Branding is just as important for your little blog on the Internet as it is for mega corporations like Samsung and Tesla. While you probably don’t have the same kind of advertising and marketing budget to put together a Super Bowl commercial, you still want to have a strong and instantly recognizable brand. Who are you? What are you all about?
The moment someone sees that swoosh, they know it’s Nike. As soon as they see that colorful G, they know it’s Google. You want to have a similar kind of punch with a blog logo even if you don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on it. In fact, you don’t even need to spend a dime if you don’t want to invest in a freelance designer.
There are a number of free Internet tools you can use to create a logo of your very own, and they’re actually a lot easier to use than you might think. And in some cases, they’re surprisingly robust too.
Hipster Logo Generator
Let’s start with perhaps the simplest of the free logo maker tools here. You don’t get much leeway in terms of the style of logo that you want with the Hipster Logo Generator as you’re stuck with following a very similar kind of format.
You pick an outer shape, add a single line of text for initials, and then optionally add other elements like a year that your blog (or whatever brand) was established, plus “swag” embellishments. In this case, I went with BTR to represent my blog, Beyond the Rhetoric. I put in the Est. 2006 on the bottom, and opted for a couple of hockey sticks to honor my Canadian background.
When you click to generate your logo, you’ll be given a score out of 5 on the Hipstometer. After accepting the terms, you can download the PNG for free or pay $10 to get the high-res PNG and SVG files.
LogoMakr
If you’ll excuse my clearly inadequate art creation skills, you can appreciate the potential of a tool like LogoMakr. Like the other logo creation tools on this list, LogoMakr also works completely within your web browser, so you don’t have to download and install any software.
The interface is meant to give the appearance of simplicity so that the tool can feel accessible. Major elements are found along the left side and details can be found on the right. You get a full color wheel for adjusting the colors of shapes and text, and you can select from different fonts, rearrange layers and adjust opacity.
Perhaps most useful of all, you can use the field at the top of the screen to search through over one million graphics. As you might know, the current logo for Beyond the Rhetoric features Rodin’s Thinker. With LogoMakr, I was able to find a piece of suitable clip art to convey the same kind of message.
Canva Free Logo Maker
Right now, the main reason why I use Canva is to create the thumbnail images for my YouTube videos. I could create my own in PhotoShop (which is what I was doing before), but starting out with one of Canva’s templates just makes things so much easier. The free online tool (with optional paid upgrades) can be used for all sorts of graphic design and desktop publishing.
There are templates for newsletters, brochures, social media posts, ebook covers and more. There’s also a great free logo maker on Canva too. They say that you can design a logo “in minutes,” even if you have no previous experience with any sort of graphic design. The interface is intuitive and straightforward, so it’s just a matter of coming up with a good idea.
Creating a logo with Canva is just like creating any number of other visual content with Canva. You start by choosing one of the preset Canva layouts that you think closely approximates what you want to achieve. From there, you can change the iconography (including uploading your own), choose different fonts and colors, adjust scale and layout, and more.
Once you’re done, you can download your finished logo and use it on everything from blog headers to Facebook profile pictures to business cards and brochures. Your logo project is saved to your account in case you want to make changes or download it again down the road. The logo maker is free to use, while you might consider some of the premium elements that start at $1 each.
Adobe Spark Free Logo Creator
When it comes to the creative field, particularly among prosumers and even many professionals, Adobe is the de facto standard. You’ve got Lightroom and PhotoShop for your photos, Premiere Pro for your videos, After Effects for your visual effects, and more. But regular old consumers can take advantage of that Adobe goodness too.
You may have already heard about Adobe Spark. It’s a free online and mobile graphic design app that lets you make graphics, videos and webpages without spending a dime. This consists of Spark Page, Spark Post and Spark Video. While it won’t be as powerful as the professional tools you get with Adobe Creative Cloud, it’s more than adequate for the budding entrepreneur to get started.
And that includes the Adobe Spark free logo creator too. You will need to sign up for an account to get started. You can connect your Google or Facebook account, sign up with an email address, or log in with your Adobe ID. If you’re a teacher or student, there’s a school account login option as well.
The tool can be used to create business logos, school club logos, and personal logo alike. You can start from scratch if you’d like, but most people will opt to sift through the free portfolio of professionally designed themes as a starting off point instead. Choose a size, choose a theme, personalize with your own graphics, pick a font, and download at will. Access beautiful typography and iconic imagery, including your personal collections on Adobe Creative Cloud, Lightroom, Dropbox or Google Photos.
What are you waiting for? Get out there and make a shiny new logo for your blog or business!