What does a logo mean to you? For us, the logo is one of the primary communicators of the brand. When someone looks at your logo, they make an impression of a brand and its offerings. Let’s not talk about others for a while. Put your feet in others’ shoes and pick any random 5 brand logos. Now look at them properly and think about what you can understand about the brand from the logo without knowing their business. Here, you must have got an idea about the dangers of DIY logo design.
You could be good with particular software, but making a DIY logo does not only require software knowledge, you must hire a skilled and creative designer to create an appealing logo for your brand; we have ample reasons to prove this statement.
Many Reasons You Should Not DIY Your Logo Design
You may not understand the purpose of a logo. As a brand owner, you can give suggestions and the storyline for designing a logo but you may not understand the creative part of the message which you want to convey.
A designer will be able to create many designs while redesigning your website with their professional experience in the creative field. However, if you are not from a creative background, you perhaps unable to convey the right brand message through DIY logo design.
Therefore, you should hire a professional designer to avoid DIY logo mistakes.
1. Incorrect Font Choices
As a layman, you may like a font on the word but that will not go well for your logo. Of course, you will not want Arial to be your logo font. Fonts that you see in MS Word or any document editor, will not go well with your logo. You need different and creative logos as per your business communication.
The fonts should relate to your business offerings. For instance, if you have a restaurant, the font could be a little casual but if it is corporate, the logo font should be extremely professional. There is no scope for casual fonts. Or, if you have a creche, there you can use casual, rather kiddish fonts.
2. Inappropriate Colour Choices
Every colour has some meaning that you may not know. Moreover, The meaning differs from region to region. You may consider red as a colour of love. On the contrary, the other region may consider it a sign of danger. White could be seen as peace in one area and another space, it may be considered a misfortune.
You will have to be quite picky when considering the right colours for your brand according to your region. However, if you plan to step out in the global market, your colour interpretation may differ. That is why you should hire a logo designer. They have great knowledge of colours and the blends which you may not have.
Designers will choose colours that will go well with your brand communication and they will be able to define the meaning of them in brand guidelines.
3. Difficulty In Making Brand Guideline
A brand guideline is one of the crucial documents that is created along with the logo.
The logo is not stuck everywhere in each size and format. You should have a black & white version of your logo in case you want to use them on shades that overshadow your original logo.
A brand guideline booklet is made to guide the team about the application of the brand logo. And, you will be unable to create it if you are not experienced as you may not know the essential terms and guidelines.
4. Lack Of Formats Knowledge
If you are making a logo on a word file or some online logo making website. That means you must be unaware of the formats such as .EPS, .JPG, .PNG, .AI, .PSD, etc.
These are the formats in which the third party will ask you if you want to publish an ad in a newspaper, billboard, or hoarding. Also, if you plan to get your merchandise printed, you will have to share the logo in an asked format which you will be unable to, as you have not worked on the required software.
Remember, the print screen logo will not be useful for making marketing collateral.
5. Lack Of Software Knowledge
Let’s suppose you know the formats, even you can operate designing software as a beginner. Still, you should hire a designer. Know why? Because you are not pro in it. You must have professional skills and follow certain rules for designing a logo. You may want to add a vector differently but you end up with an unwanted pattern as you are unaware of the software and its tools.
Your logo should look fine and professional. It is not a school project where you can compromise with the details. It is the brand logo that will stay until the business stays. Make sure you do not mess with it.-
The Bottom Line
If you are willing to create a DIY logo design for your new venture, we should tell you, this could be the wrong decision. Many businesses that do this are now suffering from their brand image. Most of them want to recreate their brand logos.
While making a logo on your own, you may encounter DIY logo designing mistakes which should not be there. Your logo is the biggest and most critical marketing collateral which should be not compromised for the sake of saving money. It could be a big loss to the brand image.