You’re here because you’re looking for amazing packaging ideas for 2020.

Well, you’re in luck, because I’m showing you 6 ideas for you to implement this year into your packaging designs.

Well, what are we waiting for?

Let’s just jump right in!

Sustainable Packaging

Sustainability. It’s at the forefront of all of our minds nowadays.

As it should be!

It’s so important that we take care of our world because it’s the only one we’ve got.

And what better way for you as a designer to contribute to this world, than to create your own sustainable packaging ideas for yourself and for your clients?

So here are various sustainable packaging design ideas for you to draw inspiration from!

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Minimalism

Next up, we have minimalism.

Minimalism was all over the globe last year and we don’t expect anything less this year.

On the contrary, we expect to see minimalism rise up even more and overtake many packaging designs.

Imagine the combo of minimalism and sustainability.

That just warms my designer soul.

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Bold Typography

Boldness.

You need packaging that is as bold as the product.

Sometimes the best way to display the boldness of your packaging is by simplicity.

By using bold text, you can have an intricate yet simple design that speaks louder than loads of 3D design factors could.

Here are some examples of what I mean.

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Flat Design

Flat design was another trend that took over all of 2019 but that we only expect it to continue growing in 2020.

Flat design is also a type of minimal design, which is the undertone of the ultimate trend of 2019, which in my opinion was minimal design.

Check some of these designs out!

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Metallic & Holographic Material

Alright you guys, it’s time to get to the 2 packaging designs that I’m most excited about this year.

And that is metallic and holographic material.

There’s just something so luxurious and eye-catching about this flashy material that will draw the eye of anyone onto your product.

I love the way it looks and the way each designer used it differently.

Here are some examples of what I mean.

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Summing Things Up

I hope you found these packaging ideas inspiring!

Soon we’ll have an entire guide dedicated to sustainable packaging, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Til next time,

Stay creative, folks!

When establishing a brand, you should never put your logo on the back burner. 

If your logo doesn’t represent you well or it looks unprofessional, then your customers are going to bounce, leaving your business to plummet. 

We’re going to go over the 10 elements of every great logo, that you can implement into your logo design. 

Let’s get straight into it. 

1. Memorable

The first, most important element of every great logo is that it’s memorable. If your logo isn’t memorable, then you’ve got a huge problem. Because people won’t remember who you are, what you offer, and you won’t come to mind in the future when they need the product you have to offer. 

Being memorable is key. Make an original first impression on people so that they’ll always remember you when they need to. 

2. Simple

A good logo is simple. If you have a great design, then it doesn’t need to be super intricate. Yes, get all the little details and hidden images in there. That’s amazing, but it should still, in its essence, be simple and easy to grasp.

3. Easy to understand

This goes hand-in-hand with simplicity. If your logo is so complicated that no one understands it, then you’ve done something wrong. Your logo shouldn’t need a huge in-depth explanation of what it represents and means. Of course, your logo can have some subliminal messages and hidden images, but it shouldn’t be so hidden that people awkwardly say “oh… okay”.

So make sure your logo comes across well, is creative and original, but also is easy to understand.

4. Recognizable

You want to be easily recognized. On the street, in the store, online- people should see your logo and go “Hey! I know that brand.” This is just as important as memorability. If people don’t remember who you are and don’t recognize you, then your company is going to die. That’s that. 

So make sure you’re recognizable, make a statement, and are memorable.

5. Timeless

How terrible if you work months and months on your logo and company, and you fall into some crazy fads, and next year your company logo looks a little bit crazy. You definitely want to follow some great trends, but make sure that your company logo will look just as good this year as it will the next five. 

6. Scalable

Your work should look good, big or small. Whether you’re being displayed on a tiny little RDA or a giant billboard in your town. This also means that you need to have a high-quality logo design, so when you blow it up or scale it down, it looks just as good, quality-wise. 

7. Relevant

Ask yourself when designing your logo, “Why this logo design? What does it represent for me?” If your logo doesn’t describe what you’re doing and isn’t relevant to your brand… then you may be doing something wrong. You want to make sure people understand why your logo is the way it is, and you want to make sure that your target audience will vibe with it. 

8. Attention-grabbing

You’ll want your logo to turn heads. When some3one is walking by and sees your logo, you’ll want them to stop for a minute and dedicate their full attention to you. For this, you can have a cool geometrical design or some bright colors. As long as your intricate design is memorable, relevant and attention-grabbing. 

9. Be Different Than Your Competition

The worst thing you can be classified as, if you want to be a reputable company, is a knock-off. If you’re trying to have your own company, then for the love of all things good, don’t copy your competition. Yes, be inspired by them, but don’t try to be exactly like them. Look at them, take some notes, and move forward and do better. You’ve got this! 

10. Don’t be afraid of change

Everything evolves, and that means your company logo will evolve as well. Maybe not this year or the next, but somewhere down the road, you’ll need to make adjustments to make your customers happy. So don’t be set in stone, afraid to change. Change is good and should be embraced. 

And Finally

Be yourself and have some fun when designing your company brand and logo. 

Let us know in the comments what some of your personal tips are when it comes to designing a logo.

Until next time,

Stay creative, folks! 

Your product could be the most amazing and useful product in the world, but if your packaging is not on point, then your entire business could be in some major trouble.

Imagine this scenario: You’ve designed the best product in your field, invested all of your funds into creating the product, and put packaging design on the back burner. You get on a free mock-up website, make something in an hour, call it day, and show it to your investors. 

Terrible idea. 

In my personal opinion, you should put just as much effort into the packaging design of your product as you put into the product itself.

According to science, it only takes a person 1/10th of a second to create or form an opinion about someone or something. That gives you literally not even one second to give someone a great first impression. 

The first thing your potential customer is going to see is your packaging. And you better hope to goodness that you’ve aced your first impression and wowed your target audience with your packaging design.

Best Packaging Design Ideas for 2019

I’ve rounded up 20 of my favorite packaging designs for you to be inspired by for your next design project.

Let’s check em out!

1. Mint

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This face wash for men is so simplistic in its design that it’s easy and enjoyable for the eye to look at. The black color of the face wash gives off tones of luxury and the pastel colors on the box, combined with flat design, simply works for this packaging. 

2. Care Market

Continuing on with the pastel trend, we have Care Market packaging design. The palette they chose here is lovely, as pastels have been all over the place this year. The consistency in font usage is just perfect, using only two different fonts and using dividing lines between each new phrase. 

This packaging design shows us that you don’t need elaborate graphic designs to exude elegance and professionalism. All you need is a great color palette, and nice, coinciding fonts. 

3. Botany

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Less is more, as the saying goes, and botany nailed it. Minimalist, flat design is the key here and with three different color schemes that all complement each other, I can wholeheartedly say, I believe this design will catch the eye of anyone who is looking for a high-quality serum. 

4. Roji

When someone is looking for a healthy drink, they’re going to be looking for sleek, professional fonts that look organic. My favorite part of this packaging design is that the designer thought through the choice of font colors. 

Since the bottle is made of glass, you’ll be able to see its contents and the yellow font matches the beverage inside the bottle. The yellow-colored font perfectly complements the contents of the bottle. A simple, well-thought-out packaging design overall.

5. Sophia’s Tea

Stepping out a little bit from the pastel color palettes and into something a little bolder, we have Sophia’s Tea packaging design. Flat design really has taken the lead in 2019. We see it all over the place. And luckily for us designers, it makes our job a little easier. 

What I appreciate about this design is that the name of each drink matches the design of each recipient. The color scheme on each bottle matches each other, making a buyer recognize the brand, if they were to see each bottle on a shelf in a store. 

6. Juice.

Since we’re on a drink roll, check out this summery packaging design for juice. Again, we’re hit with flat design and beautiful colors. The font sticks out perfectly on the foreground of the design. Juice. Simple, clean, clear, and to the point. 

7. Brightland

I’ve never seen an olive oil packaged quite like this. At first glance, you would wonder what this beautiful bottle is doing in the oil section. 

You’re inclined to pick it up, you read that it’s olive oil, you’re shook, you compare prices between this and another oil, you realize it’s the same price, and naturally you buy the more beautiful packaging design of the two products. Hit people with original, innovative designs and you’re sales will skyrocket. 

8. Mayberry Spirit Co.

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This bottle makes me want to have a nice, classy night at home with all my friends. The vintage font works beautifully with the design of the bottle, and I love that the color schemes match the rich color of the whiskey itself. 

9. Gatorade

Here are some rebranding sketches for Gatorade. Simple design that gets across, yet still embraces the originality of the Gatorade logo. You won’t lose any brand recognizability, and it looks more modern.

10. The Restored 

The packaging design for these vitamins is everything. The manly, muted earth tones will remind a person of organic produce, making them trust your brand even more. Color association is very important when it comes to designing your packaging and establishing your brand, so choose wisely! 

11. The Restored

Here’s a second version to Restored vitamins. This packaging design is a touch more feminine, using a more pastel green, and creating more dimension in the background by using two different colors. The pop of orange in the corner brings the eyes to the directions.

12. American Crew Fragrance

This simplistic design is one way on the box and reversed on the bottle. By using one font, they really had to play with the scaling and spacing of letters and words to make it interesting and captivating. Again, packaging design can be simple and just as engaging as a super complicated design.  

13. Roys Morning Serum

Roys morning serum has two beautiful colors: a muted pink and a relaxing gold. Color association is everything. If you can convince your customers that your product is what they need and you really sell your product by having a luxurious packaging, you’ll have clients talking about you for days. 

14. Zinus

You can recognize an eco-friendly package design from a mile away, and most people are becoming very concerned and aware of their consumerism and trash contribution to the world. Using a bio-degradable packaging or using recycled material will help you loads when it comes to sales. And you’ll be helping the world. It’s a win-win.

15. Mapuche Maqui

Sometimes, making healthy choices isn’t the easiest or most fun, so presenting a fun looking health product can be key in your sales. This berry powder packaging design looks fun and friendly, used flat design, a beautiful color palette, and bold font. With all these elements combined, surely it’ll catch the eye of a customer. 

16. Botanical Coffee Co

This coffee design is so relaxing to look at. The intricate design on the sides, the simplicity on the front, and the choice of font combinations are just lovely. Again, going with flat design and pastels. See the pattern? 

17. Publix Cereal Line

Did you know that the color red increases your appetite significantly? The designer here for kids cereal certainly knew what they were doing. By combining real-life elements and flat design, kids will surely be intrigued by this design and be inclined to beg their parents for the cereal. 

18. Coffee

This coffee packaging is so bright and captivating, yet still has colors that are easy on the eyes. When choosing your color palette, you need to be sure that you’re choosing colors that soothe and colors that people want to look at. And of course, brand colors that represent you and that your audience will enjoy. 

19. Tesco Fish

Check out these “fishy” illustrations! What I really enjoyed about this packaging design was the fish. I love the very finely defined, cut-off design of the fish, and then the can and text. Each fish is design to represent its kind, and I find this design very creative, colorful, and appetizing. 

20. Moon 

And finally, we have Moon Night Cream. Notice how to colors and graphic designs represent the night. So simple, clean, and fresh-looking that you actually can’t wait to use this cream tonight before bed.

Wrapping things up 

As we all know, packaging is everything when it comes down to actually selling your product. Make sure your design represents you, your brand, and your product, and is creative and makes people feel like they need what you have to offer, in their lives. 

I hope you found this article inspiring and you’re more than ready to jump into your next design project.

Until next time,

Stay creative! 

I believe I speak for everyone when I say that I love to find amazing, high-quality design resources for free.

 Sometimes, when you’re in the middle of a design process, you find that you’re about to have to invest more money than you originally intended. You should save money when you can and you should spend money on things that require investment. 

That’s why I came up with the ultimate collection of free design resources for you to check out. 

Whether it’s free vectors or mockups, or free images and presets you’re looking for, I have it all right here in one incredibly comprehensive list for you, so you don’t have to search all around for your answers. Everything is right here, in one place.

Now, let’s get into it.

Free Stock Images

Photography has been and will always be a key piece of design. Stock photos are no longer what they used to be, luckily. No longer will you be seeing just those awkward group photos of people laughing or two businessmen shaking hands. 

No, there are so many stock photo sites for you to choose from with quality work from real photographers. Check out these 10 awesome free stock images websites!

Unsplash

I want to start this list off with a bang. Unsplash is my personal favorite free stock image website. I use it for everything from article writing to making designs. Unsplash has a huge collection of images, consisting of over 110,000 high-quality free stock images. Just type in a keyword and see hundreds of images that can suit your needs. All images are released under Unsplash’s copyright policy.

Stocksnap

Stocksnap has hundreds of new high-quality free stock images added to their library every week. They have stock images to fit just about any occasion you can think of. From website building to brochure making, they having everything you need. You can find any image you need by typing in tag words, and you’ll be presented with hundreds of images that will be perfect for you. All images are free for you to use! 

Pexels

Pexels has one of the most beautiful stock images website interfaces I’ve ever seen. Pexels provides tons of high-quality stock images that are free for you to use under their license. With hundreds of thousands of beautiful free images of you to choose from, surely you’ll find what you need here. 

Reshot

“Reshot. Uniquely free photos. Handpicked, non-stocky images. Yours to use as you wish”. That’s a pretty self-explanatory and sweet tagline. They work hand-in-hand with amazing professional photographers and give them a great place to display their work and be discovered. Find amazing free stock images on Reshot!

Pixabay

Pixabay has loads of free photos, but not only. They also have art illustrations and vectors. All images, art illustrations vectors, etc are released under Creative Commons CC0.

Life of Pix

Next up, we have Life of Pix. Free high-resolution photography for everyone. Besides having loads of amazing photos to choose from, they also feature a new photographer of the week. Find new photographers whose work you love every week and in turn, have tons of stock photos to choose from! 

Foodiesfeed

Foodiesfeed is for the foodie at heart. Which gorgeous, appetizing stock images that look so delicious that you can almost smell them just by looking at them. If you have a food blog or just need some inspiration, check out this awesome stock image site. 

Gratisography

Gratisography is for the non-mainstream person. If you’re looking for the complete opposite of the classic boring stock photo, this website is for you. You truly won’t find photos like these anywhere else.

Foca

FOCA is a great stock website if you’re looking for a little more than just some stock images. They have everything from free photos to videos and templates! 

Kaboompics

Kaboompics is so aesthetically pleasing, it hurts. The amazing blog pictures are everything. According to their about page, Kaboompics is one of the most popular sources of free images for lifestyle, interior design and specialized bloggers in the world. 

Free Vectors 

Creating your own vectors can take up so much of your precious time, and that’s why finding perfect vector art or vector icons can be a major time-saver, but finding them for free is like finding treasure. That’s why I picked out my 10 favorite free vector websites. Check ‘em out.

Vexels

Vexels has great free vectors for you to use for personal and commercial use. What I really like about their vectors is that many of them are editable. You can get everything from icons to backgrounds and designs that are ready for print. Give them a try!

Vector Stock

Vector stock has over 300,000 vectors for you to choose from. With such a wide variety of vectors, surely you’ll find something that’ll suit your project and save you loads of time. 

The Noun Project

The Noun Project can be summed up in icons, icons, icons! They have over 2 million royalty-free vector icons for you to use. And what’s better? You can edit them. That is insane, people. Don’t sleep on the noun-project. They have all those quality things you’re looking for.

Vector 4 Free

Vector 4 Free has vector art for everyone. Their goal is to share vector art created by professional designers with everyone. They have all sorts of formats, such as .ai format, but also .eps, .pdf, .svg, and even .cdr. All of their vectors are free for personal use, but for commercial use, you have to check each artist’s terms of use, as they all differ. 

Freepik 

Freepik has over 708,000 free vectors for you to use for personal use and also for commercial use. The styles vary as far as feminine and elegant-looking invitations to vectors that are perfect for backend technology promotion. You’ll find every style you could need here, and you can download everything in .Ai and .EPS formats.

Free Vector

Free Vector is full of fun and colorful cartoonish vectors. They are basically a world full of free vector art that is simply at your fingertips. Type in your keywords in the search bar to find vectors that suit your style, or scroll to the end of the page and find tons of categories to browse through.

Vecteezy

Vecteezy has thousands of gorgeous vector art for you to use. Everything is copyright free, so you never have to worry about that. There are tons of free vectors for you to use, or you can upgrade your account to a pro account and have access to everything at your fingertips. 

Flat Icon

Flat Icon is the largest database of free icons that are available in PNG, SVG, EPS, PSD, and BASE 64 formats to date! With a free account, you can access thousands of free icons, or you can upgrade your account and get millions of icons for free. 

Pngtree

Pngtree has wonderful vectors for you to choose from, and with a free account, you have access to 2 daily downloads. Get royalty-free PNG images, vectors, backgrounds, templates, and text effects from Pngtree. 

Free Mockups 

Showing real-life visuals of your work to your client is a vital selling point, and that’s one of the huge reasons that mockups are so crucially important. Here are 10 free amazing mockup websites for you to use for your next project.

Placeit

Placeit is a site where you can visualize all of your designs on products within seconds. Not only can you just upload your images, but you can also make designs on the platform, and create videos. Create your own design, or try out one of their 32,938 smart templates! 

Smart Mockups

Smart Mockups is the fastest web-based mockup tool out there right now. It’s user-friendly in the manner that advanced designers and beginners alike can use and understand their product. You can use a free account and create 200 mockups and use basic features, or you can upgrade your account and have access to all mockups and features. 

Mockuuups

Mockuuups will generate tour product mockups in literally a second. The tool is easy to use, as it is drag-and-drop based. Download the app to your computer to start using. You can use a free account and still have access to lots of features and mockups, or you can upgrade your account to have access to everything! 

Mckups

Mckups has a beautiful, minimalist interface and beautiful, free mockups for you to use. The mockups are hand-crafted by professional designers and are just waiting for you to use them. 

The Mockup Club

The Mockup Club is absolutely free and that might just be my favorite part. It’s a one-stop shop with loads of free mockups for you to use to showcase your lovely designs. 

Psd Repo

Psd Repo has every mockup imaginable. From key-chains to shorts, to t-shirts, to protein powder packaging, I think I can safely say they have it all. The mockups are made by talented designers who want to share their work with you for free. Download your favorite mockup as a PSD file and get to designing! 

Mockups Design

Mockups Design is an easy-to-use website where designers can find professional mockups for free to use in their next design project. From DVDs and CD to letterheads and brochures. They have lots to choose from.  

Good Mockups

Good Mockups can be summed up about something like this: High-quality, hand-picked, premium mockups for all to use. They strive to have mockups to fit everyone and every design. With an entire list for you to go through, I believe that they are truly well worth your time. 

Mr. Mockup

Last but not least, we have Mr. Mockup. They have a team of professional and creative designers working to mockups for everyone. With a vast experience in designing just about anything, you can count on them to find beautiful mockups for your next design project.

Wrapping up 

I hope you guys found this ultimate collection of free design resources helpful! Let us know in the comment section below what sites you’ll be using in the near future, or tell us about a website you know that you think is worth mentioning.

Until next time, 

Stay creative! 

As we continue through this eventful 2019, there are many newsletter design trends that have already come and gone. But, there are also quite a few that have stuck around, and even more that are just beginning to show up. 

So what are they? Great question. Newsletters are one of the most simple and effective marketing strategies out there, so it’s worth knowing what’s trending and what you should avoid. With that said, here are some of the best 2019 newsletter design trends that you’ve gotta know.

Interactive newsletters

Interactivity has been a trend in the design world for a while now. The reason is as cut and dry as it gets: people love to be entertained. There’s just something about being able to navigate, click, and watch the screen evolve in front of you that just can’t be beaten.

Take this newsletter from Ann Taylor, for example. It has a simple design that allows users to interact with it, see all the new products, and even go straight to the online store. Things like sidebars, drop-down tabs, and shopping links are actually taking off as a trend. This is an interactive email newsletter if I’ve ever seen one. As long as you don’t go overboard with it, this is a great trend to follow.

Simple and clean design

Minimalism is a huge trend in design right now. It’s no big surprise that it’s snuck its way into newsletter design trends, too.

There’s nothing more annoying than getting a newsletter, opening it, and finding an explosion of information that you can’t seem to click away from fast enough. The whole point of a newsletter is to grab someone’s attention quickly and direct them to the announcement.

Something like this simple newsletter design clearly shows the reader that there’s a summer sale, it’s 50% off, and then gives them a link to go shopping. There’s nothing overwhelming or misleading about it. By definition, this is a perfectly simply newsletter, and it does the trick.

Catchy newsletter names

You may think that a name really isn’t part of the design, but I think that the name is the first thing that really grabs the reader’s attention. Amidst the absolute ocean of emails that some of us get daily, the subject lines can easily blend in with the background.

It helps to have a name that people not only recognize as your own but by having a name that stands out. There’s really no guideline for this other than be creative. Overall, you should just try to avoid names like (insert company name)’s newsletter.

Infographics in newsletters

If you absolutely need to give a lot of information, a nice infographic can really help maintain your clean design. One particular style of infographics that a lot of businesses are using is video infographics.

Video marketing, in general, has really rocketed forward in recent years. For many businesses, it’s their main focus. A simple video infographic is an easy way to pump out a lot of your information and still keep the target audience engaged.

Personalization

Creating a newsletter design that is easy to adapt to any reader can be hard to do, but it drives opening rates and engagement like crazy.

A good example of this would be Pinterest. For years now, they have sent you Pins via email based on the things that you like. 

On top of that, they will often use your name in the subject line. It makes it feel less like a corporate cash-grab, and more like a friendly email from a close friend. I don’t know about you, but when scrolling through my inbox, my name in a subject line stands out drastically. Many times, it’s all I look for.

Videos in newsletters

The reason videos work well in newsletters is simple: people love to be entertained. On top of that, listening to a video requires much less effort than reading.

That being said, adding a video to a newsletter can be tricky. If someone has rendering issues, or they can’t watch the video the moment they open it, then they may leave and never come back. There has to be a balance between making the video catchy enough to grab their attention and keep it and being short enough to not waste their time. Basically, keep it short and sweet.

Bright and contrasting colors

A little splash of color never hurt anyone. This statement rings true for a lot of things, but with design, it’s a little more complicated. It’s true that the right colors can really help any design. But, notice I said the RIGHT colors.

Just because you toss in some bright and contrasting colors doesn’t mean that people are going to love it. In fact, if you don’t get the colors almost exactly right, most people are going to hate it.

The colors you choose have to make sense. They have to match your brand’s tone, but they don’t necessarily have to be the brand’s colors. Take this newsletter for example:

We’re all familiar with the trillion-dollar company, Apple. They’re infamous for their simplicity in design. Most of the time, their devices are simple gold, black, grey, or white. It was quite a shock when they released the 5c, simply because they were like nothing Apple fans had ever seen.

Granted, this email newsletter design is a few years old at this point, but you can see the strategy in using these colors. They absolutely pop off the screen at you. They used the phone’s colors to highlight the phones themselves on the screen.

Or, how about this one:

Again, what we have here is an ingeniously implemented design with contrasting colors. They’re not wildly different from each other, but they certainly do a great job of highlighting the products. These colors make sense, and they look good.

Full-width images

Just like the colors, images have become the main focal point of the newsletter in 2019. And, just like the example above with Apple, the images have quickly started to take up the majority of the newsletter.

It makes sense if you think about it. Let your product do the talking for you. Even if you’re newsletter is a software or a simple announcement, you should be confident enough with what you’re proposing in the newsletter. 

This newsletter advertisement is a perfect example of this. The image of the woman in the middle takes up nearly the entire thing, from end to end. 

In fact, this particular design hits on a few of the points we talked about, so we’ll end it here. You have a nice big image, contrasting and bold colors, a simple image, and interactivity.

Get creative

As I hinted at several times throughout this article, creativity is key. Most people will scan their emails, look for only the most important emails, and forget about the rest, newsletters included.

A combination of many or all the design elements above will definitely give you a competitive edge, but don’t forget to play around a little. Just because someone doesn’t open a newsletter email of yours once, doesn’t mean they’ll never do it again. This process will have a lot of trial and error, but you will get the hang of it eventually. Especially is you use these 2019 newsletter design trends.

For a lot of people, the first thing they think of when they hear the names of big companies is their logo. In truth, the logo is probably the biggest marketing decision you can make. It might sound simple, but there are quite a few things you need to keep in mind when designing a logo of your own. So without further ado, let’s talk about the basics behind designing your own logo.

Why do you need a logo?

Ideally, you’ll want to hire a professional to create your logo, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bring some ideas of your own to the table. In fact, it’s best that you have a pretty good idea of what you want before the big design meeting. 

But let’s say that you want to go through most, if not all of this process by yourself. Where do you even begin? You need to start this journey off by understanding why you need the logo.

Your logo is an extension of your brand. It’s important that it represents you. That can be hard to do in a single picture, but that’s why this takes time. 

Pick something that scales as a favicon

A favicon is that little image that sits in the address bar when a tab is opened. It’s a small detail, but it’s very crucial.

The reason it’s so crucial is because those big, fancy, and incredibly detailed images will look absolutely terrible as a favicon. This is something that a lot of people don’t think about because they generally regard a big and fancy logo as perfect. 

One of my favorite examples of a favicon is that of Mailchimp.

This logo is simple, yes, but it still manages to capture the brand perfectly. Now, if you pay attention, you’ll notice that the main focus of the logo (the chimp) is its own entity. That makes it very easy to scale as a favicon. Just like this:

This is the Mailchimp favicon. They definitely couldn’t have put the entire logo in the address tab, and they knew that. So, they went into the logo design process with that in mind, and came out with this.

Test multiple colors

Speaking of being scalable, you want to make sure the logo looks good on multiple backgrounds in multiple colors. If you don’t you could end up having to redo this entire process when something as simple as a WordPress theme change comes up.

A good example of this would be Slack

As unusual and controversial as the Slack logo has been here lately, we all have to admit that  it works well with multiple colors. Of course, the logo itself has a variety of colors in it, but that really only helps it.

The Slack logo can be seen around the world with all sorts of background and font colors. It’s an iconic logo, so it was important that they got all the design elements right.

Be consistent with the brand

A logo means nothing if it doesn’t embody the brand. This is especially important for startups that are looking to get their name out there. 

I don’t think I need to go into this too much, but we definitely need to mention it here. Every tiny little detail is crucial. They have to match the brand’s story, their tone of voice, and their mission.

So, for example, the choice of font is a big one. If you run a SaaS company, you probably don’t want to use a script font. Something like that makes much for sense for a small town candle shop.

Something like this classy lemonade stand logo is perfect. It’s simple, it will scale well as a favicon, and it’s on brand. The colors work well and the font stands out, but it’s not over the top.

Make your logo easy to incorporate into your brand

This point sort of goes along to the one above, but it deserves its own mention. That being said, even if your logo is on brand, it doesn’t mean that it will be easy to incorporate into the rest of your brand.

What do I mean by that? Well, looks aren’t always everything. Even if you logo looks great and embodies your brand, it might not be easy to use. Yes, there is such a thing as a logo that is too detailed to use.

A logo should not be so complicated that it takes more than a few seconds for someone to recognize what it is. If it’s simple and straightforward, it will be easy to incorporate into your brand anywhere.

Other tips to follow

There are tons of tips to take into consideration here. But, whether you’re designing it yourself or paying someone else to do it, there are some that are pretty fundamental. So, in addition to the ones above, here are some quick tips that you should consider:

• Pick a style and stick to it

Just like a good party, a logo has a theme. This is a combination of all the elements. From the typography to the colors, everything should be perfectly thought out and implemented with a purpose. Each element needs to pay respect to the others.

• Keep constant communication with the designer

If you choose to hire someone, you have to keep constant communication with them. In the design world, you build off of your own ideas. So if the designer gets one tiny detail wrong, then the entire logo can be off in the end.

• Stay inspired

You are designing the face of your company. If you lack inspiration in the project, you should stop and brainstorm a bit. Or, if you really can’t handle it anymore, step away for a bit. Nothing is worse than rushed work in design, so don’t make your logo suffer.

• Get a lot of opinions

You’re not designing this logo for your own personal use. This logo will be seen by a lot of people, so get a lot of opinions. Show it off to colleagues, friends, family, or even random strangers. The more input you can get, the better your logo will come out.

Be yourself

This is probably the most important rule in design, so we’ll end here. Being yourself is what got you to the place where you can design your own logo in the first place. Don’t fall into the norms of the industry that you’re in. Be unique!

Seeing all the time, effort, emojis, drawings, and true works of art put into an Insta story, we know for sure stories are not what they once were. They’re no longer just pictures and videos shot in real-time. Stories have become a true marketing platform, with intensely strategic moves behind each piece of content published. Every Insta story most likely has a cool (maybe expensive) story app that was used to produce the content.  

With Insta stories looking more polished and aesthetically pleasing than ever, as a designer, you have to be on top of your game. But to what end and to what cost? 

I’m here to help you save a good buck. I’ve got the 10 best free Insta story apps for you to use to improve your Insta stories game without breaking the bank. Without further ado, let’s jump right in.

10 Best Free Insta Story Apps

1. Unfold

Unfold is an amazing Insta story app that is free, but also has in-app purchases if you fancy a certain look and template theme. With many texts and elements to choose from, and themes spanning from elegant or retro, there’s something for everyone.

Try it out today for free: https://unfoldstori.es/

2. Jane

A very underappreciated and not talked about enough app, in my opinion, is Jane. The app is free and has very many free beautiful templates for you to use to spice up your stories. They are quite girly and are perfect for maintaining an elegant or playful story vibe. Create amazing videos with royalty-free music and amazing visuals. Again, this app is free but has in-app purchases. 

Try it out free today: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/%E7%AE%80%E6%8B%BC-jane/id891640660

3. Canva

Canva is hands-down one of the best online CMP’s out there. It’s great for beginner and advanced designers alike. With tons of templates to choose from and customize, you’ll surely find the one that suits your style best. The mobile app is free and has in-app purchases, although you can totally rock with all the free elements and templates and just tune them to your liking.

Try out this app out for free today:https://www.canva.com/app/

4. Hype Type

With a vast and wide collection of fonts, you can do some serious designing with this app. Hype type is absolutely killing the font game. If you’re focused on spreading a message, then this is absolutely the app for you. The app is free with some paid features, but it’s up to you to decide if they’re a necessary buy. 

Check out their app now: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hype-type-moving-text-photo-s/id1152687277

5. Cut Story

Another great app for managing your stories is Cut Story. Cut Story’s is an amazing video editing app where you can create engaging videos and add music, texts, elements, your logo and more to your video. There are special features that you can buy to enhance your UX, but only if you deem necessary.

Try out their free Insta story app now:https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cutstory-for-instagram-stories/id917630934

6. Mojo Story Maker

Mojo is the way to go for Insta stories because they have 100 templates for you to choose from! Customize your stories with text to create relevance, engage with your followers and make them feel what you feel, and share the message you want to portray with them. A huge plus to this app is that you can share your new and improved story directly to your Instagram and also your Snapchat!

Try this Insta story app now: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mojo-stories-editor/id1434861974

7. InShot

For all my influencers out here, Inshot is the app for you. We don’t always have time to film, import, and edit our footage on our laptops or computers, so having this app will be a valuable asset for you. Edit all your video content in a single app on your phone and import it directly to your Instagram. This app is truly a gift to all of us creators out there.

Give it a try if you haven’t already: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.camerasideas.instashot&hl=en 

8. Adobe Spark Post

Adobe, king of all things editing programs, in my own personal opinion. Adobe has great editing programs, from video-editing to photoshopping images, and when they saw an opportunity to create an app to help you create amazing stories to tell your followers, well, we all know they wouldn’t pass that up. With this app you can do more than edit stories photos, you can also edit video and image posts. The app is initially free and then they offer you the chance to upgrade if you end up falling in love with the app.

Go ahead and give this Insta story maker a go: https://spark.adobe.com/features 

10. Over

And last, but not least, we have the app called Over. I love that when you visit their webpage, it’s just absolutely inspiring. It inspires you to be different, to stand out, the influence others. A great app for you to use to for free to make your Insta stories more engaging for your followers and for you to really create a brand name and grow your recognizability.

Stand out of the crowd and try this amazing app free today: https://www.madewithover.com/

Now that you have 10 new and fresh apps for you to choose from to start stepping up your Insta story game, it’s time for you to hop on it. Download any one of these apps and tag us in any of your Instagram stories for a chance to be featured on our stories. Our Instagram handle is @webdesignledger.

Don’t sleep on these amazing free Insta story apps! Try them out today. 

Until next time, 

Stay creative.