At the beginning of the year, I decided I wanted to make some changes to my logo. When you are an SLP with no background in graphic design, that can cause a problem. But I like to do things on my own. That way when I get ready to update it, I can! I don’t have to pay someone to do it. If I need a letterhead or a watermark, I can do it! In small business, you can’t always drop $200+ on logos and design work. Besides logos, I needed blog templates and other social media graphics.
I had logo re-design on my list of things to do but I did not intend of checking it off this early in the year. If you read my blog post about my Instagram, you saw how big of an undertaking that is going to be. But in order to get your social media looking spiffy, you have to have a catchy social media logo!
Now let me give you a little background on my logo. I love the color red. But so does everyone other private practice. Some form of a primary color makes it into everyone’s logo, which is fine! Being different is kind of my “thing.” I am a redhead. Before my daughter came along, I was the only redhead in my family. Like I said, being different is my thing. So why not use pink, which is my second favorite color? I chose the color palette of pink, purple and turquoise.
I like bright colors. I wear these colors a lot! These colors are different from every other private practice’s colors. Some might say I am being portrayed as “unprofessional.” The last time I checked parents do not choose a therapist based on their logo colors.
I chose the fonts because I like playful, cute fonts. My eye gravitates to that. I also feel that it portrays a fun and energetic personality. That’s the feeling I want portrayed to the families that hire me. I want to match my personality to my logo. I want them to know they are getting an SLP that is fun, energetic and ready to go! I do my best to keep my sessions fun and engaging. Shouldn’t my logo represent that? I think so!
Now for the icons…I always get questions about the shoe. I wear Converse with my scrubs. I have roughly 20 pairs of Converse in assorted colors. I even have a pair of custom made ones that advertise Speech Chick Therapy! I am known for my Converse. Of course when I found the glittery pink shoe on TpT (Glitter Meets Glue Designs), I knew I had to use it! I have always used a shoe in my logo since the start of my practice. Why would I take it out now?
So how did I figure all this design stuff out?
I made a Branding board (it’s another secret board on my Pinterest account) and started pinning! As I got going, I started seeing articles about mood boards so… yep, I pinned an article or two about those. Then I read them and somewhat made my own. I read articles about the psychology of colors in marketing. (Guess what? Pink is seen as playful!) Once I found all the branding articles I could take, I started reading those. Which then lead to logo design…are your starting to see the rabbit hole I’ve been down? I pinned a few logo design articles and read over those.
As with my Instagram mission, I also took a couple of branding courses (that were free or extremely low cost) and signed up for some newsletters along the way. So below, I am going to provide the resources I found most helpful for branding, font pairings, colors and design.
Branding
You will learn that branding is not just a logo. It’s your logos, colors, fonts, writing persona, email newsletter format…everything that tells people about your business’ personality. There’s tons!! Literally tons of branding “specialists” out there! I used bits and pieces from probably 20 + branding sites. I also listened to Sam Bell from the “Brand It Girl” podcast. You can also find some great branding info from Jen over at ToastmeetsJam. Most of the blog posts that you come across will provide you a freebie if you sign up for their newsletter. I signed up for several. The freebies are usually helpful. Just be sure you will really the blogger you are giving your email to. Otherwise, you will end up with tons of emails all pitching courses and books. As you are looking through the pins, you will also come across articles about what not to do in your branding process.
Logo Design
I actually made my LOGOS through PicMonkey. (Yes, that’s plural…meaning more than 1). I don’t have photoshop and do not need it. Caroline over at Better Branding Course (PS-take her FREE 7 part email course) has a great tutorial for using Google Drawings! So if you are not familiar with PicMonkey or Canva, that might be a good route for you. You will find during your branding research, mood boards are a big player. So have an idea of colors and fonts that intrigue you. Like I said earlier, bright colors are my jam. So I picked pink, purple, and turquoise. This was my inspiration.
Blog Pixie was a big help in helping choose a color palette. I love that she provides a link toward the bottom of the post for an image color picker. I took my inspiration photo and plugged it in. As I ran my cursor over the colors, it gave the color codes you need for coding. The codes start with “#” with a combination of 6 letters and numbers. WRITE THESE DOWN!!! You will need them later down the road! Be sure to write what color each code belongs to. For instance, beside #5a38a1 I have written “dark purple.” That way as I am coding things, I know what color I am using. Yellow Bliss Road has a great post for font combos. For fonts, I would pin any fonts that catch your eye. Write the names and go to Dafont.com to download them to your computer. Most font masters recommend no more than 2 fonts in your logo. I chose 2 fonts to use in my logo and another font to use on my website. (Not ready to tackle the website just yet!)
Once that is all decided, now you get to design! The Virtual Savvy has a great video tutorial on how to make a logo with Canva. I could not get my fonts to upload to Canva, so that is my reason for using PicMonkey.
I actually used 3 articles to explain why I needed more than one logo! Basically, you need a primary logo-the main mama! This one goes on your website, business cards.etc. Then you have an alternate logo which is a different size with less detail. Think you’re done? Not quite! I use my social media logo as my watermark. Meaning any pictures I post have my little round symbol somewhere (sometimes, I forget it!)
I am including my logos to show the differences.
Primary Logo:
Alternate Logo:
Social Media/Watermark:
I have absolutely no background in graphic design. I used tutorials and blog posts to help me troubleshoot everything! Don’t overthink your choices. If they make you happy and are pleasing to your eye, then go with it!!! I like my logo because it represents me! The shoe is me. I even used the app Rhonna Designs to make my character! The hair’s not as red as I’d like, but it will work! You can use that app on your phone. Then email it to yourself and upload to whatever program you are using to design!
You got this! So just do it! I’d love to see your designs so feel free to post them in the comments!
