Lucie Gray of https://www.paperaeroplanecreative.co.uk/ had this to say

Keep it simple, and don’t use too many colours.

Check out your competitors, partly to make sure you look different but also to see if there is anything that is common to your sector, for example, banks often use blues and black. Which denotes being serious and trustworthy.

If you’re struggling to choose colours https://www.design-seeds.com/ is a brilliant resource and gives Hex codes.

I might be worth looking at colour symbolism but don’t get too het up with it, it can be a good place to start if you’re unsure.

Try not to follow trends as they can go out of fashion!

Lucie shared these examples.

How to quickly create a text logo for your website

Logos can be used in many places but this tutorial is just for the website DIY-er who is building their website and needs a logo for the header. (The header is the top part of the website that contains the navigation menu)

Tip: I recommend creating a rectangular shaped logo to keep your header a reasonable size. If you have a square logo then your header has to be really big to fir the logo in. If you have text on a square logo you sometimes have to make the header really really big so you can read the text.

Tip: I also recommend creating the logo on a white or transparent background. When you are building your own website you want to do it quickly and simply so having a white header is the quickest and simplest choice. If your logo had a coloured background you would need a coloured header. Matching the logo background to the header background can be difficult to get right. Any slight variations in colour will make your website look amateurish.

A logo on a coloured background placed in a white header will just look odd and is best avoided.

1. Go to canva.com.

2. Click on the ‘Create a design’ button.

3. Click on ‘+Custom dimensions’.

4. Put width of 250px and height of 60px (this is approx and you may want to change this depending on how much text you want to have, but keep it roughly rectangular.

5. Click on ‘Create a design’.

6. You will now see a blank, rectangular canvas. Add some text. Click on ‘Text’ from the left hand options.

7. Select ‘Add a little bit of body text’.

8. Some text will appear on your canvas. Click on this and replace it with your business name.

9. Change the font to something you like but it keep it legible. The font selector can be found in the editor menu across the top of the editor above your canvas. you may see it set to the default font ‘Open sans light’. Just click on this and select a new font from the drop down menu.

10. Change the font size. This can be found to the right of the font selector.

11. Change the font colour. This can be found to the right of the font size selector.

12. If you want to be more creative you can modify the boldness, give it italics and increase the width between the letters (letter spacing).

13. When you are happy click ‘Publish’ and the top right of the page then click ‘download’. Ideally we want this with a transparent background but you have to upgrade to the paid version for that. So just download as a PNG format with a white background.

14. Removing the white background isn’t essential if your header is white but you may want to use your logo in your footer or on your social media posts. If you want a transparent background you can remove the white background by uploading your logo in this tool here. https://www.remove.bg/ I can’t guarantee the quality of the logo in this tool, it can be a bit hit and miss. If you know of a better one please let me know!

Now you should have a logo!

Favicons

A favicon is a small square logo that appears in the browser tab when someone looks at your website. It is not essential to have this but if someone has lots of browser windows open they will know which one is yours if you have an icon in the tab that resembles your logo.

To quickly make a favicon create a custom sized canvas of 512px x 512px.

Using the same font and colour write the first letters of your business. So if you are using your name as your business you could take the first letter of your first name and the first letter of your second name. E.g. If I was using Karen Weider I would just take KW. If your business name is longer and yo cant fit the letters into a square then just take the first letter.

Make these letters fit into the square blank canvas to form a square favicon. Download this then remove the white background using the tool I mentioned in step 14 above.

Conclusion

Now you have a logo and favicon. This will be good enough to get you started. After a while you ma feel like the logo doesn’t properly represent your business. When this happens and you have a marketing, then get the help of a graphic designer to help you define your branding. But in the first few years of business your branding may change multiple times so wait a while before investing in this area.

Over to you.

How did you find the process?

How long did it take yo to create your logo?

What was the most challenging part?

Let me know in the comments below.