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Do it yourself logo design.
Is it possible? Yes. Is it advisable? Probably not.
 Many business owners are the very definition of 'do it yourself ers' - probably applies to you as you're taking time out of your hectic schedule to read this page. You've cobbled together a successful business from scratch, with little to rely on other than your wits and imagination. Like most business owners, you want to take a 'hands on' approach to every aspect of your company, and when it comes to developing a logo for their business, who knows the market, audience, and company personality more than you. You know the direction you want to take your company, it's strengths and selling points, as well as what makes your company unique from all others. Designing a logo yourself can't be that difficult, can it? There's tons of do-it-yourself software (only $30!) and loads of so-called do-it-yourself web sites ($39 - no clip art!) where you can peruse a series of icons, swishy things and scribbles, slap on your company name, and Bob, as they say, is your Uncle. Can't you do it yourself when it comes to your new logo? Well, yes. And no. You might be able to extract a perfectly serviceable logo from one of the following do it yourself methods, (and save a few bucks into the bargain) this website is supposed to be dedicated to developing the very best logo possible. Is that benchmark possible? That would be the 'no' part.
Do it yourself software.
Recently I received this notice via SPAM e-mail. “Now available - Logo design software. Only $30.00″. A little odd. I have what could be called logo design software - it’s known as Adobe Illustrator. Cost me over $600. What’s the difference? The advertised version of logo design software is not actually ‘design’ anything. At best it can be called clip-art composition software (and that’s being charitable). The premise is that you can pull a few (badly) pre-designed ‘templates’ together and add some text and ‘viola’ - a logo. Sounds like a great idea, but on further inspection not so much. The templates cannot be protected by copyright, or even more importantly, trademark. You see, you never own the icons supplied - the company that sells you the software does. And because hundreds of people are using the very same templates, you can forget about unique. You can also say hello to reproduction hell - most of these templates are in pixel based format so they require four color reproduction, cannot be resized for larger applications and are impractical for most applications other than the web. This software likes to advertise as “no design skill needed”. That shouldn’t come as a surprise - there’s very little design taking place. In fact, ALL of these DIY logo design ’solutions’ - including the web based Flash logo generation websites - are nothing more than template logos with pretty packaging. And using a template is NOT the way any professional should want to brand his/her company.
Getting your hands dirty - using professional design techniques.
On a popular 'how do I' themed web site, there's a section on graphic design which leads, naturally enough, to do-it-yourself logo design. They offer up a slew of suggestions, encapsulated by the preverbal how-to list, describing in somewhat simplistic terms, how you can design your own logo. It goes something like this:
1) - On a piece of notebook paper, make a rough sketch of your logo.
2) - On a white sheet of computer paper, use a fine-point black permanent marker to re-draw your logo on one side. If you have no large shaded regions, skip the next step.
3) - Flip the paper over. On this side, you will notice that the shaded regions have bled through.
4) - Re-color those shaded regions on this side, to give the logo an even shade. Flip the paper over.
5) - Using ONLY colored pencils (erasable works best), color in the areas that need color. When done, go over the color areas again with the colored pencils. If you don’t have a flatbed scanner, skip the next step.
6) - Take another sheet of computer paper and place it under your logo, to prevent any shadowing when scanning.
7) - Place the logo in the scanner. If you have a flatbed, place it face-down.
Scan. If you don’t need to scan it again before saving the image, skip the next step.
8) - In your scanning software, create a bound box around your logo with a 1/2 inch (12 millimeter) size and save the image. This will cut your image down to a size that includes only the logo.
9) - Edit your logo in any photo editing software, as needed. Apply the logo to whatever you have in mind.
So there you have it. Who needs to hire professionals when all it takes is to sketch your idea, scan it, and then edit the artwork with either an amateur level paint program (that will render your logo unusable for almost every application) or one of the most sophisticated (and difficult to master) design software programs around. Of course, if you follow the links in the article you’ll find that the real purpose is to promote another version of do-it-yourself ‘logo design’ software which as we all know - is a totally ineffectual way to develop any professional identity (and against their own advice, bypasses the ’sketch’ phase with a whole mess of logo design templates). While I don't want to be overly critical of someone else's design suggestions, there’s so much wrong with this how-to list that I don’t even know where to start. (Ahm - colored pencils?) But in a similar ’spirit’ - here’s my suggestion for do-it-yourself dentistry -
1) - buy tools.
2) - find cavities.
3) - fix teeth.
Or accounting .
1) - Add stuff up.
2) - Subtract stuff that you bought.
3) - Submit taxes on this amount.
It's easy to write a how-to list. Not so easy to make it work. The real jaw-dropper phase of this logo how-to is the first - ‘make a sketch of your logo’. That one simple step is the reason tens of thousands of designers go to art school and colleges and spend a lifetime honing their skills and talents. They go on to suggest that you scan this logo into a photo paint program, edit to your hearts content, and apply to everything you want. Sure, if you want an RGB low-resolution bit-mapped image that always has a bounding box (filled background) and can’t be printed as a spot-color on business cards, brochures and the like. This is added to the how-to as an after thought (the how-to fails to mention that Adobe Illustrator costs around $600 and has a rather steep learning curve, one that takes experienced designers years to master). If you do wish to try your hand at developing your own logo, try to use vector based programs (such as Adobe Illustrator), rater than pixel based programs. With the suggested pixel-based program (such as Paint), if you are to change the sizes of your logo, then it is going to produce the “blurring effect”. Furthermore, this is what the professionals use, and when it comes to developing your brochures and other advertising material artwork, would prefer to receive the print-ready artwork in this format.
Template logo designs.
The sales pitch of this method goes something like this - rather than a custom design, business owners can select from a library of pre designed images and customize (minimally - usually just a matter of adding your name) for their company. Generally costs anywhere from $25 - $150.00. Often the images are low quality, and may be copied from other sources (without permission) - we've even seen some of our work show up as templates. The templates are often sold to multiple users, creating potential copyright and/or trademark issues. Also, the ability to copyright or protect these types of logos once purchased is very unclear. Template logos are sometimes marketed through web sites that advertise themselves as 'make your own logo', etc. While these sites claim the logos available in their 'extensive' libraries are NOT clip art, there is very little doubt that they are. Clip art is defined as artwork being available for many users as opposed to stock logos, a much more preferable solution, in which the rights are carefully managed, and/or the artwork is only available for outright purchase.
Clip art logos.
The term clip art refers to an image or design that can be found in clip art libraries and is available for use over-and-over again, by a multitude of people. The term ‘clip art’ doesn’t actually refer to the quality of the work - though it's often used by clients to describe artwork that looks hastily prepared. It’s not a matter of’ ‘how good it looks’ but rather ‘what it is’. There is some exceptionally good clip art available and just because we no longer use scissors to cut the art out of a big book (that’s the ‘clip’ part) downloading a prefabricated icon, template logo, image or illustration from a website doesn’t change the fact that such material is still very much defined as clip art, That means, by the way, that those DIY logo web sites, who claim their library of pre-designed icons is NOT clip art are lying. There are a myriad of problems that you'll encounter should you decide to use clip art in your do-it-yourself logo. The most important is this - nobody owns the image outright, so anyone can use it. Does that sound like a good idea for a logo? Bottom line - you can't own it, can't claim exclusivity, and an untold number of other companies are utilizing the very same image. Perhaps your direct competition. Using a piece of clip art as your logo may even be infringing on a copyright (that's bad) as it's very rare that the licensing arrangements with the original designer allow for this type of use. The Microsoft clip art supplied with most of their business software packages is a prime example of this. The licensing of this artwork is so restrictive that it's pretty well unusable for any commercial use whatsoever other than the company baseball tournament or the community church picnic. Not so okay to slap the artwork on a flyer advertising your latest 'blow-out' sale. Bottom line? It's not a very good idea to use clip art as part of ANY corporate branding project.
Hosting a logo design contest.
Logo design contests have always been with us, though the Internet has seen the rise of this phenomenon to almost deafening levels. There are even a slew of websites dedicated to the practice - euphemistically known as 'crowdsourcing' - which promise to bring clients and designers together so that you, in theory, can develop your new company identity. The basic premise is this - you offer up a cash prize and ask a whole bunch of designers to submit entries from which you can select a winner. The benefits to the client are supposed to be the sheer volume of entries and designers. Much more selections to choose from. Sounds fair enough I guess. The benefits to the designer are... well, there aren't any benefits to the designer which, as it turns out, is one of the main reasons that logo design contests are a pretty poor way to have your logo developed. Logo design contests are the bane of the industry, and not only frowned upon, are actively campaigned against. Most design organizations have an absolutely no-go policy on this practice, viewing it as unethical and damaging to the field itself. There's even an organization - No Spec! - who's only purpose is to educate designers and clients why this kind of activity is bad, bad news. Why should you care one way or another? Simple - the designers who enter these contests don't even view themselves as professionals, so (at risk of alienating some) aren't experienced enough to be working on any corporate identity project. As much as it pains me to say this - contests also attract some design charlatans, folks who aren't above submitting 'borrowed' work in order to have a chance at winning the cash prize. We've witnessed quite a few instances where our work has been submitted as entries (one was even selected as the winner). Too, as these contests generally take place on anonymous web forums, there's no way of telling who is presenting those fab ideas. Do you really want designguyz5145 developing the brand you hope to present to the world? And how easy will it be to contact him when your brand roll-out goes horribly wrong?
Best bet - let the professionals handle it from scratch.
While it's true that there are some companies who are successfully promoting themselves via a self-made logo, a contest winner or maybe even some clip art, they are probably the exception rather than the rule. Will you be so lucky? Who knows, but certainly not by using any of the nifty solutions listed here. Alas, despite some of the new fangled techniques of developing a logo (mostly as a result of fierce Internet competition), there’s only one sure-fire way to create a logo that is worthy of representing your great new venture - working with a seasoned professional who has a client’s best interests in mind, as well as a pride in his/her craft. Most successful business people I know hire experts to do what they're good at, while the business owner focuses on what they're good at, and the very reason for the business' success in the first place. And while I may have an axe to grind, let me point out that you don't have to hire The Logo Factory (while we hope you do). There are literally thousands of design studios and freelance designers out there - all capable of producing a better result than any of the so-called 'do-it-yourself' solutions.
.Next Page: Clip art logos - a closer look.
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Deciding if you need a logo
What makes a great logo
How do I design a logo
Do it yourself logo design
Clip art logos
Free logos
Logo Templates
Logo design contests
Online logo design
Selecting a designer
What's a logo worth?
Cheap logo design
Unlimited revisions
Working with our studio
How long does it take?
Getting started step-by-step
Logo design pointers
Logo design guidelines
Logo aspect ratios
Logo footprints
Common logo design mistakes
Logo design types
Illustration based logos
Text only logos
Icon driven logos
Cartoon logo design
Colors & your logo
RGB colors
Spot colors
CMYK colors
Pantone Matching System
Black & white logos
File formats
EPS file formats
JPG file formats
PNG file formats
GIF file formats
Your logo in a .PDF
Logo copyright
Poor man's copyright
Logo trademark
Stationery design basics
Business card design tips
Letterhead design tips
Envelope design tips
Design assets
Managing design assets
Having your logo printed
Print resolution
Gang run printing
Web friendly logos
Logo embroidery
Logos & signs
Uses for your new logo
Updating your logo
Logo repair or design
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