How To Get The Perfect Logo For Your New Business

The 5 Key Steps to Designing a Killer Business Logo

A logo isn’t just a random symbol— it’s a way of visually encapsulating the essence of your brand. Your logo actually has a significant stake in producing emotional connection and brand loyalty in your customers.

Color plays a massive role in how a logo is received by consumers, so choosing the right color is as important as choosing a good design. Have you ever noticed the peaceful feeling you get when you walk into a room painted green, or how yellow can make you a little hyper? Different colors are linked with different emotions, and knowing how to leverage them will help tremendously in the marketing of your newly established brand. We've created a free tool to help this process. Our free logo generator can generate a logo for you, no design experience necessary! You can also check out our review of the best logo makers.

But before we dig into that, here’s a real-world example. Below is Startup Savant’s very first logo:

1st Startup Savant logo

Startup Savant LogoWe used this logo for our first year in business. Pretty simple, not too exciting, but a place to start nonetheless. Since we serve awesome entrepreneurs like yourself, we wanted our logo to portray that we mean business (no pun intended) and that you can count on the information we provide.

After the significant success of our first year, we felt it was time to refresh. So, we switched it up and implemented a new logo altogether:

2nd Startup Savant logo

Startup Savant

We wanted our new logo to portray the entrepreneur’s creative spirit: eager to learn and ready to build an awesome business. The results were amazing. Not only did we start generating more revenue, we also began getting more shares and follows on social media.

When people find your logo aesthetically pleasing or interesting, they’ll naturally be more inclined to have it in their social media feed— they’ll want to be associated with it. Cool, right?

Where it All Begins

In a study conducted by University of Amsterdam, two and three-year-old children were able to recognize more than half of the famous logos they were shown— without any words on them whatsoever.

This means that even before children learn to read, their brand-recognition skills are already well on their way. They’re capable of understanding that certain logos are attached to certain products, and able to experience emotional reactions and attachments to brands via their logos.

You should aim to generate a clean, clear, impactful logo that even a 3-year-old pre-consumer could recognize. Now let’s dive into the how!

5 Key Steps to Business Logo Design

1) Consider What Your Brand Represents

The Nike swoosh has come to mean fitness and physical activity. The swirly red text of the Coca-Cola logo means a sweet, bubbly brown drink. To ensure that customers form an association with your logo, there has to be a connection between your brand and your logo design to begin with.

Ask yourself what your brand represents. This is what you need to present to your audience via your logo.

For example, if you’re a fitness company trying to target bodybuilders, you’ll probably want to have a bold, impactful logo to convey strength. This is what your market will be attracted to. This principle applies to all companies and their target audiences— your logo-style should differ depending on who you’re looking to attract.

2) Choosing The Right Color Scheme

First off, here are some things to consider when choosing colors for your brand’s logo:

  • Primary colors tend to produce more intense associations. Many of the world’s most popular brands utilize a primary color scheme.
    • Red stimulates feelings of passion, love and trust.
    • Blue evokes comfort, faith, confidence and understanding.
    • Yellow is associated with joy, vitality, energy and newness.

Knowing how to leverage this information is essential to maximizing your marketing potential. Check out Neil Patel’s article on color psychology for an in-depth look at what emotions different colors evoke!

Tips For Choosing Colors For Your Startup Logo

Begin by thinking about how you want to represent your brand’s personality. For example, is your company fresh, fun and edgy? If so, consider using yellows and oranges in your logo!

Next, think about what colors might embody the nature of your products or services. For instance, yellow, a color associated with sunshine and positive energy, wouldn’t be best-suited for a funeral home logo.

Then think about what colors your competitors are using. What vibe are they sending out? It’s important for your business to stand out, and choosing a color scheme opposite of your top competitor is an effective way to help customers differentiate between the two of you.

Finally, don’t forget to think about this from a functional standpoint. It’s important to consider readability, ability to attract attention, and visibility at night when you’re choosing your logo color(s). For instance, a bright yellow logo against a white background may be hard for your customers to see, especially if you’re marketing to elderly folks. A fantastic logo is worthless if your potential customers can’t make it out!

3) Getting Smart with Subliminal Messaging

This isn’t totally necessary, but most of the top companies worldwide use subliminal messages in their logos. You’d be surprised to find out the ways McDonald’s, FedEx, Google, Baskin Robbins and many other companies have subtly influenced your consumer choices through subliminal messages all these years!

If you have the time and the budget for it, definitely look into ways to make your logo smarter in order to leave a strong, long-lasting impression on your audience.

4) Making the Logo Memorable

This is the most important thing to keep in mind when designing your business logo. If it isn’t memorable, it won’t help you stand out against your competition or allow people to form an association with your brand.

Using a bold, clean design with an intelligent color scheme is your best chance at creating a memorable logo. Above all, simplicity is your greatest asset here!

5) Hiring a Logo Designer

Unless you yourself are a professional graphic designer, we highly recommend hiring someone to actually carry out your ideas for you. By adding a touch of professionalism, they’ll be able to bring your logo to life!

Below are a couple of our favorite online options for professional logo design:

99designs99designs: The world’s leading design-contest marketplace powered by a massive community of designers. Wondering what that means? It means that for a single flat fee, a ton of designers from around the world will take a shot at creating your logo, and you’ll get to choose the best one. Pretty cool, right?

This is a great option if you’re picky and going for a really specific aesthetic. All you have to do is plug in your info and watch the designs start rolling in. Plus, they have a 100% money-back guarantee— you get a design you love or your money back!

Fiverr: Another great option for logo design, as long as you’re able to get in touch with the right designer.

How it works: you select a designer from the listed ‘gigs’ offered and purchase their services (can be as little as $5). Once you’ve connected with them, all you have to do is give them some information on what you’re looking for, or send them a sample design if you have one.

While Fiverr is much more affordable than 99designs, the caveat is that you may end up having to work with a few different folks or request multiple versions from your designer before arriving at your perfect logo. Needless to say, you’ll have no shortage of options if you go with 99designs!

Wrapping Up

Don’t just phone in your logo— that is, unless a graphic designer is on the other line! Having an awesome logo is essential to connecting with your audience, gaining brand recognition, and establishing trust, especially during your first couple years in business. Start crafting your great design today.