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Ideally I would like to make my own logo.

Would you know a good tool that can help make a logo?

I have tried Photoshop but it's really not intuitive.

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9 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

IF you want online services, here are a few to consider.

99designs.com - in addition to crowdsourcing a design, they have a $99 logo creation service that you pick one of the images in their library & they will change the text to match your needs. I've used the crowdsourcing version successfully before - and I bet a few others in here have as well.

HP has a $49 online logo creation service - logomaker.com - and a more "professional" service (packages start at $299)- logoworks.com

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I've used 99designs and thought the service was great. I had over 250 logo designs submitted, got to work with the designers to tweak to my liking and the cost was very affordable. – scorch Feb 14 '10 at 17:31
Thanks for the input jimg. I know 99designs.com and was looking for alternative ideas. I tried logomaker but I am not so impressed... Will check logoworks. – Damian Feb 15 '10 at 12:23
I used 99 designs twice. The results were far from impressive. And I was very active with the project, and I paid more than the average project. Lots of crap out there. – TimJ Feb 15 '10 at 14:14
+1 for Logoworks. We used Logoworks to come up with our initial Infovark corporate logo. We were very happy with our experience there. – DThrasher Feb 19 '10 at 20:15

Start with drawing your logo on a piece of paper, scan it, place in Adobe illustrator and trace it with Pen Tool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DzpT8POAME
Photoshop logos much harder to change, scale and use in the future.
Also let me remind you - avaricious pays twice.
If your company logo looks unprofessional or too cheap (from templates etc.) nobody would take your company serious. After a while you will come to the point of changing your logo and creating whole identity of your company.
It's much better to find freelance designer and make your logo perfect from the beginning.

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Sasha makes a good point. Create your logo using vector graphics, not a bitmap. Vectorized images are clean and can scale infinitely. I made the mistake of creating our company logo as a bitmap image, which was fine for the web. When it came time to using the logo in the physical world for stickers and screen printing, I had to redesign. – Clint Feb 14 '10 at 21:21
+1 I will check this video. I also agree that logo should not look cheap. – Damian Feb 15 '10 at 12:21

Post your requirements on eLance.com. You will get bids from several offshore logo companies at reasonable prices.

The NewAppIdea.com Team
New App Idea | App Idea Development
(Twitter - @newappidea)

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I've had success on eLance as well. I posted a job with a $50 fixed-price, got several responses, and ended up going back and forth with a company about a half-dozen times until I had exactly what I wanted. – Frederick Cook Feb 14 '10 at 16:04
Reasonable prices don't mean competent people or good designs... – TimJ Feb 15 '10 at 14:15

I've used 99designs.com before too and I've loved it. I actually got my logo and site done there for less than $1k. Just be sure to ask for the right kind of files you need. You can use my brief as an example - http://99designs.com/logo-design/contests/web-logo-linkit-24093/brief.

Good luck!

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+1 Nice logo you got; thanks for the link to your brief, Yasmine. – Damian Feb 16 '10 at 11:31

For some developers (myself included), doing graphics is like teaching a bear to dance - not a good dance, annoys the bear. But if you are a developer who wants to understand web design/graphics and maybe do some of your own, I strongly recommend Brian Hogan's Web Design for Developers. Brian walks through going from typical butt-ugly developer-created site (hey, it works!) to a very attractive, web standards site - with a logo. (hey it works and its attractive enough to be worth money!)

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Why do you want a logo? Can a simple logotype serve your needs? If so, pick a classic typeface, a color and leave it at that. Helvetica, tho maybe overused, is all over the place. Want professionalism + simplicity + cheap + speed? Helvetica is your friend.

If you want an illustration or clever graphic, hire a professional designer. If you're at a point where the logo is important, then you're at a point where you'll want to hire a designer that can understand your problem, market, communication needs, culture, etc.

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When it comes to creativity, I'd like to discourage you from creating your own logo. LEave it best to the creative minds of professional artists. You'd have to shell out some money but it would be worth it.

How about contacting the students from arts school? I'm sure there must be a few reputed art schools in your vicinity.

You can even contact the principals of these art schools to put your requirements on their notice boards. The interested candidates would get creative to their maximum capacity and you'd be amazed at the variations you can get.

These students would mostly create the logos on art paper, but I don't think it would be difficult to digitize it.

You can pay some amount (pre-declared) to the winning entry. It would be a good gesture for the students to earn as they learn and you get a 'super cool' logo for your company.

Many corporates here in India follow this practice, as we have some very reputed art schools such as Sir J.J. school of arts.

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+1 Nice idea with the students. Thanks. – Damian Feb 15 '10 at 12:21

Also, if you use Logoworks you can get $20 off by using this affiliate link - http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3581919-10390391.

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A great lower cost alternative to 99designs is http://www.logobids.com

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