Ok, you’ve got a business and you need a logo and I know what you’re thinking. ‘I can just do it myself.’
There are plenty of tools out there to help you create your own logo, like Canva, Word (please don’t do it!), good old pen & paper, or getting your mate Dave to do it because he’s really good on Adobe Photoshop (please, please, please don’t do it, Photoshop is for Photos, not logos!).
To be honest with you, Canva is pretty good if you want to save some money and get the job done pretty quickly, but here are a few things you need to know before you head down the rabbit hole.
- Canva logos are templates and your most likely not the only one using that logo.
- Canva logos cannot be copyrighted, because they are templates. So if you’re planning on starting a brand that is going to sky rocket then maybe its time to reconsider using Canva.
- Canva logos are not strategically designed with YOUR business in mind. They won’t help you stand out in your market as a leading expert, they won’t help you attract dream clients and they probably won’t help you look established and professional.
Is it just me or can you tell when a business has used a Canva logo?
So what actually is a brand?
Branding is a particular look and feel you give your business so that it attracts your ideal clients.
This should be done visually (the way you look) AND verbally (the way you talk). For example:
Verbal Branding
How you sound, how you talk, and the written word.
Visual Branding
Your logo, colour palette and font selection. You could also develop further into other branding assets like social media graphics, slide decks, photography patterns, brochures etc.
Taking a hold of your branding and creating it strategically helps you create your businesses look & feel. You can take control of the perception your audience has of your business.
So do you want you audience to think that you’re a Canva binger who spends hours on end trying to perfect endless logo designs. Or do you want them to know that you’re an expert at what you do and a bloody good professional one at that.
Here are five reasons why you should use a brand expert and what they can do for your business.
1. A brand expert can save you loads of time.
If you hire a brand designer you won’t find your self sat on Pinterest or Canva for hours trying to make something look nice when really you know it’s a bit crap. You will be able to have meaningful conversations with your designer about your business & clients. Your designer can translate this info into a memorable logo, created using colour & font phycology. Leaving you to spend more time working with clients and making money. AND once your branding is complete, you’ll be able to launch a working marketing tool that will help you onboard lots more lovely clients.
2. A brand expert can make you memorable
When creating a new brand or rebrand its vital to use strategy. If you don’t your just plucking your logo out of the air because ‘it looks nice’. A strong brand has to go through a process of research in it’s industry market, inspiration and creativity. Every stage of the branding process helps discover the art direction of what your brand should look and feel like to help your business make a memorable mark on the world.
3. A brand expert helps you smash your goals
Using a brand designer ensures your logo is created for YOUR business. It will be a bespoke creation and tailored to your vision, mission and personality. It won’t follow trends, it won’t look the same as your competitor, it will be created with a purpose to serve your business, and the aim to help you reach your goals.
4. A brand expert can blow minds
Using a talented creative who has years of experience using skilful and creative software means that your brand can be unlimited in the way it will look and feel. It can be clever, unique, tell a story and leave your audience with a feeling – be that love, eagerness, inspired, a needing or a want for your service.
5. A brand expert can boost your confidence and help you get clients
Ok, so as a brand expert I am not going to confess to being a secret mindset coach or anything like that but I am going to tell you that branding can massively boost your confidence, and here’s how…
Imagine you’re getting dressed up for a night out after being in your PJs for the whole of 2020-2021 covid pandemic. You are thinking… OMG what if everyone else looks amazing, what if my makeup is crap, I need to sort my hair and pick an outfit.
So you get showered, you’re feeling fresh, you do your hair and makeup and you put on that outfit you’ve been dying to wear for over a year. You feel bloody amazing! But.. It’s been so long since you’ve seen humans in the flash! How will they react? You are poo’in your pants, but you go out anyway.
You get to the party and everyone’s like ‘Oh my gosh, you look amazing, you look well hot, where is your outfit from, I love your hair, do you want a drink?!’ You have such a good night and the next day your mates are all messaging you in the group chat about how good a laugh you all had and you want to do it again soon.
This is just like branding.
You want to put yourself out in the world, you want to go to the social media party. But you’re scared your business looks a bit shit. So you invest in a brand designer who helps you nail your logo, gives you a freshen up with a new colour palette and chooses some fonts that are just to die for (who ever knew that fonts could be so lush!).
And with all of this brilliance you step out, you launch your new look and everyone’s like ‘bloody hell, who is this bloody awesome business, I need to see some more of them, what do they do… LIKE, FOLLOW, SHARE, RECOMMEND, BUY.
All the social media endorphins start running through your head you’re thinking, “why the hell didn’t I do this earlier” you are feeling super confident that you can take on the world. And then you post some more, you talk to more people, you tell them what you do, you become your own brand ambassador and rave about your business, which starts getting others talking & thinking about you, which results in more engagement, more leads and more clients!
Brand design is such an amazing journey that helps you discover details about your business that were hiding under the surface. It helps you visualise your business and allows you to be memorable in your marketing.
If you are sick of being stuck in Canva and want to take your brand to the next level of looking professional and established maybe now is the time to get in touch with a brand expert.. Ahem… like me.
If you’d like to know more please whizz your details in the form below and lets have a chat.