Canva Logo Design for Beginners

Strap in as we teach you how to design a logo in Canva!

Whether you’re a designer or not, there’s no way you haven’t heard about Canva. This design tool is famous for its user-friendly interface, great features, and an abundance of amazing templates.

But while Canva is a great choice for simple designs, can you design logos on Canva, as well? 

We’re here to answer that question in depth!

How to design a logo in Canva?

We’ve already mentioned that even people with zero design experience can use Canva to create graphics. However, this doesn’t mean that creating the perfect logo will be as easy as creating simple social media graphics.

Here are some steps you need to take.

Develop your brand identity

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Even if it is used by non-designers, you’ll get most out of this tool by thinking like a professional Canva designer.

So, you need to do your research and understand what kind of logo you want to create. Here are some questions you should answer about your brand before you start designing a logo.

• What’s your value proposition (how do you help your customers)?
• Who are your customers?
• Why do you do what you do (mission and vision)?

Let’s say you’re creating a logo for a toys’ brand. Your mission is to keep children entertained, and your customers are parents wishing to have some time for themselves, while the children enjoy a quality toy.

This already narrows down some of your design options. For example, you’ll probably want to use bright colors that appeal to children. But since it’s the parents buying the toys, you’ll also want the design to be modern, and maybe even have an educational note to it. 

Find the right template

Canva templates are probably the main reason why this tool is so popular. From simple design elements, such as shapes, lines and illustrations, to fully-fledged logo templates - Canva has it all.

Using a template-based approach is advised as professional Canva creators that design the templates have excellent grasp of essential design principles such as balance, hierarchy, and contrast. 

Professional logos are a single design element with a lot of weight. Not only do they represent your whole company, but they also have a very wide usage - from your website, to packaging, social media posts, ads, thumbnails, and much more. So, you can see how a logo that doesn’t have the right layout or proportions can easily become unusable.

When choosing a Canva template you should pay attention to three things.

• What type of logo do you want? Is it a lettermark, wordmark, pictorial mark, or combination logo?
• What kind of style do you want? Elegant, playful, professional, or something else?‍
• Do you want to pay for the template? Canva has many free templates, however certain templates and design elements require a Canva Pro subscription.

Customize the template

How to design a logo in Canva? It comes down to this. 

Let’s say I’m designing a logo for my personal website of content writing services. I can type in “writer logo” in the search bar and I’ll already find a number of templates that fit this style/

Since I’m creating a personal brand, I can decide to go for a combination logo, with a simple line illustration of a person like this one.

Of course, I don’t have curly hair or glasses so I’d explore further options. I’ll search some of Canva’s design elements by typing in a prompt like “woman laptop line” to get more options for similar line illustrations.

Don't forget that there are plenty of options for finding creative illustrations and icons outside of Canva! For example, our own Pixels Market is a great place to start. We have thousands of free illustrations in different styles

Change the color scheme (I’ve opted for my favorite orange), and add your brand name.

You can customize your logo further by selecting the right typography and choosing other elements (this is what I have done, since I’ve never been a fan of minimalism). You can even add animation to your logo, which can be great for digital use. 

If you’re using Canva Pro, you can also create your own brand kit, where you can upload assets, such as a color palette and logo. This will greatly speed up the process of creating branded graphics. 

It’s very easy to go overboard when you don’t have the right design skills. (I’m probably guilty of that with this example). If you want to be safe, try to find a template and edit it as little as possible (without adding additional elements). 

The downside is that you might end up with a logo that’s quite similar to what others use.

Alternative: use Canva free AI logo generator

If you don’t want to waste time browsing the perfect template, you can also use Canva’s AI logo generator for free. 
I’ve tested it out with a text prompt similar to the logo I’ve created from the existing template. As you can see, the generator hasn’t created a logo but rather illustrations that can be used as part of a logo. 

So, don’t expect the generator tool to do all the work for you. Instead, use it as a supplement to any design elements or graphics you can’t find in the templates library.

Can you trademark a Canva logo?

Using Canva for logo design is easy, cheap and fast. So, what’s the downside?

We’ve already mentioned that when you use the Canva logo creator, you run the risk of using the same logo as someone else. So, is there a way to trademark your logo?

The answer is largely no. Under Canva’s licensing agreement, you’re granted non-exclusive usage rights. Therefore you cannot trademark a logo that contains graphics or templates. 

The only way you can trademark a Canva logo design is if you create it from scratch - using only basic lines and shapes, and fonts.

Canva logos are great, custom is better

We hope this helps answer the question “how to design a logo in Canva”. Thanks to Canva’s easy design software, anyone can design a decent logo.

However, you can’t trademark a logo, and you run the risk of using a similar design as your competitors.

Logo design prices vary from $300 to thousands of dollars. But you don’t have to pay the big bucks to get premium design. With a ManyPixels unlimited brand design subscription, you can get your logo and all branding assets for just $549!

Everything you need in one place: social media graphics, web design, motion graphics, illustrations, and more. Get unlimited revisions and requests, while paying the same flat monthly rate.

Want to discuss your logo and branding design needs further? Schedule a time that suits you, and we’ll be happy to offer you a free 1:1 consultation.