3 Criteria for Creating Your Author Logo with Personality
So you’re working on your author brand, building and starting to spread word of your platform?
Or do you just want to upgrade your blog with classy consistency?
Or maybe you just want to stand out in the email crowd?
Good!
One often overlooked element in this context is the importance of creating your very own logo for consistent brand (or personal) recognition.
Read on, my friends, because there are a few things you should know first.
You don’t think you need a logo to help influence how your readers view you? Then, by all means, do not read this article, but if you’re thinking “just maybe”, do continue to read.
This was a fun project. And why not use my experience as your very own case study?
For now, let’s assume you see the wisdom of creating your own business or personal logo, or of creating one for somebody else. Then this article is for you.
Disclaimer: there are other ways to do this. What I’m sharing with you worked for me and is FREE.
You may recall my recent post on Building a Killer Author Website, and how building your author/blogger/emailer brand begins with an analysis of your unique brand personality, so that’s where I started.
Despite my natural shyness (!), what I’m selling here is myself and the stuff I offer as an author. C’mon along… Don’t be shy.
Brand Personality
I didn’t say I was the expert, but I can take direction from those who are. Can you?
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- Why do I write? What am I passionate about?
- I’m patriotic, I enjoy intrigue, drama, and high stakes – I create that with my fiction,
- Yes, I’m an optimist and a perennial seeker (I won’t be so pretentious to claim I seek “truth”, but I seek out, well, everything that interests me, and that’s a revolving door),
- I’m passionate about social issues and believe that writers wield power, even in fiction,
- A lust for the allure of the obscure is an inescapable character defect of mine,
- It turns me on to turn dreams and memories into an entertaining reading experience,
- I have an addictive personality and I’ve embraced that,
- My writing is colored by government service and my multinational business experience. I enjoy reflecting a lifetime of offbeat diversions in my work as an author to a reader I may never have met,
- I’m a bit of a danger junkie, although I wouldn’t dare to try explaining why, and I like to write about how high-adrenaline adventures make me feel.
- What do I love to write?
- I love writing both non-fiction and fiction:
- Especially thriller and science fiction (at least for now)
- With room to grow in different directions
- I prefer simpler storylines with complex characters and settings (why I’ll probably never write mysteries),
- I also love blogging about things I learn, and I’m learning new stuff almost every day (part of my compulsion… doesn’t that sound better than addiction?),
- I might want to offer products other than books in the future (podcasts, audio books, eCourses, publishing services…); hence, my considering use of the nonspecific term “media” along with my tagline and nom de plume.
- I love writing both non-fiction and fiction:
- Why do I write? What am I passionate about?
Building the Logo
Given all that, my criteria for a logo included:
- No cost: I didn’t want to hire a designer or buy software to create a logo, at least not right now,
- Simple: I couldn’t justify much time to get this job done, as I want to write and edit, and there are lots of other marketing activities to which I must attend (social media, email campaigns…),
- Design:
- Chose 3-4 colors. I went with colors compatible with those I had already chosen for my website theme:
- 2 of my 4 colors: orange and black, not because they’re pretty, but because they are a unique and recognizable combo that might also have a subliminal meaning (widely recognizable Harley-Davidson Motorcycle brand colors, and I’m a motorcycle guy, even though I ride a Victory, not a Harley ;-),
- When combined with two more enlightened colors, blue and white, these four colors make a distinctive combination,
- Choice of colors evokes a mood: I chose colors that don’t slap you in the face; rather, they draw you in with a gentle kiss on your cheek,
- White is also an interesting choice in my case since that’s also my website’s text background color… More on this later,
- Selected Fonts. Options in my examples below range from delicate and flowery to masculine and kick-ass:
- I’m not sure of my final choices yet, but fonts will definitely give your logo a certain complexion,
- A logo will be small by definition (not much space on the page, small file size, fast loading). So readability (recognition) is a key issue, and that drives font size decisions.
- I test drove a variety of fonts and sought a few initial impressions from others,
- Picked a Graphic (or lack thereof). Self-explanatory (look and feel, emotive, descriptive…)
- Also, consider your form factor:
- I created some square (most website “thumbnails” tend to be square by default, like WordPress, often 150 x 150 pixels),
- And some are rectangular (more for headers or small banners),
- Right now, I’m using a square thumbnail as a banner (different).
- Also, consider your form factor:
- Chose 3-4 colors. I went with colors compatible with those I had already chosen for my website theme:
I used the FREE Canva.com branding kit which I found quite easy to use. Canva even offers a useful step-by-step tutorial. Like everything else online these days, they also offer a premium version ($). So far, I have not found that necessary. Besides I really like FREE.
My Logos As Examples
Here are a few of my top choices, along with my rationale for each which you might find useful:
- This one features a square form factor. Square logos are especially useful in a standard thumbnail (150 x 150 pixel) configuration:
- Each social media platform has different criteria for images they use in previews for your posts. I grew weary researching them, so I simplified. I tried things to see if they looked good. Yes, it can be that simple,
- The graphic indicates exotic palm trees we love in both the tropics and the desert… the two places we spend time wintering:
- To me, they evoke exotic thoughts, and that’s what I wish to evoke in the minds of my readers,
- The trees are bent in the wind: I’m a sailor, a student of the wind; I bend, but I don’t break, just like palms.
- The Font (Cinzel) appears business-like and is easy to read (large at 28 pixels):
- Cinzel is an all-caps font which I thought would be easier to read when reduced to a thumbnail.
- The background is white, and so are most of the pages’ background colors:
- Looks more like it belongs on my white pages,
- It’s easy to change the character and line spacing in the Canva logo design tool:
- I tried each logo in each size in several applications (title page on an eBook, blog post, etc.) and adjusted spacing for best readability),
- I chose a Serif font (with little feet and hats):
- Unlike the font in this post, which is Sans (without) Serif (feetless and headless),
- Sans Serif used to be favored, but now with higher resolution displays, Serif fonts are back in favor, and they look good,
- “Author One” is my tagline:
- I’m Author Number One (in my own mind) of N (millions) of authors out there. To me, this says I’m both egotistical and humble,
- “Author One” should rank well in the search engines if identified with my brand.
A few more square logos:
- Notice the tagline on Logo 10 is not at all readable (“Old Standard” font size is only 10px), so trials proved this was not a workable design, even if I had liked the somber black background, the graphics and the font itself,
- Logo 3 is simple and elegant, but initials only? Not enough information to identify me with my brand. It might be useful for something, but not my front line logo,
- I’ll say more about a variation of Logo 22 in a moment, but note the text colors (red, white & blue). And the graphic (stripes) remind you of what? The US flag? Interesting…
Next, a few rectangular logos:
Note what happens when you choose a (square) thumbnail crop with a rectangular logo (it gets chopped off). This is a variation of Logo 22 above.
Also, note I’ve labeled logo file as “Logo [n] GKJ” so they’re easy to identify from a file list and with the same first name for each file, they’ll stay bunched together for easy perusal and selection, possibly for review by others.
The font used in Logos 21 & 22 is called, “Black Ops”. It is an extremely aggressive font, almost militaristic, and evokes that sort of emotion. Note I also rotated the graphic and text on the orange background to give the illusion this could be a stencil on the side of a crate containing military hardware, perhaps. If the shoe fits… Not exactly what I’m looking for, but a good example how a logo can evoke strong emotions for some viewers.
In contrast, Logo 38 is far less threatening or confrontational and more welcoming, but the graphics take center stage and lead the eye to what the font says, and less on how it’s said.
Logo 33 is yet another example. The graphic suggests a more whimsical logo, yet the business-like font (Cinzel) and the solid blue background screams, “I am a professional, but I don’t take myself too seriously.” At least that’s what it screams to me (but not too loudly).
I also created a very small symbol (Logo 20) as an identifier of my web page (up by website address in browser’s toolbar).
Lessons Learned
Logos are most flexible if their background color matches the background of your text pages such as your blog posts,
- Make sure text fonts are easily readable, even as a small thumbnail size,
- Carefully select only a few significant colors that make a unique combination (less is more),
- Save Canva files as JPG or PNG. I saved in JPG (compressed) format resulting in very small file sizes (makes for faster loading) but the images are still high quality,
- Label each logo file clearly and consistently. If you create a collection of them, you want them to appear together in a file list. Number them so if you ask others to review and comment, they’re easily referred to by number.
This can be a fun project with a little creative patience and without investing a penny. Good luck creating your very own logo!
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With pen in hand,
GK