In any area of expertise, it’s usually wise to leave things to the professionals. If you have your own business, you are likely in business because you think it would be wise for others to pay you as their professional masseuse or mechanic or photographer, rather than being their own “do-it-yourself” version of those things.

I have seen some pretty good amateur photography and have known some good handyman mechanics, but I would still go with a professional if I needed a wedding photographer or a new transmission.That being said, sometimes you just can’t scrape together the money for a decent logo when you first start your business. I would argue you probably could and it should be a priority, but let’s say you’re unconvinced. How would you go about building the best DIY logo possible?

Skip the free “logo generators”

These services give you exactly what you pay for – nothing. They promise you a beautiful new logo then just spit out random colors and shapes along with your company name. With the odds of probability at play, it is theoretically possible that they could succeed and generate a perfect logo, but the odds are not in your favor.

Do some serious thinking on your brand identity and strategy

Who are you trying to appeal to? Young, hip millennials? Older, stable consumers with expendable income? What is the simple message you are trying to send to this target demographic? A sense of fun? A sense of stability and trustworthiness? What colors and shapes best express this message? Do you want to have a logo with the name of your company present, like IBM, or one with just a symbol that becomes synonymous with your brand, like Nike or Mercedes-Benz?

Find a good design tool

Now it’s time to sit down and design your logo. Based on what you decided above, you should sketch out some general ideas for your logo. Find a design application or program where you can experiment with how to create this logo. Ucraft is a good one, as is Canva. If you have experience in Adobe InDesign or PhotoShop, those are great resources. But, those are both professional tools used by graphic designers, which brings us to the final point…

Call an experienced graphic designer

You may go through this process and come out with something really good, but you may also use a lot of your precious time and energy with nothing to show for it. Graphic designers are artists. It may seem like writers, painters and other artists are just doing “creative” work that anyone can do, but in reality, there is a big difference between professional and amateur art. You may not know enough to even know what you don’t know, you know? But people who do, will be able to spot an amateur job and may judge your business as one that cuts corners on important matters.

Come see us in our Raleigh, NC office our call us today at 919.838.1919.