Let’s Make a New Logo with Canva for Scomurr.com

Scomurr.com needs a new logo! For this, I am going to use a few tools, but the goal is to come up with a killer logo that can help me drive the brand of Scomurr.com.

Tools

• ChatGPT
• Canva

Why does Scomurr.com need a new logo? Read more on my journey from using tech for other people to using technology and my skills for myself!

Is there a process for designing a logo?

Sort of. I can’t find an industry documented process, but there are a lot of websites that have very similar steps. After poking around for a bit, I have decided to follow the process on Hubspot (here).

ChatGPT: Helping Walk Through the Creation Steps

So, I grab the steps and paste them into ChatGPT (3.5 should be fine for this) with this prompt:

Here are the steps for creating a logo from Hubspot. I want you to interactively, and one at a time, ask me questions in regards to each of these steps so that we can explore the steps and come up with the best logo for my website.
Understand your brand.
Brainstorm words that describe your brand.
Sketch ideas based on these words.
Test your top sketches with your buyer persona.
Refine your chosen sketch.
Develop your logo’s layout on a free design platform.
Pick versatile color options.
Choose a font.
Ensure scalability.

ChatGPT then responds with the questions in series that help me explore all of these various different elements one at a time. It really does turn into a conversation, which is super nice. This is a much better experience (for me) rather than just grinding through the questions. This approach allows you to then explore each of these elements interactively.

Once we get to step 6, it is time to move over to Canva based on the ChatGPT output. Here’s the summary of my ChatGPT conversation so far:

Concept: The logo will feature a minimalist design representing upward growth using a vine, aligning with eco-friendly and sustainable product brands.

Design: We have a basic concept of a simple, elegant vine starting from the bottom and curving upwards. It may include a few leaves, and it will maintain a clean and uncluttered look.

Feedback: You have chosen to proceed without gathering feedback from a specific audience since you are the primary audience evaluating the design.

Next Steps: We are now ready to move on to Step 6, where we will develop the logo’s layout on a free design platform. If you have a preferred platform or would like a recommendation for one, please let me know, and we’ll proceed with creating the digital version of your logo.

Sweet! Now, onto Canva to start laying it out. Given that The Bamboo Bumble, and Hydro Household both directly deal with an eco friendly and sustainable lifestyle, we ended up weaving organic elements into a minimalist design for the logo. Now, it’s time to play!

Designing the Logo with Canva

I have the paid version of Canva as I absolutely love this tool. A few weeks back my son had to go to a birthday party, and we didn’t have a card. We sat down and designed a card he loved within 5-10 minutes. Hit print, and we were on our way. I don’t just use Canva for the business…it’s an everyday tool!

Let’s get started with making a logo. First, just hit Create a design and select logo:

Now, I browse the templates until I find one that resonates. The one that called to me was Nordic:

After selecting the template, I need to tweak. First, I change the word from Nordic to Scomurr and adjust font, so it fits:

Now, I change the N to an S (for Scomurr). Now, I need an ivy graphic element. Canva has a ton for free (and even more in the paid Pro edition). I browse Elements – > Graphics and search for Ivy:

I add this one to my canvas. Now, I make it bigger and turn it green.

I like drop shadows. A small shadow goes a long way in adding subtle dimension. I add the shadow by duplicating the ivy element (ctrl + d) and turning the duplicate black.

Now, I align the elements close but not exact and then use the position option to move the black element behind the green:

Looking good! Now, I group both Ivy elements together and send them to the back. To group, select both element s (just the two ivy) and the group option will pop up:

Then, just use the position option to send it to the back.Getting closer. I actually don’t like the wording on there for a minimal logo, so I now remove that and then recenter everything:

Getting closer, but I don’t like the Pepsi-esque circle in which the S is sitting. I do, however, like the slats. After poking around, I decided to remove the circle and add the slatted square frame element. Typically, you would drop a picture into the frame element (this is their core use). However, I am just going to set the color to a dark gray.

I like symetricallity when it comes to graphic elements. So, I rotate the slats and center:

The S falls through the slats (white on see through landing sometimes on white background). I am going to center a dark circle behind the S to make it pop. I add the circle element, set to dark gray, use the position function to set it to the layer behind the S, and then center all of the elements:

Fantastic. Now, vertical or horizontal slats?

I’m digging it! I now have a square logo. It hits all of the marks for being simple, readable, and reflecting the eco-friendly/sustainable elements for my other sites. For Scomurr.com, I need a square as well as a banner logo. I like 1000 x 250 so I tell Canva to resize. Magic Switch –> Custom Size –> 1000 x 250. I then hit Copy & Resize:

Note: this Copy & resize is a paid feature. With that being said, in this case, it didn’t do too much. Simply creating a new design, the desired size and then copying all of the elements manually wouldn’t have been much work.

Now, my logo is just floating in the middle of the banner. Let’s use the space and add Scomurr back in! I can just hit Text in the far-left bar to add a text element. I’m not going to do anything fancy here with effects. This just needs to be clean and readable.

Might as well add tag line. Add another text element, put in text, resize to something that makes sense:

I like it! This is what I am going with for now. Almost all of the capabilities I would have shown in this blog post would be part of the free version of Canva except for the copy and resize. The same goes for the prework I did with ChatGPT. With that being said, I love some of the more advanced capabilities of Canva and we will be going through them in future blog posts.

Happy blogging!