This past year, a lot of small businesses realized they had to move their offerings online. Part of that initiative may have involved:, setting up an online store, creating an online brand synced with the brick-and-mortar, and making a local shop a global go-to.
In the United States alone, online sales grew over 31% from the first quarter to the second, while retail fell nearly 4% in the same period. Customers are looking for digital ways to support their favourite businesses. Allowing your customers to buy from your brand directly through your eCommerce shop is a great way to achieve that and maintain your customer base.
As most small or local shops know, a big part of online brand recognition is your Logo. It's how a customer recognizes that they have landed on your social media pages or your website and can associate it with your physical location. Whether you're a new business or entirely new to the world of eCommerce, there's never been a better time to refresh your brand and try something new to stand out online.
Logo Trends for 2021
A great starting point for a logo is to think of your company's mission and who your target customer is. Your Logo should resonate with both and represent who you are or what you offer. The best logos are those that connect with the brand and resonate with your audience. You can see some of the top rebrands for 2020 included a change to bright colours and imagery, hand-drawn art styles, and simplicity in design overall.
Logo Trends for 2021: Colour
Bright colours and gradients are (back) in! Ensure that the colours you choose are something you can work with on your website and social, but also in print. Not every colour on a screen translates well off-screen. If your Logo needs to be on packaging, for example, it's best to test your Logo in print before finalizing the design. Keep your colours bright, positive, and connected to your brand.
Logo Trends for 2021: Art Style
For the past couple of years, a popular trend, possibly inspired by MailChimp's 2018 rebrand, has been to incorporate hand drawn elements. Custom drawn elements can instantly allow a customer to recognize a brand even without the Logo in view and are a great way to differentiate from other companies. You may need to hire a graphic designer to create an extensive line of hand-drawn elements for you to use, but other resources are available, such as blush—a design that offers free collections of art.
MailChimp's 2018 rebrand to hand-drawn elements
Logo Trends for 2021: Simplicity
Simplicity is key to understanding, making sense that text, fonts, and shapes are all about simplicity. It's essential to make sure that your fonts are legible, your profiles have clean lines, and none of your text or imagery blurs together or overlaps confusingly.
How to Make a Logo Online
Many business owners believe that logo making is expensive. You don't necessarily need to have a full-time designer on your team to create the brand you want. You can make your Logo online or hire a freelancer with graphic design expertise to create one for you.
If you want to create one for free, then you've come to the right place! At Logo, we offer you the ability to create a logo with our logo maker and try out different ideas to bring your brand to life.
There are plenty of options to connect online and view portfolios of graphic designers to hire a freelancer. Look for someone with a background in graphic design or branding. Try looking through options for freelancers on Upwork, Freelancer, or Fiverr. When hiring a person to create your logo design, expect to pay between $300 and $3000, on average.
Logo Making Tips for Small Businesses
When making your Logo, you must remember these tips to make logo and brand management easy going forward. Following these rules will also help you make changes or bring on a graphic designer in the future.
- Download your Logo in all file formats. When you're creating your Logo, you may think you need only a small image for the Logo on your website or social media pages, but it's best to have all file formats for your Logo. Sometimes, a tradeshow may want you to use the. PNG file for their website but the .AI version for their Turning a .PNG into an .SVG or .AI file is more difficult after the fact.
- Download the colour version plus back and white. When you are providing your Logo to events or charitable organizations your company sponsors, trade shows you attend, or organizations you partner with, everyone has a different background colour to put your Logo against. If your bright colours aren't going to work with all background colours or if your black Logo would blend into dark backgrounds, it's best to have other colour options available. Make sure to download the Logo in full-colour version, white and black.
- Create a brand book that includes logo use. A brand book is a great way to highlight all the essential elements of your company's brand. You can provide a brand book to employees and business partners. The brand book will include ways that your Logo can be used to be sure it isn't distorted or made into colours that aren't associated with your business. Consistency is vital online for brand recognition, and a brand book helps keep that in check without you having to explain how to use your Logo each time you interact with someone new.
Share Your Logo
If you're creating a new brand from scratch, an online brand to match your existing storefront, or doing a brand refresh - now is a great time! Remember to let your Logo lead the new brand and think of what your company offers and who the business is when creating that Logo. Hopefully, you've seen how companies have branded and rebranded themselves to be more modern, and you keep the tips in mind for a successful online brand of a local shop. Share your small business's new brand with us on Instagram or Twitter - we'd love to share it with our audience!
