How to design a logo for your online business.
Let’s talk about your logo.
It may come as no surprise that as a brand & graphic designer, I love a well-designed logo 🥰. I love the process and the challenge of distilling the essence of an entire brand into one word or mark.
And despite what some others may believe, I think there’s still a place for logo design in the online business space.
But here’s a little insider secret 👀
A logo is just one piece of the brand identity puzzle, and can’t do much for you by itself.
It’s when all of the pieces - your logo, as well as your colors, fonts, imagery, and even your brand strategy - come together that the complete puzzle can work for you, helping to attract and resonate with your target audience. This is part of the reason I don’t offer standalone logo design services - it feels a bit like handing over a single puzzle piece and expecting it to tell the whole story.
But while that single piece won’t solve all of your problems, it can be a really useful tool. When I create brands for clients, the logo design process is critical to the development of the brand identity - as the logo comes together, it sets the tone for the rest of the visual elements.
And the same goes for you if you’re trying to DIY a brand for your new online business, whether you’re a coach, course creator, or service provider.
But before we move on to exactly how to design your Starter Logo, we have to talk about one very important thing…
Ditch the Canva logo templates.
I know it’s tempting to pull up a new Canva document and start scrolling through their template library for a unique logo, but you’re only setting yourself up for issues down the track. Why?
Canva’s templates are available to millions of users, and using them means you risk having a logo similar or even identical to many other businesses. This significantly dilutes your brand recognition - more on why that’s bad for business in this post. But it’s not only that - many people can now identify these designs – especially those with paint swipes, floral elements, or gold circles – as Canva creations. This can cheapen your brand's image - not something we want!
A lot of Canva’s templates are either a) incredibly generic or b) lean heavily into trends that will probably pass in a few months time. This means that a template might miss the point entirely of setting the tone for your brand, or it might be awkwardly outdated after the trend is over, and you’ll have to continually change it.
Many of the templates are also way too complex (and not in a good way) for a logo design, and this can make it more difficult for non-designers to build the rest of the brand around them. If there are too many conflicting elements, it can be harder for you to match the design with other colors, fonts, or imagery.
Finally, there might be legal implications or concerns with commercial use. If you use one of their premade logo designs, you cannot claim exclusive rights to it. This means no trademarking. This might not matter to you if you think you’ll change your logo in the future, but it’s something to consider.
So if you shouldn’t use Canva’s templates, how can you create a logo with no design experience?
I promise it’s not as hard as it seems - at least, it doesn’t have to be! While custom logo design can be a very involved and complex process, this level of intense customization typically isn’t necessary when you’re just starting out in online business.
Here’s what I recommend you do:
1. Start with Strategy
Getting your business up and running is a real balancing act between knowing what to get solid on and where to iterate as you go. A lot of things will change in the early days, but if you’re trying to come up with a brand identity that works for you, understanding the strategy behind your brand is an essential starting point. In particular, spending some time getting clear on your target audience, ideal customer/client and what will resonate with them will seriously help you with all of the next steps.
2. Establish Some Brand Words
With your audience in mind, it’s time to choose some key words to describe the personality of your brand. These words should speak to your audience and what they’re looking for, rather than just your interests or preferences. Brand words act as a quick reference for the vibe and message you want to convey, helping to keep your branding efforts focused and consistent, and setting some guidelines for you to be able to…
3. Create your Starter Logo
Here’s the secret when it comes to designing your own logo – your business name in a well-designed font will almost always be enough to get you started. You get the benefit of a professional designer’s expertise through the choice of an expertly designed typeface, and you can closely match the aesthetics of the font you choose with your Brand Words. Plus, it’s simple, meaning you’ll have less of a struggle trying to match other elements like fonts, colors and photos. In my opinion, it’s the best method for fast and easy logo design.
You can still create this type of logo in Canva, and best of all, you’re not limited by the same legal issues as you would be if you used one of their templates, because this design is considered a “unique creation”.
So how do you find the right font?
You can start by searching Pinterest or Creative Market for one of your brand words + “fonts”, but if actually finding the font feels entirely overwhelming, good news – I’ve done the hard work for you! I’ve curated a collection of both free and paid fonts that I think make for excellent Starter Logos, and packaged them all up into the Starter Logo Font Guide – and best of all, it’s FREE!
The guide does more than just list my favorite fonts; it's organized in Notion for easy sorting based on common brand words, and includes video tutorials to guide you through creating your Starter Logo in Canva.
The Starter Logo Font Guide is designed to save you time and streamline your efforts, allowing you to quickly craft a logo that aligns with your brand’s style, whether it’s modern and sleek, classic and timeless, or playful and creative. And it’s been made with online business owners in mind, so whether you’re a course or membership creator, coach, content creator, social media manager, VA or other online service provider, the fonts and tutorials will be perfect for your needs.
Don’t waste hours searching for the perfect font - register below and I’ll send the guide your way for free 🎉
Bonus Steps: Completing the Brand Puzzle
Once you’ve established your Starter Logo, you can move on to crafting the rest of your brand! Don’t let the logo design process take up too much time or energy - remember, it’s only one piece of the puzzle. Once you’re finished, you can move on to:
Your Color + Font Choices: Your logo and the font you choose for it will really set the tone for the rest of your brand elements. If your logo is luxurious, minimal, and modern, your fonts and colors should probably match. Start with 1-2 fonts (one of them could even be your logo font!) and 2-3 colors that match. Don’t go crazy - you can use one font and one main color if you’re not super confident! And again, if you’re unsure where to start, try searching Pinterest with “YOUR BRAND WORD colors” or “YOUR BRAND WORD fonts”.
Your Brand Imagery: I recommend that all online business owners, particularly those with personal brands, invest in a brand photoshoot. Having styled images of yourself makes a lot of other design tasks so much easier, as all of your imagery already coordinates and matches your brand theme. If you can’t have one done, try having a friend or family member take some pictures of you and learn how to edit them in Lightroom. That’s actually what I did for all the photos you see of me - my sister (not a photographer) took them, and I followed some YouTube tutorials to edit them to my liking.
If you can’t do either of those things, you might like this blog post on curating your own set of stock photos from free online stock sites! In fact, you’ll probably need stock photos from time to time even if you have a brand shoot done, so having a curated collection on hand is super useful for all your design tasks going forward.
Creating a logo doesn’t have to be hard.
It shouldn’t be a task that eats up your (valuable!) time and energy. In the early stages, your efforts are always better spent on activities that directly contribute to growing your audience and driving sales. Your logo probably won’t move the needle very much on these things, so think of it as a fun project where you get to flex your creative muscles for a little bit, and then move on.
Don’t forget to register for the Starter Logo Font Guide if you haven’t already! It’ll take all the hard work out of selecting a font for your own Starter Logo, plus walk you through the exact steps to create one with on-screen demos within the video tutorials.
If you find yourself needing guidance or have any questions, feel free to reach out. You can DM me on Instagram anytime; I'm always happy to help!
See you in the next one!
Emily Banks
