How to make a logo, for free, in about 5 minutes.

After you read this, you should be able to throw together a logo without hiring a designer in about five minutes. You‘re not going to end up with the Nike Swoosh or Apple logo, but you will have enough to get going.

Side Note: with something as important as your logo, once you get more resources and time, I highly recommend hiring a professional logo designer through Design Inc.

Before you get started, download one of these great programs Sketch, Figma or Illustrator (they all offer free trials), and don’t be intimidated, you’re just going to be using the text and shape tools.

Ready to start? We are going to create a logo for a company I just made up called Dancygram — a hot new app for millennials to show off and share their dance moves, like the dab.

Step 1. Choose one of these classic fonts

The classic fonts listed below are tried and true. Many designers have taken the shortcut of using on of these fonts calling the logo done. For example, check out the Target logo — nothing custom, just typeset in Helvetica Neue!

To start, type your logo name in each font. Play with lowercase and uppercase to get a feel for each distinct font style (For extra credit you can try a font from the Lost Type Foundry). So, lets see what “Dancygram” looks like in these classic fonts:

Step 2. Get fancy with typesetting

After you’ve laid out your options, choose one font you particularly like. For Dancygram lets go ahead and work with Futura, a really fun and chunky font with a lot of versatility and line weights.

We want to explore line weight, spacing and case. Thin line weights are nice for a brand that is elegant, fancy and refined. Thicker line weights feel consumer, friendly, sturdy and reliable.

Step 3. Add an icon to your logotype

After you have settled on your logotype, it’s time to add a simple icon. One simple technique is to overlay a letter from the logo name on a shape like a circle, square or diamond.

So, lets take the “d” from Dancygram and see what we can come up with. Keep everything in black and white for now. We will get to color in the next step.

Step 4. Add Color!

Every visual identity needs a color to underscore and unify the brand. There are a million ways to pick a color. Thankfully, Tobias van Schneider made Color Claim to help us out! Head over to Color Claim and choose a few colors that fit with your product or service.

Since our app is called “Dancygram” let’s choose some goofy and memorable colors and then explore what our logo looks like in each color combination.

Step 5. You’re Done! Lay it all out!

We really fell in love #64 above, the pink and blue (it really brings out the eyes). Create a logo sheet by repeating your new logo and icon in all its varieties including color and black and white.

Pro Tip: Throw your logo on any beautiful photo in white to really up the feels!

Bonus Step! Use the noun project to find a real icon

The “D” icon we made was fun, but we really would prefer to use an illustration or memorable shape. Let me introduce you to the Noun Project — a place to find great icons and illustrations (if you use an icon from Noun Project be sure to read up on how licensing works). I searched “pants” on the Noun Project and found a nice pair. Updating my logo with a fresh pair of jeans.

Final Step? Dance party of course!

Hope you enjoyed this post and thank you for reading. Logos are really quite fun and hopefully your 5 minute logo can get you pretty far. If you hit a point where you want to get professional logo help, then I happen to know a few folks who can help you out over at Design Inc.

If you decide to make a 5 minute logo please reply to this post and share a pic of your creation!

Thanks for stopping by and good luck with your logo, please reach out if you have any questions or challenges!

Thanks For reading!

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