Free Logo Design

We are conditioned from an early age to believe that there is no such thing as a free lunch so I am always amazed when people think they can get a genuine, unique logo design for free. The key words used here are genuine and unique. You can make your own logo for free, that’s true. If you search Google for “free logo design” you will get a list of four or five free logo maker tools. Some are really basic and just add drop shadows and the like to a standard font. Others are far more sophisticated and provide outputs in vector file formats like eps and svg. Here is the result of my Google search. I have listed the top 3 sites.

Logo Ease
Logo Maker
Logo Design Engine

The three free logo design tools above all look like a god send to anyone looking for free logo design. They all offer a free option for something that should cost well over £100 to have done professionally.

Logo Ease is the best of the bunch as it really is free and you get a vector output too. Logo Maker has a catch. You can have a free logo design for your website and it must link back to them. Logo Design Engine Seems to be fairly simple that you choose a badly designed icon and add text. There is little if any customising.

So should we be wary of these and why? Where is the catch?

Is Free Logo Design a False Economy?

How can something that is free be a false economy?

Trademark

Anyone that says you can get a trademark issued for a template logo design without any trouble is not telling the truth. First of all there is no guarantee of getting a trademark even for a unique logo design. Whilst it is very likely to be granted for a unique logo design the actual granting of the trademark is not automatic. It makes it much less likely that you can trademark a template that other businesses will also be using. Even if the font, name, layout and colours are changed from the basic template, the actual icon part of the template logo will be identical to others in use.

In addition to it being more unlikely that you will be granted a trademark for a template based logo, you will find that the terms of use of the free logo maker software prohibits the trademarking of the images anyway. The owners of the software own the images outright and although they allow you to use them, you will never be able to build and protect your brand using a logo design made up in part of one of their images/icons.

Not Unique

One of the main reasons of using a logo design in your business is to build your brand and distinguish your offering from everyone else’s offering. The logo design should give you a unique identity that will represent your business. This has been so since logo designs were first used thousands of years ago by traders in ancient Egypt.

Using a free logo design to represent your business means that you sacrifice the reason for having a logo design in the first place. Your logo will not be a unique image that you want people to associate your business with. Thousands of other businesses will be using exactly the same image that you have selected for your company. This can be obvious to people who view your logo, including your customers because they may well have seen your logo used by another business in the past. Even if they haven’t seen it now they may well see the same logo used by another company at a later date. This can cause confusion for your customers and possibly lead to a loss of trust.

Low Quality

Graphic designers are trained formally in working with images, text, colour, layout and balance. All the free logo maker does for you is provide you with the raw materials. It’s like having delivered all the bricks and wood which are perfect for making a house extension and then doing the construction yourself. You have all the basic ingredients but you are lacking the know-how of how it all goes together.

Designers are experts at choosing a font and laying out the text so that it works for your business type. Graphic designers are experts at choosing colours that work well together in your industry or niche to portray the right moods and feelings. Logo designers are experts in creating a unique icon or symbol that can be used separate from the text. The finished image will reflect the qualities you hold dear in business. Designers are experts at taking all these individual elements and putting them together so that your logo has balance and harmony. You might get lucky putting a couple of these elements together but most people without a formal design education will struggle to get all the individual elements working together, if at all. This will show through and whatever you create for yourself will often look low quality.

Applying Your Free Business Logo Design

You want your logo to represent your business and to do that you need to apply it to all manner of marketing tools. Business cards, letterhead, brochures, web site etc, etc.

There are templates all around the web that you can use for free. Have a look at the Microsoft Office website as a start. Here you will find all manner of free stuff. Again, there is nothing unique here and many thousands of people will all be using the same designs.

Free printing will be a problem for you because you will always have to pay something for this. The lower the price is, the lower the quality and that is a fact because the raw materials themselves have a cost. Use cheap raw materials and you will pay less. This will translate into how you are perceived as a business by your customers. Even if you pay for your printing and use a good quality paper stock, the finished product will lack visual appeal and quality because the logo image used was made using a free logo maker tool. You may argue that this is not important for a small business starting out on a shoestring budget. On the surface this looks like a good argument, afterall you want to keep as much money in the business as you can whilst you build up. What you really want to do is stand out from your competitors and look like the best option for your customers.

Images have a powerful part to play in the way we perceive things. A strong, well thought out, designed logo design will look much more professional than a template logo design and will appeal to a far wider audience. With regards to the cost, this is a tax deductible expense for your business and should cost you less than £200. Some things are just worth investing in to give your business the best start possible.

If all your business comes from recommendations and you are happy with the amount of work you have then you do not need a logo design for your business at all. If however, like most businesses, you have stiff competition, then a professional logo design is an essential marketing tool to give you a business advantage.

To Conclude

Free logo design is a false economy because you can’t trademark it. It will more often than not look poor quality and you can be perceived as cheap. As you build your business and develop your brand using a free logo design, you will eventually want your own unique identity. You will have to start building your uniqe identity from the ground up. This means you will need to start with a new professional logo design and all the marketing materials that you use to promote your business with. You will end up paying more long term to get your new brand recognised so that people no longer associate you with the free logo design you have used in the past.

Professional logo design is not expensive. If you are in a competitive market, value your company image and are serious about building a robust brand for your business then you should invest in a unique, custom, professional logo design.

Beware of professional logo design under £100. This can come with a nasty sting in tail. Here is why.

See what a professional logo design should look like here: Professional Logo Design

Logo Quality offer professional logo design starting at just £149. All work is original, unique and guaranteed. If you would like to talk about your plans for your brand, please call one of our experts on (01753) 208022 or email logo@logoquality.co.uk.

If you like to order your logo design you can do that here:

Order Logo Design - £149