However, if you’re concerned about your design skills, read our blog about paying for a designer.

There are over 41,000 optometrists in the United States. A number that goes up every year as more students find access to affordable higher education.

As optometry continues to become a more studied field, competition for patients will become more difficult and that reality will make branding integral to the success of those looking to open their eye care practice.

One of the most important components of your optometry office’s overall branding is its logo.

Logos are the first thing your customers will see when engaging your services and will either facilitate them having positive feelings towards you have to offer or alienate them which will make it difficult to convert them into lifelong patrons.

To help your optometry office’s logo get off on the right foot, here are some tips on how to create effective and unique logos.

1. Keep Simplicity at Your Logo’s Core

The unique logos you consider leveraging for your optometry practice should be able to communicate information at a glance.

It should answer people’s topical questions like, “What do you do?” “What’s your area of expertise?”, etc.

To that end, you’ll find that many optometrists find unique ways to play with the image of an eye or glasses which leads to their successful creation of simple, yet effective logos.

2. Don’t Get Too Busy in Your Execution

Many people perceive simplicity with logos as using simple shapes like circles and squares. That can be true, however, slapping tons of different geometric shapes into your logo, no matter how simple each one is, can create a logo that becomes too much.

Take the London Olympics logo for example. This logo’s pieces are simple enough but their synergy is jarring.

For that reason, be sure that your optometry logo only incorporates one or two elements into its design.

3. Keep Your Logo as Original as Possible

We get it, as an optometrist, your go-to elements are going to be eye shapes, glasses, contact lenses (which you can read more here about), etc. That reality can make it difficult to create logos that really stand out.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t try to be unique though.

Remember, if your logo feels like a copy, you may end up inheriting some of the bad will a similar looking brand carries. To make sure your organization stands on its own, take the time to analyze the logos of other optometry practices in your area and try to make sure your unique logos don’t bear any resemblance.

4. Design Your Logo as a Vector Graphic

There are a lot of logo creation tools out there, many of which will output your logo into different formats. As a rule of thumb, you’ll want to have a vector graphic of your logo to use as the master copy.

Vector graphics are infinitely scaleable which means your logo can go anywhere. That means it will look right at home on a pamphlet and can also be blown up to a billboard-size model without getting pixelated.

5. Start With Black and White

Color is an incredible tool that can be leveraged in design. It can make onlookers feel emotions and will help them draw conclusions about a brand.

With that said, color can also distract during your logo’s creation.

Many first time designers trying to work on unique logos fall into the trap of getting carried away with color and don’t focus on the much more important shape of their logo.

To avoid that with your optometry logo, first design it in black and white. Once finished, see if people get what you’re communicating and make sure the shape of your design is carrying your desired impact.

Once you’re confident in your logo’s foundation, you can then add color to give it that extra oomph!

6. Consider Typeface Logos

Most logos rely heavily on images. After all, images are worth a thousand words.

Still, some of the most effective logos on earth leverage nothing but original typefaces to get their brand’s story across.

Think Disney or Google. Both don’t use images in their logos yet they’ve created branding that’s recognized across the world.

Bottom line, be open to experimenting not only with the stereotypical eye or glasses-based optometry logo but also with the creative use of text.

7. Get Inspired by Other Successful Logos Both Within and Outside of Your Niche

At the end of the day, there’s no better way to draw inspiration for unique logos more so than by taking the time to admire the work of others.

As an optometrist, look at the most successful optometry companies in the country. Inspect their logos.

What do the logos have in common? What do you like about them? What do you dislike?

Going beyond optometry logos, what can you learn from the Nike logo? What about McDonald’s golden arches?

Becoming a student of logo design will skyrocket your foray into creating breathtaking logos more so than anything else. So get out there and start studying!

Wrapping Up How to Create Unique Logos for Your Optometry Practice

How you brand your business will have a profound effect on its success. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the fast-food niche or in the business of helping people see better.

That reality was the basis of our article above and we hope that, through our unique logos tips above, you’ll find the inspiration you need to create stunning logos that will help skyrocket your business beyond your competition!

If you’re not a professional designer, we appreciate that creating an incredible logo can be incredibly tough. The good news is though that there are tools out there that can turn anybody into a world-class designer in minutes!

Our personal favorite of those logo creating tools… Online Logo Maker.

Over 2 million brands rely on online logo maker to create engaging branding elements for their business. Let our tools provide you with the same incredible value!

Try online logo maker right now, 100% free!

As a business, your logo is everywhere. From your website to your social media and all your printed promotions, it’s the first thing your audience will see.

Today, your logo is the most important quarter-inch of your business. With this in mind, you need to be sure that you’re hitting the right chord from the get-go.

Read this guide on how to create stunning personal logos that will stick with your customers.

Align your Logo With Your Brand Identity

Your logo must represent the personality of your service or product. It needs to give your customers or clients a glimpse into what they can expect from you.

You wouldn’t want customers to confuse your bakery for an accounting firm, would you?

So, make sure that your logo tells your customers the niche in which you operate. Create a logo that tells a story about your brand.

The Best Personal Logos Start With a Creative Brief

A creative brief will help you stay on track with your brand identity. You wouldn’t start a company without a business plan, right? Well, the same goes for design projects and a logo is no exception.

When designing a personal logo, it’s easy to lose track of the fact that its part of your business identity.

Your creative brief will inspire you with new ideas. It will also help you come up with a design that aligns with your business plan.

Your creative brief should include:

• A summary of your brand
• The image and tone you want to follow
• Information about your target audience
• An overview of your competitors
• The date by which you need your personal logo design ready
• Your budget

As you can see, your brief is about more than the creative parameters of your logo. It will also keep track of operational aspects like your budget and due dates.

Get Some Inspiration

To get inspiration, start by creating a mood board with all your ideas. Then, look at what other designers are doing at the moment.

You can do this by looking at your competitors’ logos. You can also look in search galleries. Make sure you jot down any logos that grab your attention during this process.

Also, get inspiration from the name of your business. You may be able to create a pun from the name that you can transform into design work.

Choose a Unique Design

The key to making your personal logo design unique is injecting your creative personality into it.

To achieve this, you have to think outside the box. List the aspects of your brand that are most memorable- the aspects you want your audience to remember you for.

Now find a way to portray these memorable aspects into your logo design.

Specify the Name You Want to Use

By including your company name in your personal logo, your audience is more likely to connect with you immediately.

You can use variations of this name, especially if it’s long. For example, you could use your:

• Full name
• Nickname
• Surname
• Initials

For a striking effect, you could design your logo from your name. Some examples of this include Facebook, LG, and Twitter.

Use a Trial and Error Technique

Designing a logo isn’t quick. You’re going to have to be patient. The key is to draw up various logos to get close to your final design.

You should create a small team of people that offer suggestions and ideas. From there, you can mix and match them.

Make sure you doodle all your ideas so you get a visual feel for them.

But, remember. Don’t over complicate things. Your logo should stay simple and eye-catching.

Try Different Colors and Backgrounds

Every company should have specific color branding. For example, Facebook is blue and white and Amazon is black, white, and yellow.

Whichever colors you choose for your color branding, you should use them in your personal logo design.

Color inspiration can come from anywhere. You could start with your favorite color. Your name could also have a color in it. For example, John Green. In this case, why not go with green as your primary color?

Also, consider the emotion you want to evoke with your audience. Big business use color to affect their audience’s reaction to their brand. You should use this technique to make the best first impression.

Create a Logo You Want to Showcase to the World

You need to create a logo that you want the world to see. After all, your logo is how your audience identifies you. If you don’t create an eye-grabbing logo from the get-go, you’ll eventually change it.

If you change it, your audience won’t recognize it, thus making your entire brand less memorable.

Create a logo that you are proud to showcase on all your business assets. These include your:

• Marketing materials
• Letters
• Resume
• Portfolio
• Business cards

Your audience should also find it easy to identify you via your logo on social media platforms.

Refine Your Concept

Once your concept is ready, you need to polish it to come up with a final product. This is where your personal logo design comes to life.

Create rough drafts of your final designs and share them with friends and family. Get as much feedback as you can.

Also, make sure that the answer to all the following questions is “Yes”:

• Does your logo speak to your target audience?
• Is it simple?
• Is it balanced?
• Is it evergreen?
• Does it use negative space to your advantage?
• Does it match your color branding?

When choosing your final logo design, don’t be afraid to go for the more bizarre and extravert choice. If that’s what your company stands for and that’s the image you want to portray to your audience, that’s okay.

Get Help From Online Logo Maker

Creating a logo is a complex process. You have to ensure that it aligns with your branding and company beliefs. You also need it to be eye-catching so that it’s memorable to your audience.

If you need a quick logo that aligns with your branding, why not contact Online Logo Maker today?

Our free logo maker takes the stress out of designing personal logos. In fact, with it, you’ll have a logo with unlimited downloads in less than 10 minutes!

As the average small business puts aside $75,000 a year for digital marketing, every small business owner knows the importance of counting each penny. That number might sound like a lot but if you consider how much does a logo cost, you’ll find that it can take a significant chunk of that budget.

If you’re wondering whether or not you should pay for a designer, you should consider some alternative methods.

Here are four tips for calculating a logo cost and avoiding big payments to a designer.

1. Doing It Yourself

When you make your own logo, you can save a lot of money. You can also end up making a serious mistake and end up with your logo going viral.

When you build your own logo, you can calculate the cost by how many hours it takes you. If you’re not dedicating a set amount of time to your logo, you can design it over the course of a few days or weeks.

When you do it yourself, you’re not going to have to pay anyone for anything but maybe the printing costs.

If you’re tracking your hours, try using a pay stub maker so you can write it off later.

However, if you want your company to be considered professionally, you need a professional logo. If you’re not a professional designer, don’t give your customers an amateur product.

2. Buying a Template or Using Fiverr

A good way to get started and to end up with a logo that will look good when printed on everything from business cards to billboards is to use a template. A template can ensure that you build a logo that looks professional and can fit the needs of printers.

When you buy a template or use Fiverr, you can get the basic elements for a meat and potatoes logo that will do the job you need it to. A Fiverr logo will be inexpensive but it might turn out to be derivative or emphasize the wrong aspects of your business.

3. Using an Online Tool

You can get a cheap subscription to a professional grade online tool to design your new logo. For around $10, you can start designing your logo on your own.

You’ll get access to some simple FAQ for first time designers and will be able to use limitations that check for alignment, sizing, and prepare you for printing. However, you’ll still need the design chops to get it done.

4. Crowdsource It

One of the best ways to get some exposure for your business is to hold a contest for designers. If you pay a small award to the best logo design, you can get professional unemployed or freelance designers to put their best foot forward. You’ll end up with some great choices and have access to great talent.

This might cost you a little more than the other methods but will be cheaper than hiring a professional designer outright.

Don’t Skim When Calculating How Much Does a Logo Cost

When you’re looking to figure out how much does a logo cost, you don’t have to be faced with a bill that eats up half of your marketing budget. By considering alternatives to hiring a designer, you might save big bucks and make it easier to promote your business.

If your number one motivation is to avoid Photoshop, check out our guide to get around it.