Logo Design Using Canva

This tutorial will walk you through the steps I used to create a simple logo using Canva. As many products often have a brand associated with them, this tutorial will help creators learn how to better brand themselves through creating their own logo they can use for their own amazing creations. While there are many different programs to designers can use to make logos, such as Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape, Canva is a free to use software that can be used online without any downloads. It also had a user-friendly interface providing creators with the ability to work on designs from different computers or devices making it a great tool for those looking to start designing.

What you will need:

• Canva (Free or Pro, all features of Canva utilized in this project are part of the Free version)
• Link to Canva website

Not required but may help:

• Paper and Pencil sketches of logo ideas
• A mood board for logo inspiration

First we need to create our Canva template. At the top right of the Canva home screen select "Create a Design"

For digital design, it is a good idea to use a design template that fits your end goal. For this project I used the Instagram template which is 1080 x 1080 pixels, as this is a good format to export your final design from. If you are using the free version of Canva, you will be unable to resize your canvas once you start a project, so take a moment to find the right size for you. There is a Logo template that is 500 x 500 pixels, but if you are exporting the logo with the free version then you will have to export a PNG which looks better sized down rather than sized up.

Once you've selected your design you should see the blank Canva project screen (should look similar to the image above).

Saving is always an important part of any work. Canva will automatically save a project once it is created, which is super helpful. If you would like to rename your project you can do so by clicking File then editing the listed pre-assigned name given to your project.

Now that we have our project set up, we are ready to create our very own logo!

For this tutorial I will be showing how to turn a name into a logo, this could be your own name, your business name, a username, anything you want!

To insert text into your project, select "Text" from the left menu bar of Canva. I selected "Heading" and then typed the name Sam Taylor. However, I repeated this step twice, once for Sam, and once for Taylor, this allows me to edit the first and last name independent of each other which is helpful later in the logo design process.

Next, select "Elements" from the left-hand menu, then select the "Lines and Shapes" tab. The Elements section allows us to insert a large variety of shapes and designs, all which can be searched for using the Elements search bar. The Lines and Shapes category gives us most of the basic shapes which are editable, for the logo I will be designing, all elements come from the Lines and Shapes group.

Logos can take a lot of forms, but some of the most memorable are very minimal and simple. Lines are one very simple way that you can immediately make something like a name stand out. In the example above, by putting a simplistic line design with the name Sam Taylor, it is already more eye catching than the stand alone name.

To get the creativity flowing, throwing some simple shapes into our project can start to help us form some ideas of what we want in our logo. Let's say Sam is an outdoors person looking to embrace that in their logo. Three simple triangles with slightly different colors gives the appearance of mountains. Add a circle to the project and size the mountains and resize everything to fit inside of it.

If you are experiencing trouble moving objects in your project, here are a few tips and tricks to help you!

• Right click on any object, you can send it to the back or front of the layers. Important for layering effects like the mountains
• To group objects, hold down the Shift key, select the objects you want grouped, right click and select "Group" now you can resize and move all of the objects at once
• To undo, press the CTRL and Z keys (Command and Z for Mac users) at the same time to undo an action

Now we have a basic logo, that after some refining could be used for any branding!

More often than not, the first logo design may be a step in the right direction but not quite what we want. For this logo instead of the full name I decided to use the initials S and T.

Try different fonts, placement, and colors of your letters! Creating a logo is about expressing yourself in a design and trying new combinations of text and shapes can really help you find your expression.

Once I settled upon the placement and font of the letters, I redesigned the logo. Keeping the outdoors motto in mind for the design, I chose to place green triangles above and below the initials to create a minimalistic forested mountain range. The diamond represents a compass, and the lines passing through the initials represent Sam is at the heart of adventure.

The new logo looks nothing like the original mountain range logo, but it still embodies the same passion for the outdoors. It takes time to piece everything together, so be patient with yourself and don't force anything. It is perfectly okay to completely restart a design so that you can better invent your logo.

Now that we have a logo we want to be able to use it. Canva allows us to export our design by clicking "Download" there are several download options, select PNG as this will give you a high quality image you can use. If you have the Pro version of Canva, you will want to download as an SVG or a Transparent PNG. However, the free version will only allow PNG of the design with the background of your project canvas. If your project background is white, then it should be unnoticeable in most applications of your logo.

Once you have downloaded your logo then you can use it in your branding.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Best of luck in creating your own logo!

This is my very first instructable, so any and all feedback would be very appreciated to better improve future instructables!