As if starting your own small business is not challenging and expensive enough already, online logo-making services charge anywhere between $10 and $100 for a basic logo design. But do you really need to use these paid services when you’re just starting out? We recommend investing in a professionally-created logo after you have landed a few clients.
For now, instead of paying for a logo, you can design a simple logo yourself for free using Google Drawings. We show you how to do that and the prep work you need to do.
Content
Also read: 8 Tools for Designing Amazing Social Media Graphics
Where to Begin
Before you set off on your logo design venture and fire up Google Drawings, you need a bit of groundwork as described here.
- Define your brand to get clear on the image you want to project with your logo.
- Look for inspiration on sites like Dribbble and Behance to narrow down what you like and don’t like in terms of style, color, typeface, etc.
- Sketch your logo on paper or a tablet to experiment with designs. Focus on making it readable even at small sizes. Don’t hesitate to leave white space in your logo. You can then use your final choice as a guide for creating the logo in Google Drawings.
- Pick a typeface to match that matches with the vibe of your brand. Use a website like Google fonts to compare various typefaces and font styles side by side.
- Decide on a color scheme. Each color has a distinctive association to certain feelings. For example, the color blue promotes feelings of peace and trust, green invokes an organic sense of nature, while red comes across as bold and tough. These associations can also vary across cultures. It’s important to take these factors into account.
Also read: 7 of the Best Adobe InDesign Alternatives to Try
How to Create a Logo in Google Drawings
It’s time to bring your logo to life with Google Drawings. Make sure you have an active Google account before we proceed further.
- Go to Google Drawings and log in to your Google account.
Alternatively, you can also access Google Drawings from your Google Drive account.
- Create a new document. Name your document to make it easy to locate. To do that, click on “Untitled Drawing” at the top left to give the document a new name, then hit Enter.
The default size of a new document is 960 × 720 pixels. You’ll have to adjust this size so that your logo won’t lose its quality on any platform whatsoever. To modify the document size:
- Go to “File -> Page setup” from the drop-down list.
- A pop-up will appear displaying the current quality of your logo as “Standard 4:3.” Select “Custom” in the drop-down menu that appears.
- Replace the default dimensions of 10 x 7.5 inches with dimensions of your choice. The bigger the original logo, the lesser the chance of it appearing pixelated when it needs to be scaled up to fill a larger space. If you plan to save the document as an SVG file, you don’t have to worry about pixelation due to pixel scaling. We decided to resize our canvas to 1080×1024 pixels.
- Hit “Apply” to finish the document setup.
Also read: What Is Screen Resolution, and Why Does It Matter?
You can design a type-based logo, a picture-based logo, or a combination of the two. For this guide, we are creating a type-only logo for a room rental service with the name “Joy Stay” in a tourist place.
- Click on the “Text box” toolbar button available above the canvas.
- Click and drag the cursor on your canvas to build the text box to fit your logo type.
- Enter your brand name in the box. Here, it’s “Joy Stay.”
- To change the typeface of this text, you’ll have to select the text and click on the “Font” option in the toolbar.
- From the drop-down list that appears, select a font of your preference. We are using “Calligraffiti.”
- Click and drag any corner of the text box to resize the text and make it fill the canvas.
We are also adding a tagline to our logo as a subscript to our main text.
If you want to add a tagline too, follow the same steps as above: change the font style and resize the text box as required. You can also play around with font modifiers like bold, italic, underline, etc., for added effects.
Here’s a snapshot of our modified tagline.
- If you want to add graphic elements to your logo, combine and edit the shapes listed in the submenus under “Insert -> Shape.” You can also insert symbols via “Insert -> Special Characters.” Note that this menu option appears grayed out if you haven’t selected a text box first.
The next step is to adjust the spacing and alignment of your text. If your logo includes graphic elements, you’ll also need to figure out how to place them in relation to each other.
We have chosen to center align the brand name and the tagline for a clean look. You can go with this or opt for a left-aligned or right-aligned look.
- To make this change, select the text you want to line up, click on the Align button in the toolbar, and select the relevant alignment option.
Here’s what our logo looks like after making the changes. (We have also introduced a space after each letter in the tagline.)
Also read: 10 Useful Tools to Help You Identify Fonts in Images
If you have decided on a color scheme, this step should be easy. If you haven’t, you can experiment with colors as we go.
- To set the background color for the logo, select the text box, click “Fill color” in the toolbar, and pick a color from the pop-up grid that appears. If you choose to keep the background transparent, you may want to customize the text color instead. To do this, select the logo text and click on the “Text color” toolbar button to reveal the color palette and pick a color.
We decided to go with dark cyan for the background.
Also read: The Best All-In-One CRM Software for Freelancers and Creatives
- Once you’re done with the logo design, click and drag the notch you’ll see at the bottom-right corner of your canvas. Make sure you keep equal edges on all sides of the main design.
- Click on “File → Download -> JPEG image (.jpg)” or “File → Download → PNG image (.png).” Google Drawings allows you to save the document in various formats. We recommend using PNG, as you can save the logo with a transparent background. This makes it easier to place the logo on a canvas of any color.
Also read: 8 Best Free Graphics Editors for Creating Vector Images
- Before you use your logo on your website, flyer, email letterhead, etc., you need to resize it to the right size without losing quality. You can use Adobe’s Image Resizer to help you out. Here are some common sizes for using your logo on various online platforms and physical objects:
| Common Platforms | Standard Size | Supported File Type |
|---|---|---|
| 180 x 180 px | PNG | |
| Linkedln | 400 x 400 px | JPG, PNG, and GIF |
| 110 x 110 px | JPG | |
| YouTube | 800 x 800 px | JPG, PNG, and GIF |
| 400 x 400 px | JPG, PNG, and GIF | |
| 165 x 165 px | JPG and PNG | |
| Favicon | 16 x 16 px | JPG and PNG |
| Business Cards | 3.5 x 2 in | – |
| Mugs | 7.5 x 3 in | – |
| T-shirts | 14 x 15 in | – |
| Letterheads | 210 x 297 mm | – |
Also read: 14 Free Alternatives to Microsoft Visio
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Where can I find more graphic elements to use?
If you want a ready-made symbol or icon to weave into your logo, we recommend searching one of these websites:
Keep in mind that not all free resources are free for commercial use or can be used without attribution.
2. Is it okay to download and modify a logo from Google and use it?
No. You can use logos from Google search results and other websites as visual inspiration, but downloading or copy-pasting them for your own use is a strict no-no.
The copyright of a logo, as with any artistic creation, rests with the original creator. The logo is protected by law even if the mark hasn’t been officially registered. This means the original creator can sue you for copying their work, even if you use it after making slight changes.
3. Where can I get feedback for my logo design?
Here are a few online forums and communities where you can ask for a critique of your logo:
Although any feedback is welcome, focusing on your brand’s demographic is sure to help.
Image credit: Pexels
Subscribe to our newsletter!
Our latest tutorials delivered straight to your inbox
Sign up for all newsletters.
By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and European users agree to the data transfer policy. We will not share your data and you can unsubscribe at any time. Subscribe
Ojash Yadav
Ojash has been writing about tech back since Symbian-based Nokia was the closest thing to a smartphone. He spends most of his time writing, researching, or ranting about Bitcoin. Ojash also contributes to other popular sites like MakeUseOf, SlashGear, and MacBookJournal.
Comments are closed