In the Club
Design a logo for your club
Professionally designed logos can cost hundreds of pounds - something few clubs can stretch to. But don’t let that stop you giving your club an eye-catching brand identity. There are plenty of online tools to help you create your logo, which you can then put on emails, websites, documents and clothing.
However, you need to take care when choosing which service you use. You could spend hours crafting your perfect logo, only to find that the ‘free’ version of only lets you download a small preview image, with the full-size version costing a small fortune.
We recommend giving Canva a go ( www.canva.com). With a free account, you can create and download a logo of up to 500x500 pixels (larger than most free services). However, sign up for a free trial of Canva’s Pro plan and you can create and download a 1500x1500-pixel logo – big enough to print on large posters.
You need to provide payment details to register for the trial, but you can cancel your subscription immediately and still use the Pro features for 30 days, giving you plenty of time. To cancel your subscription, click your name at the top-left of the home page, select ‘Account settings’, click the ‘Billings & Teams’ tab, then scroll down to Subscriptions and click ‘Cancel subscription’.
Design your logo
Once you’ve created your account, click ‘Create a design’ (top left), then select Logo. The logo page is split into two, with a preview on the right and artwork you can add to it on the left. You can create a logo from scratch, but if you need some inspiration select Templates on the left, then scroll or search the list (see screenshot above right).
When you see one you like, click it and it will appear in the preview. Even if the template you’ve chosen looks impressive, it’s worth tweaking it to avoid using the same logo as another organisation - the Elements option on the left has plenty of artwork to choose from.
You can move individual elements of artwork within your logo by clicking and dragging. To resize an element, click it once, then drag the corners. As you move or resize these, lines appear to show they are centered or in alignment with other elements. Right-clicking lets you shift elements above or below others.
The toolbar along the top lets you adjust each art element’s settings, such as its colour, as well as flip it horizontally or vertically. You can also adjust an element’s transparency by clicking the small chequered button top right.
If there’s text on the template, doubleclick it to edit. To add new text, select Text on the left, then choose from the templates or click one of the ‘Add a…’ options at the top.
Once you’ve finished arranging your logo, try creating a few variations - make it smaller and change its colour scheme to suit different backgrounds. To create a copy of your logo on which you can apply your tweaks, click the ‘Copy page’ icon just above the preview (see screenshot below left). You can create up to 100 variations of your logo.
Download your logo
Before downloading your logo, give your project a name by clicking the box to the left of the Share button (top right). Next, click the Download button (also top right), then Download.
You can choose the format of your logo in the ‘File type’ box. In most cases, PNG works best - this keeps the file size small without noticeably affecting quality, making it suitable for use on the web as well as small printed items such as letters. The ‘Transparent background’ option helps the logo blend in with whatever background you’ve chosen, and you can select from four sizes (see screenshot below). If you’re using a printing service to create a large poster or similar, the PDF Print option is best (do make sure the printing service you’re using accepts this format).
Don’t forget, when your Pro trial ends you’ll lose access to some of these formats, so make sure you download them before the 30-day trial is up.