12 Free Sources of Creativity For Logo & Brand Designers

This is a guest article contributed by Usman Raza.

Creating a logo is easier said than done. No online marketing or advertising campaign can succeed without resting on a powerful logo to identify the brand.

The creative designer has a rather difficult job of summarizing what the entire company represents in a tiny mark. To help with this job, searching for inspiration is a good place to start.

See our list of the best logo design inspiration resources below.

Also check out our 101+ top logo design resources.

1. Social Media Accounts

Social media handles for logo design are an excellent resource that beginners should tap into. Some of the most popular platforms including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

• Instagram

Instagram is a treasure trove of data. It is chock full of useful logo ideas that inspire creativity. Some of the most popular accounts that we found to be useful include @logoinspirations @logoseum, @logis.ai, @logoimport, @logoplace, and @learnlogodesign. These creative logo accounts are useful for designers who are at the cusp of a new career and have yet to perfect the techniques and systems used to make logos from scratch. Follow these accounts to learn the art of the design process from scratch. Take a note of the typography, style, shapes, and spectrum of colors used. A little practice will help you create versatile logos, including simple, detailed, abstract, and fully illustrated ones.

• Facebook

Join Facebook groups that have a dedicated community for logo design. Most of these groups have their own rules that must be followed. If you want to stay a member, you will have to abide by these rules. Below are a few Facebook Groups for Logo designers.

1. Logo Design Club
   Logo Design Club has over 50,000 members since it was first launched. While it is a public group, they have a few rules that must be followed. The group isn’t a place to hunt for jobs or post new positions. It is a platform that lets like-minded individuals post original logos and ask for advice regarding logo design. If someone likes your work, they can contact you via private message.
2. Logo Geek Community
   While this group only has around 6000 members, it is fairly active. The group is highly selective and exclusive to designers, which means the admins will ask for a description of you and your portfolio before approving you.
3. Logo Design: Logo Designer Expert Idea
   With a community over 71,000 members strong and growing, Logo Design: Logo Designer Expert Team has the largest share of members for a closed group on Facebook. The group is designed for job projects, collaborations, sharing ideas, and posting your original logo. It’s a great place for both new and expert designers alike. They have a few rules that you need to follow.
4. Just Creative Design Community
   A place to share & discuss design, logo design & branding.

• Twitter

Twitter has a few awesome handles for logo designers to follow as well as lists such as the llogo list put together by Jacob Cass. Take advantage of the hashtags such as #logo and #logodesign to find trending logos that have received exposure.

2. Learn from the Competition

At the end of the day, your competition is your greatest teacher, so it is important to study them closely. Which factors stand out about their design? Look at their core strategy. What is the business working towards? What are their corporate values? What does the business stand for? Often times, a logo is a brief glimpse into the business practices of a company.

If nothing else works, simply get a pen and paper and start scribbling down your own thoughts and ideas. Don’t restrict your thoughts or pass them through a ‘filter’ of what’s acceptable. Over-thinking doesn’t do any favors to your creativity.

Once you let your ideas flow creatively without putting too much thought into them, only then can realize your full creative potential.

Your subconscious mind is the source of the creative process, and once those random lines and curves start making sense, you will end up with the perfect logo.

3. YouTube

YouTube is teeming with highly creative freelancers who love showcasing their skills and talent for absolutely free. Some accounts include Design Course, which has a free 2-hour long video about all things logo. Mohamed Achraf is a talented artist who has uploaded an impressive, highly detailed video about logo design. His 21-minute video provides you with all the information you need to build a powerful logo. It saves you from having to scour endless blogs, articles, and courses to learn logo design.

4. Dribbble

Dribbble is popular among logo designers because it’s full of ideas. It is a unique merger between a social media site and a freelancing platform, allowing users to share ideas and comment on their logo design ideas.

5. Behance

Behance has grown into a one-stop shop solution for logo designers to showcase their work. You can browse through an endless catalog of online portfolios of creative professionals across different niches. Or better yet, you can create your own account to upload your logos and receive feedback on it. Behance can be an excellent educational resource if you want to learn about the different types of logo design, including advanced animations.

6. Designspiration

As its name suggests, Designspiration specifically caters to artists and designers. The website provides them with a platform to share their ideas for free. What really stands about Designspiration is their unique search engine that automatically provides you with a list of relevant suggestions. Suppose your client deals in bathroom tiles, all you have to do is search for tile logos for a range of relevant ideas.

7. Logo Design Love

If you want to understand the artist’s thought process from start to end, then Logo Design Love has a blog and book worth checking out. It documents some of the most well known logo designers and how their journey to bring their creative ideas to life.

8. Flickr

Flickr is home to billions of pictures and logos. Since the platform deals with user-generated content, you are likely to find some incredibly fantastic ideas, with a few lackluster ones being thrown in for good measure. A good idea is to join groups related to logo design to find some great images and ideas.

9. Deviant Art

Deviant Art has a fantastic section for logos that you can browse. You are more likely to find artistic pictures here than on Flicks, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your project. Deviant Art has over 358 million images that are regularly uploaded by its 44 million registered members.

10. Reddit

Reddit has a little known subreddit known as r/logodesign that has a small fan base regularly uploading logos, sharing ideas, and critiquing. Of course, reddit users are well known for lavishing praise on creative and talented designers and regularly shames people who don’t do as well. But it can be a great resource to upload your work and even attract new clients over time.

Don’t be afraid to upload your logo on r/pics to gain feedback from regular users who aren’t familiar with logo design. Prepare yourself for a barrage of harsh, honest, and frank criticism. Reddit has its fair share of trolls, so you’ll have to prepare yourself for them.

11. Visiting Influential Bloggers

Blogs provide you thought provoking ideas and often include a discussion. Don’t be afraid to leave a comment or two to engage with the author. This is a great opportunity to start an outreach program to increase your visibility on the internet by leaving a link back to your website.

Below are a few blogs that contain thought-provoking ideas.

• Just Creative
  Just Creative is a website owned by the highly accomplished blogger, Jacob Cass. You’re on it right now! He regularly shares his experience about logo design by writing excellent blog posts. His blogs contain useful tips and free courses related to logo design. Our favorite blog was 2019 Logo Design Trends & Inspiration, which features a collection of logos used by actual companies. What’s more is that the article describes the reasons why a particular logo was chosen and what its most standout features were.

• High on Design
  The suitably named “High on Design”, is written by the Wix design team itself. You will find creative ideas, design inspirations, detailed tips, and tutorials. The website will provide you with an excellent resource to start website design. Our favorite blog is related to UX illustration, which you can read here. The blog provides an insight into content-first UX illustrations that can be used for web design, apps, and logo design.

12. Factors in Designing a Logo

Now that you’ve learnt a bit about creating logos, you should keep an out for the key factors that make a good logo design.

• Stay Simplistic
  The moment you start flooding too many ideas into a single logo, it becomes confusing to your audience. Remember, logos are often tiny so they can be used on merchandize like letterheads and keychains. The only way you can make your logo look good is by keeping things simple. Often times a simple caption or a highly stylized letter is able to get the job done.

• Staying Relevant
  It is very easy to get derailed during the creative process. What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when selling bathroom tiles? This is the most important thing you have to keep in mind: to keep your logo design relevant. Study your client’s business more closely to keep the logo design more compliant.

• Try Experimenting with New ideas
  Just because all the businesses in your niche incorporate animals in their logo doesn’t mean you have to follow suit. If other laptop resellers are using laptops in their logo, does not mean you have to do the same thing. Don’t be afraid to experiment with unorthodox ideas, as long as they are relevant that is.

• Creating Balance
  Balance is crucial in logo design because our minds are naturally predisposed to symmetry and find it pleasing. You can keep your logo balanced by keeping elements such as graphics, size, and colors equal on each side. The logo will be seen by everyone, including those who may not appreciate great art, so it is better to play it safe by choosing a balanced design.

• Use Color 
  Gaining an understanding of color theory gives you a unique advantage, allowing you to create thought provoking, visually stunning logos. Colors evoke different feelings in a person, such as anger, happiness, sadness, passion, strength, and love. You can learn more about the psychology of color here.

1. 1. The logo should be legible in black and white, dual tone, and grayscale. In other words, your logo should be universally compatible across all platforms.

• Research Your Client’s Business
  Before you can even begin to start logo design, you need to thoroughly research your client’s company and its audience. This will help you determine the ideal design style from the get go, saving you from retreating to the drawing when the design starts falling apart.

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Author bio: Usman Raza is the co-founder of Christian Marketing Experts and marketing strategist working with various brands online, and the content marketing manager of Los Angeles Digital Agency. He is devoted to helping small businesses bridge success gaps by providing in-depth, actionable advice on digital marketing, SEO, and small business growth. Follow him on Twitter @usmanintrotech.