5 Tips to Create a Great Logo Using Canva

Pop quiz: What’s a super simple, powerful and inexpensive AF way to GRAB people’s attention, establish your brand’s IDENTITY, and make sure you’re not boring and totally forgettable?

The answer – Your BRAND LOGO.

Your logo is the FACE of your business.

A great logo visually communicates your brand’s personality. It builds recognition, gets people to trust you, AND helps you STAND OUT in the crowd.

Basically, it makes you UNIQUE and lets everyone know who you are and what you’re about. 

Now that you know that your logo adds a sh*t ton of value to your brand, you’re probably thinking – OKAY Janelle, but how the hell do I create a great logo with ZERO design skills?! And NO MONEY to pay for a graphic designer??? 

Want my hot take? 

Use Canva.

Canva is a FREE design tool where you can design practically ANY KIND of visual content.

I swear by it because it’s SUPER easy to use and comes with TONS of templates that you can customize to match your UNIQUE brand. 

Check out my top 5 tips for creating a BADASS brand logo using Canva.

Get inspired by the design library

If you’re anything like, I HATE starting my designs from scratch. It gives me beginner’s anxiety. 

The awesome thing about Canva is that it has a HUGE library of logo templates that you can browse for inspo. 

Look through Canva’s design library and go through logos of similar businesses. Once you’ve done the research and found yourself some solid inspiration, step away from your screen and brainstorm what you’d like YOUR logo to be. 

Then go back to the templates and choose a logo that resonates MOST with you (and your BRAND). 

Once you have a couple of logos on your shortlist, you’re READY for the fun part: customizing the hell outta them until you get something that works for YOU.

Be careful with colors (they DEFINE who you are)

Take my word for it, sis – when it comes to adding color to your logo, less is more. 

Your logo colors communicate the ESSENCE of your brand. So you’ve gotta be strategic here.

Also, remember that colors carry strong EMOTIONAL associations with them. For example, red shows boldness, blue depicts calm, yellow sends out warmth and black stands for sophistication.

Think about your brand’s personality when you’re choosing your colors – is your brand all loud, bold and bright or elegant, minimalist and refined? Don’t pick colors because YOU LIKE them, pick them because they resonate with your brand. 

Now, choose a color palette with 4 or fewer colors and STICK TO IT. 

‘Cause trust me, dumping the whole frickin’ rainbow on your logo won’t do you any favors.

Pro Tip: If your background color is anything other than white, set that first BEFORE you add any other elements to your logo. It’ll help you visualize the complete picture more clearly. (thank me later)

Don’t mix up FONTS

If you wanna add text to your logo, you have two options on Canva. 

You can either browse through their VERY LARGE (and VERY helpful) list of font layouts and choose one to customize. 

OR you can manually choose your own fonts and add them to your design.

Remember, readability is KEY here. 

When in doubt, ALWAYS choose simple over stylish.

My advice – if you’re new to this, stick to Canva’s font layouts. You can customize them by changing size and color but it’s MUCH easier (and SAFER) than trying to mix and match fonts on your own. 

Make many versions of your logo

Remember what I said about your logo being the FACE of your brand?

This means that your logo is going to show up EVERYWHERE – on your website, email signatures, cake boxes, merch, you name it.

But the version of your logo that goes on your website may not be IDEAL for printing in the corner of your business cards.

Which is why you need to create a few different VERSIONS of your logo. 

Think of all the different places in which you might use your logo and make sure you have a version of it that’ll work for EACH of them. 

For example, your logo might be in a SUPER bright orange and fuchsia, but if you’re going to be printing it out on hundreds of leaflets and flyers, you might wanna also make a black-and-white version. 

OR if your primary logo incorporates graphics AND text (with your brand name and a tagline), create a smaller symbol-only version for places where real estate is tight – like your mobile site or packaging boxes.

Don’t forget about pixels

WAY too many people don’t realize the importance of pixels. So what are pixels??? To keep it simple, pixels are the TINY bits of color you see on any image or computer screen. 

Once you’ve built a logo you LOVE, won’t you want every tiny detail in it to be razor-sharp and CRYSTAL CLEAR no matter where you use it?

The answer is yes. And to make it work, you’re going to have to start thinking about download format. 

Canva lets you download your designs in a number of different file formats. But for web use, PNG is THE way to go. It gives you a clear, higher-quality image than most other file formats. 

There's a BIG added bonus too – you can use a transparent background with a PNG image, which means you can paste your logo on different colored surfaces without any color clashes. 

So there you have it! With these 5 tips in your back pocket, you're ABSO-FREAKIN-LUTELY ready to create a drop-dead-gorgeous logo for your business. 

If you've been procrastinating on creating your brand logo or been meaning to spruce up your old one, THIS is your sign to get off your a** and get moving on it TODAY!