Have you noticed anything different about my site lately, something in the favicon area perhaps? That’s right, I have my very own logo now:
Isn’t it cute? I made it using Logo Maker, a new logo design app offered by my web host Namecheap.
A logo has long been on my website to-do list. I’ve taken a logo design class at the library, watched a logo course on Lynda.com, and drawn some horrible logo sketches to that end. While I’ll probably commission a professional logo one day, I decided to see what I could make with Logo Maker in the meantime.
Here’s a rundown of the Logo Maker process and a brief explanation of the design choices I made in my logo.
The Process
I enjoyed designing a logo with Logo Maker. It was fun and easy. The app walks you through the steps, allowing you to make small decisions about your logo as you go along to avoid overwhelming you with too many options.
You’ll start by choosing a font for your logo. After you type in your site or business name, the app will show you how the name looks in three different font types and you’ll select the one you like best. You’ll do this six times.
Then you’ll choose three potential icons to go with your logo. Using the provided search bar, you’ll type in items that best represent your site or business. An assortment of icons from that category will float horizontally across the screen for your perusal. You can perform as many searches as you want, but you can only have three icons at a time selected at a time. They will be saved in a box at the bottom of the screen.
Next, you’ll see your results. Logo Maker will mix up your previous selections, as well as your tagline (if you added one) and a color palette of your choosing, to create a bunch of potential logos. You can “heart” the ones you like to save them in your browser or in your Namecheap account. You’ll be able to further tweak whichever logo you choose to your liking.
Lastly, you’ll download your logo. The zip file includes the vector files; three sizes of the image in PNG format (labeled “default,” “cover,” and “profile”); and a text file containing information such as the font name, the font and icon authors, and the hex and RGB values.
Overall, my experience with Logo Maker was excellent. The only snag I hit was when I was customizing my logo on the phone. The mobile site wouldn’t let me tap the box to type in the hex values for my color scheme. I kept hitting colors instead. That minor issue aside, I would definitely recommend the app.
My Logo
I took some cues from popular logos to get my logo just right. Even with Logo Maker’s help, I had trouble pinning down the exact look I wanted.
For example, I used my full, 14-letter name in early drafts. A quick glance at my browser’s bookmark bar showed that the logos of many companies, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Hulu, only use a letter or two of their names. So, I revised my logo to use my first and last initials. The logo looked better balanced that way. The letters were tucked nicely under the icon instead of spread out beneath it like before.
I also struggled with the logo’s colors. While many company logos I looked at used white text, I wanted my logo to reflect my color scheme of dark puce (background) and raspberry pink (text and icon). Eventually, I understood why everyone chose white: pink text just doesn’t show up well from a distance. Thus, I made my initials and the icon white.
The icon…that was the hardest part of the logo to lock down. I found several items that I thought were me in the technology and writing categories, including a pair of composition notebooks, a person working at a desk, a computer with a keyboard, and an old school Mac. Each icon fit a part of me, but none of them fully captured the essence of my site and blog.
Luckily, I stumbled across an interesting icon in the design category: a computer monitor with three lines coming out of it. The monitor obviously fits my love of technology and writing. The three lines represent the three subjects my blog covers (tech, writing, and technical writing). Meanwhile, the way the lines shoot out in different directions symbolize my thoughts going out into the world. It was perfect.
Conclusion
Logo Maker is a great app, much better than other logo design apps I’ve dabbled with in the past. I’m extremely happy with the logo I made. I can’t wait to add it to my brand book and put it in more places on my site.