This episode is loaded with valuable information about creating a logo, what you need to know from color, shape, and font psychology to what logo variations are necessary for your business from the gifted design and branding expert, Claire VanBemmelen. Before we dive in, we have a great gift for you. Claire put together a brand guide and Canva template and training to help you come up with your unique brand, colors, fonts, and aesthetics to stand out amongst the crowd while drawing in the right audience. As you will find out in this episode, these things matter tremendously. So whether you are just starting or you're looking to rebrand your business, this training and Canva template are going to be a huge benefit to getting your branding right. Grab this free training and Canva template today!

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How to Design a Logo from Scratch: Understanding Design Psychology

Let's welcome Claire VanBemmelen back to the podcast. Claire is my business partner for GROworkspace and K+C creative, and she's also my sister. Maybe you noticed if you're watching on YouTube the resemblance here. But Claire went to school for interior design, which set the basis for her knowledge in all things design, from color theory to typography. She worked as a brand designer at a startup in the events world, and now uses her experience and knowledge to teach our community how to design their brand and websites, as well as creating brands and logos and websites for our done for you service clients.

She was just recently on the podcast, and we talked about three common branding mistakes. I will link that episode in the show notes and below this video, but today we're gonna talk about your logo and all things when it comes to logo, what it is, do we need it, what do we need to know about logo and all of that.

So Claire, welcome to the podcast. I'm super excited to have you here. 

Thank you. Thank you for having me. 

Yeah, this is gonna be good. This is a great topic. Okay, I love it. So we have actually been getting a lot of logo clients, which is like, okay, clearly we need to have a podcast episode and talk about all things logo, because we've been having a lot of people reach out and be like, I need a logo for my business. We're like, yes, you do. Right? So when I say logo, what does that mean to you? 

Yeah, so honestly, a logo can be, it could be text, it could be imagery or a symbol, and really any combination of the two or more. So oftentimes a logo, like the full version, we'll get into the different types of logos in a minute, but a primary logo may even have a tagline to it. So it could have, you know, an actual statement that helps bring your identity, your brand identity to life. So it's a combination of all things. So it really can kind of be anything, but we'll, we'll get into the nitty gritty of what it would translate to here in a minute. 

Amazing. And so our listeners out there that are business owners, I'm sure are thinking, you know what businesses need a logo? Does my business need a logo?

Well, yeah. Every business needs a logo. Even if your business or your brand is yourself, if you're branding yourself, say you're a coach, or you know, a public figure, your name as your brand should have some sort of uniqueness to it and design so that you can stand out from, you know, the next Krissy Chin, right? So it's really important if your brand is yourself actually, it's probably more important, not more important, just as important that you brand yourself. And the first step, the very beginning experience someone's going to have with you is your logo. 

Yeah, yeah. So I mean, I was gonna get into that, like why should every business have a logo? But you kind of started getting into that, you know, like your logo is your first impression, right? 

Yes, yes. It's a snapshot of your brand identity, right? Before anyone reads your website, your bio, your mission and vision, like before they do anything, they're seeing that logo at the top of your website. They're Googling, maybe they're Googling you, and they're seeing your logo in the Google image section. It's the first opportunity to make an impression. 

Yeah, I love that. Okay. So we've established that if you have a business, whether it's you, you're a personal coach and your brand is about you, or maybe you work with multiple people and you need a brand for that, or you, whether you're doing e-commerce or coaching or service providers, you need a logo for your business, right? And it's important for your first impression. So what is important to know or think about when creating your logo? 

I would say it's really important to think about the psychology that plays a role in the design of the logo.

I'm gonna break that down a little bit more piece by piece. But the psychology of your logo directly influences how a logo is perceived and remembered by your audience. So it kind of that like identity stamp of how someone is gonna remember you. And we'll get into some really fun detailed examples here in a second. But let's go over, do you wanna just dive in and go over the five components of the psychology behind a logo? 

Yeah, absolutely. 

5 Things to consider when designing your logo

1. LOGO COLOR PSYCHOLOGY

Good. Okay, cool. So the first one is color psychology. And, and we talked about this a little on the last podcast, not in terms of logo, but just in terms of branding color actually informs, I mean, I took an entire crash course on color psychology in school and how different colors and different color combinations evoke different feelings and emotions. And you can go online and Google color psychology or color theory, and it'll bring up a million articles on, you know, what, what red makes someone feel, you know, energetic and passion. You know, blues and greens are softer, more subtle. So someone who is maybe in the therapy world may want their branding and logo, especially their logo, to evoke those feelings of calm and serenity. So you wanna use maybe a lighter muted blue. So color psychology is really important for your brand. 

And then to use that in your logo to start to establish that brand identity in, you know, every corner of your business. 

Ooh, I love that. 

2. LOGO FONT PSYCHOLOGY

So that's, yeah, so that's color psychology. The next one is font psychology, which who would've thought that, like fonts could have psychology, a psychology behind it, but they play a really important role in the visual impact of a brand and a logo. So certain fonts elicit certain emotions and feelings. So you want your font to align with your brand identity. And I'll give you some examples. So take for instance, an art deco font that's like the notorious, like 1920s font. Think Great Gatsby, flapper dresses, prohibition, using a font like this will make your brand feel classic or vintage with a sort of a classy feel, right? So if that's what you're going for in your brand, if you're going for classic kind of old, not old timey, that would probably actually be another niche of 1920s. When I think old timey, I think of that font that goes over a saloon, right? So like, old timey is different than old classic. And those fonts you can use to inform your audience of what type of company, what type of brand, what type of personality you have. 

A script font will make a logo design feel more feminine. So we have a client that I'm working with right now, and her audience is entirely female, and she wants a logo that has a lot of femininity to it. And I sent her our first draft over with a script font and she came back with, can we get something a little bit more feminine? Can we get something a little bit more female? So now I have to find a thinner, more whimsical script font, right? So that will feel more in line with her brand and her audience. 

Yes. And that reminds me of one of the other clients that we brought in who has a landscaping business, and she's gonna be teaching landscapers and florists both how to grow their businesses. Shout out to Shannon, so she's like, it's gonna be male and female, so I need it to be both, both masculine and feminine. And so, you know, as we're building out her logo and her branding, you know, that's in the forefront of your mind. 

Yeah. And I'll give kind of a little, an example of how you can kind of cheat your way into that a little by doing both. I wanna touch on one more example before I dive into how you can leverage that. But a simple San Sarif font can elicit this feeling of like a modern and clean, so think like Lululemon or Amazon, they're really clean, simple, just their name. Obviously they have design around their logo, the arrow and the Lululemon icon, but their name itself and the font within their logo is very clean and simple. And, and so that, that sort of elicits a feeling and they want that from you. 

So you can also combine fonts, and that will play a role in how a logo is interpreted. So like, Creative Market, for example. So they're a company that sells fonts, audio files, templates, stock photos and videos, illustrations, they're all things creative and you purchase from them, right? So there's two parts to their brand, their brand and their logo… creative… market. And if you look at their logo, the creative is this playful script and market is a clean, modern font. And so you're getting almost this identity from each word in their logo itself, and it's informed by the font that they chose. Does that make sense? 

Yeah, definitely. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll get the perk of actually seeing it visually. 'cause I'll plug it in here. 

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, you're using font to give the viewer what a word actually means. So that they don't actually have to think too hard. It's kind of a cheat code.

Yeah, I love that. Yeah, love that. I would've never thought about that. Again, this is why like, you either need to learn from the professionals or just have the professionals do it. I love it. 

3. LOGO SHAPE PSYCHOLOGY

Yeah. Okay, so number, that was number two, font shape psychology. This one, you know, seems simple and can get kind of complicated, but the shape of a logo can also influence how it's perceived. So for instance, round shapes are often associated with comfort and harmony. Think like the Enzo, I actually have a tattoo of it, Enzo, that Mindbody, it's a software user face company that is used in a lot of fitness facilities, yoga studios, et cetera. Their logo has an Enzo in it that's associated with that, that feeling of comfort and harmony 'cause that's sort of their brand identity while angular shapes can convey strength and stability. Adobe might be a good example. Obviously they're in the creative field, but they're also, they're in tech. And so, you know, they have that very like stern, angular logo. It can subconsciously communicate certain qualities about the brand. So that's also something to keep in mind. An organic shape can also give a feeling of, you know, kind of an earthy feel, right? So always something to think about when you're working with your logo and incorporating shapes. Do you want your text to be, you know, in a circular motion because you wanna bring in that feeling of harmony and comfort? Or do you want it to be stern lines so that you can, you know, your brand is associated with strength and stability, for example. So yeah, that's shape and that can get pretty like, fine tuned too, and you can play a lot with that, with the words and the imagery within your logo. 

4. LOGO SYMBOLISM AND ASSOCIATIONS

And then the four, so four or five is symbolism and associations. So symbols and imagery that are used in a logo can carry some pretty powerful meanings and associations. And, you know, big companies will hire major, major design companies to come in and like deep dive into the research of like, the history of all sorts of things in order to come up with ideas that are unique for their brand and their logo. For instance, Starbucks. Did you know that the Starbucks logo is actually like a siren? Like the, the two things coming out of the back of it are fishtails. 

Yeah. I mean, like when I look at the logo, I'm like, that doesn't really look like coffee, but I know that there's a story behind it, so if you wanna share the details. 

Yeah. Yeah. So it was believed that sirens lured sailors with their beautiful voices to shipwrecks, kind of a morbid story in order to, you know, I think they ate them for meals, but, but they would lure them in with their beautiful voice.

And the siren inspired the founders of Starbucks to give off this idea that Starbucks seduces coffee lovers and lures them into their store. So they use this really unique storyline. Also, Starbucks started in Seattle, which is a port city. So I think there was some association with, with being near a body of water too.

Maybe lures them in with their scents instead of their song. 

Yeah, yeah. So incorporating symbols that have cultural or universal significance, the logo can evoke specific emotions, right? So yeah, so that's number four. And a really great example of sort of symbolism in a logo. 

5. COGNITIVE PROCESSING

And then five, it would be cognitive processing. So the design elements of your logo, like its simplicity, clarity, and distinctiveness can impact how easily it is processed and remembered. So how easy is it for someone to remember a logo by their brain? 

So with that said, I'm gonna do a little experiment with you. So close your eyes and think of a brand, any brand for a second. And what do you think of Krissy? 

Nike. 

Okay. That actually is what came to my mind too, which means two things. They have established a really solid brand identity and they have created this iconic logo that just pops into your head. It's memorable, you can remember it easily. Obviously they have years and years of, you know, brand recognition and people wear that. It's clothing and footwear. So people are wearing it all over. They've done a lot of work in their brand campaigns and commercials and whatnot. But it started with their brand. It started with their logo, it started with their brand identity. And their logo actually has an interesting backstory, much like Starbucks.

So the Nike logo is, it's the swoosh, it's actually a depiction of motion, speed, success. And Nike, where the brand name came from is the goddess of victory. So the goddess of victory who had wings, the swoosh is both symbolic for the depiction of motion, speed, success, and also a really abstract interpretation of the wings of the goddess of victory.

So they did their research, deep dove into all these different corners of the world and came up with this thing that's twofold and so simple. And most people don't even know it, but they look at that swoosh and know exactly what brand it is. 

Yeah, I did not know that about like where the Nike swoosh came from.

Yeah. 

So I love that. Like I love actually learning about that. 

Yeah. 

But yeah, like, so people might not know, but like, starting from that story place or that, you know, how you get inspired by it can have a lasting impact. 

And that's where, that's where actually a lot of the work comes in as a designer of figuring out like, what do these symbols and icons and visuals truly mean? And how can they inform the audience without maybe even the audience knowing it's informing them. 

Mm, yeah. Yeah. 

It takes some work in putting it together for sure. 

Okay. So that was like five incredible things that we need to be keeping in mind when creating our logo. Now that we have an understanding of what you need to know or what you need to be thinking about, what are the different types or formats of a logo that you should be creating for your business? 'cause I always see like lots of different versions of a logo and then the favicon and like, what is that and do we need it and all of that.

So can we dive into that topic of like, when we're creating a logo, how many different versions do we actually need? 

Yeah. And it honestly can get convoluted because you know, those who aren't necessarily familiar with the different versions, they may start to make their own logo and put it together and then come up with all these different variations. And then there's no cohesion, right? There's no really solid one thing that they're gonna use consistently that helps people identify who they are as a brand. 

What Types of Logos Do You Need?

So there's four different types of logos or logo variations, the primary, secondary or alternate, sub mark and favicon. So I can dive into that a little bit more and there's some caveats as well as I go through it. You could potentially only have three, and that's okay. 

1. PRIMARY

So let's start with the primary. So your primary logo is your main logo. It's the one that you start with that most represents your brand. All of your other logos would stem from that primary logo. So you start with that and it's typically horizontal and the most, so when I say horizontal, it just means sort of like linear or a little bit more, maybe we’ll call it rectangular, kind of depends on your brand, but oftentimes it's that. So I think like again, Lululemon. Their symbol on all their stores, it's the symbol and then Lululemon, so it's long and horizontal. It may incorporate a tagline, it may incorporate established dates, illustrations, icons, locations. So kind of the question you asked at the top of the conversation, like what is incorporated in a logo? It could be all of those things or any of them combined. 

So that's the primary logo and that you typically would put on your desktop website header and large print collateral.

So you know, your big marketing print work. 

Mm. So like signs or if you're a vendor and you have a vendor table, maybe it's like on your table, tapestry, the long front sign that would be nice and fitting there. Oh, I love that. 

2. SECONDARY OR ALTERNATE

Yeah. I always give our clients a secondary and alternate logo. I think it's really important, especially if your primary is that horizontal logo and incorporates your established date, your tagline. You know, your brand is SoulCycle, but underneath it it's like fitness whatever. You may just have SoulCycle in your secondary and not the descriptor of what it is. Not saying that's what SoulCycle's logo looks like, but I'm just using that as an example, right? 

Because sometimes it's not gonna fit, right? Like in certain areas.

Right, if you don't brand yourself as a coach, but your brand is like wellbeing something or other, and then coach underneath, you can maybe omit the coach bit, right, for your secondary or alternate logo, just to kind of simplify it a little. Oftentimes it's stacked to offer a more square alternate. So in certain places where a horizontal logo doesn't really fit, maybe your mobile logo would be a good example, or on your business cards, your letterheads invoices, a little more simplified version of your logo would be a secondary alternate. So I think those are pretty good examples of where you might place that one. Oh, a good example would be like some social media platforms they request a square logo and they'll give you parameters like 300 x 300 pixels. 

Or the circle right, like on Instagram. It's like you've got, if you have a longer one, like you're not gonna be able to fit that there. So you've gotta have a version that can fit.  You have to have an option that can fit in that circle or square. 

3. SUBMARK

Yeah. Yeah. And that actually is a really good segue into the sub mark. So a sub mark or brand marks or alternate marks are other words that they use to describe this, it's simple, small and kind of identifies the brand meat with really minimal text, if any text at all, and might be a little bit more intricate than your favicon. So the sub mark is one of those where if you're smart about how you design your alternate logo, you may not need a sub mark. Or if your favicon really translates the brand well enough, you may not need a sub mark. A good example is one of our clients Chooz Fun. We have a rectangular or a horizontal version for them and it's just their name as the brand. And in that brand we were very careful about the font style we use and the color we used and how it's all spaced and, and set up. It's clean, it's straight to the point. It's what the client wanted but we also needed a square option. So there's an option where it's Chooz Fun stacked on top of each other, that would be the alternate. And then we were playing around with icons for what that might, what that brand might translate to in one single visual icon. And we just kept coming back to fun and really simplifying it. And so both the sub mark and the favicon are just FUN in this like square really bold thing. And it's straightforward, you know, the audience is gonna know exactly what to expect with that. So a sub mark can kind of be interchangeable with both the alternate and the favicon. Does that make sense? 

Yeah, definitely. And I'm thinking, and maybe when we get into favicon, and I'm sort of thinking of our GROworkspace logo, kind of the different things that we've incorporated. So maybe you can talk about the favicon, which I think is the next one that you're gonna talk about. 

Yeah. So again, just to kind of stay consistent, good placements for a sub mark would be your social media profiles, like we mentioned, maybe your website footer. So you have that alternate version at the bottom of your website and then your main one at the top or your mobile website headers. That could be, you know, if you want something really simple at the top so that it's not too cluttered with your hamburger bar, that might be a good spot to put it as well. 

So for our GROworkspace logo that you designed, so it's GRO all capital and then we did, because that business services Young Living Essential Oils Brand Partners, we have this little seed and then out of it is growing like this plant to kind of break up the GRO and then the workspace and then GRO stands for something.

So we played around with that seed growing into a plant because it's for people with essential oils businesses. So we're using that imagery for that and also separating the words because it looks like the W could be with the grow, like GROW, but we wanted to use GRO for a lot of things. And then the favicon could be, I think we just have the little plant symbol.

Yeah. So that's actually a perfect example of all four. So we have GROworkspace in the rectangular all across, and the little seed with the leaves coming up in between to separate the two, we even use color to associate them and make sure the W goes with the workspace. So GRO is in blue, workspace is in gray, and the seed is also in blue.

And then the alternate, we have it stacked. So it's GRO with the seed and the leaf and then workspace underneath it. And then we have just GRO with the seed for the sub mark and then just the seed with the leaves for the favicon. So we use, yeah, so we have all four for that brand. 

I love that. Okay, so do you wanna dive into the favicon? 

4. FAVICON

Yeah, so just think icon, it's just a funny word for icon, kind of like emoji, you know, similar to sub marks, but even more simple, or it can be totally unique and standalone. I'm trying to think of Sunday Swagger. They have a shaka, is that what it's called? Shaka? 

I was just thinking like, hang loose, hang 10.

I think it's called a shaka. That is their icon for their favicon. This is gonna be pretty much placed on your web browser tab or that's a really good example of where you see it often in apparel. It could be a little icon. So like Lululemon, again, we'll come back to that, their little icon is a red little circle mark on their web browser. It's also placed on their clothes, right? And that's all they need to put on it to create brand recognition. So people know that I'm wearing a Lulu outfit or a Lulu sweatshirt or whatnot. Just that icon is enough, right? So that's typically where it's placed, it's oftentimes pulled from the logo. So if the logo has an icon or imagery in it, you may pull from that and simplify it, or it may be a standalone thing that is associated with your brand and all of that. 

So now that everyone knows and understands the importance of a logo, that regardless of your business you need a logo, I'm sure many are wondering, all right, how do I create a logo for my business after all of that? 

Yeah. Well as you can see, there's a lot of strategy behind your logo. So if you're not in the design space, it can feel pretty overwhelming and probably the best to hire it out.

That's definitely always been my tactic of like, I turn to Claire or I hire it out. So, and you just use Canva, right? To do the logos that you're creating? 

Yeah, it depends. You can, if it's, if you're going with something simple and clean, you can definitely use Canva. They have so many things that you can pull from and turn into your own. I mean, as a designer, I will hand draw in procreate, move it into Illustrator, clean it up, pop it into Canva, and then combine it with fonts and whatnot. Like you can get pretty intricate with all the different tools you use, but for those that are just kind of looking for something simple, Canva is a really great place to start.

Okay, so Canva's a good place to start if you wanna play around with it. And then here's our not so famous plug, like if you need to hire it out, y'all, you can hire us to do your logo. We've been actually doing a lot of logo designs lately and the comments that we're getting back from clients are like, Claire, you nailed it. Like on the first try, it's amazing. So our clients have been really pleased. So if you're like, I don't have the time for this, or I, this is really not my strong suit, you guys know that I'm big on leaning into your skills. And if this is not your skillset, leaning into someone else's skills, right? So investing in getting your logo and your brand identity created, if that is just something that is not, doesn't light you up, it's gonna take you a long time to do, hire it out. So then I'm sure the next thing that you're thinking is like, how much does it cost to have someone create a logo? 

Yeah, that's a great question. And it can be very expensive to reasonably price. I mean, it could be from a couple hundred dollars to a few thousand. It really depends on how simple or robust you want to get with your brand identity and how much you want to invest in like the preliminary work too. Do you want something just really simple that showcases like a, like an Enzo that showcases just like what you are as a brand? Or do you want something that symbolizes this brand identity that is really intricate and kind of solid with a really strong foundation?

You could use 99 designs. That's a place to start when trying to, it's pretty reasonably priced. You can put the price point, I think, and you get a couple designers that will throw some designs at you. 

Yeah, I used it for when I was actually trying to come up with designs for this podcast for Badass is the New Black. Claire for whatever reason at the time, we weren't having her do the design. So I was like, let me just go to 99 designs and like, you know, pay a couple hundred dollars and like see what people throw at me. 'cause I just didn't know where to start. And I got some options, but they were nothing that I was in love with. And it actually ended up being someone that was on our team at the time who took what someone had presented to me and then were like, let's turn the A into this high heel and let's add this slash for like what I was going for at the time. And so really it's like I also needed support on top of that. So yeah, those different sites that you can use to just kind of get ideas, but it's just always important to work with someone who, you know, you trust if you want them to do really good work for you. So yeah, again, that's our little shameless plug. If you need a logo or something designed for you, our team is amazing and we can definitely do that for you. I'll leave the link below this video and in the show notes so you can chat with one of us, get a custom quote, and I like to say we're definitely in the very affordable category there. So, so I love that.

Claire, this has been just amazing and incredible to have you on here to tap into your knowledge because this is not my area of expertise. So if you've been listening to the podcast for a long time, you get so much strategy and marketing and mindset, but design is something that we haven't talked about a lot. So I'm loving bringing you on the podcast, diving deeper into these topics to support the community with all of this knowledge that you have here. So thank you so much for coming on, for sharing that with us and, and we'll see you soon. 

Where should everyone go connect with you? Because y'all, Claire has a different Instagram than I do. So if you want more design support from Claire, where should they connect with you? 

Yep, you can find me at Claire Marie Design on Instagram. I am also on LinkedIn, Facebook all over the place. But Instagram is definitely where I am gonna be delivering you the goods for tips and tricks on color theory, typography, Canva hacks, web and brand design. 

Love it.

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