Do you need a logo?

So I’ve been reading this series about making money from home (Make Money from Home series by Sally Miller), and I’m finding it very interesting and informative. I’m trying a few things out that they suggest, and one of those is creating a logo.

But do you need a logo?

I’d never, ever thought about having my own logo, for the blog, for the website, for social media. I’ve had Facebook since about 2008, I’ve been blogging since 2005, and I’ve been writing since 1985.

In the very old days when I was just starting out, I did have a letterhead that was designed for me by a work colleague who was learning about design at the time. But it really was just my name, address and contact details.

It was green as well (or my name was), and I’ve recently learnt that some fiction editors back in the heyday of magazine fiction would reject a submission just because an author had a green letterhead.

Well, that was me, folks!

When the original design got old, I created a new one in MS Publisher, and then I converted it to MS Word. And yes, it was still green. 

When I found out about the ruin-a-writer’s-career-and-don’t-forget-her-confidence-while-you’re-at-it we-don’t-like-green brigade, I changed the green to blue. And I sold the very next short story I sent to a magazine I’d been trying to crack for 30 years. 

Go figure. (But oh, how unfair.)

The general advice for letterheads has always been to keep them as plain as possible, and the same for business cards. But does that really still apply?

So I read about creating a logo for your blog and I remembered that Canva has a template section for creating a logo. And I gave it a go. 

Incidentally, I have Canva Pro and some of the images aren’t available in the free product. The guitar image is one of the poet’s anyway, and the monkey is one the band has had for a while.

Here is what the “Diane Wordsworth” one turned out like:

I quite liked it, so I had a go for “Words Worth Writing”:

And then I tried one for “Baggins Bottom Books” (this is who I self-publish the books as, the old blog was called Tales from Baggins Bottom):

The bright-eyed and bushy-tailed might see a bit of a theme going on here …

Because I was on a roll, I thought I’d have a go at one for the gig list too:

And then I thought, well what can I use them for?

Well, the first place I utilised the gig list one was on Facebook. I changed the profile picture for the gig list page as that then changes the profile picture when adding posts to the gig list group. And then I changed the cover photo.

Then I went off to the gig list website, but the only thing I changed there was the image for the Facebook link. It used to be a giant F, and I thought the new logo looked better.

I noticed on both of the authors’ websites for the blogging book in the series that they do indeed have their logos on display. So then I did a search to see if I could add a logo to this blog. And voila!

Again, the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed will notice that there’s a shiny new logo both on the top of the main screen, and at the top of each post. Go on, have a look. I’ll wait … and if you’re on a desktop, the even brighter-eyed and bushier-tailed might see that there’s a logo on the browser tab too.

Clever, or what?

I decided to use the “Diane Wordsworth” logo instead of the “Words Worth Writing” logo because I thought it looked daft having “Words Worth Writing” twice. But I may change it again yet.

Later I discovered that I could also download a copy of the logo with a transparent background, so the logo you can see at the top of the screen is now the one with the transparent background.

Each time I completed one of the logos, I was taken to a business card template on Canva. I’ve not used a business card for longer than I care to remember, but we could do with them for the gig list and for Monkey Dust.

So I had more of a play and just dropped the new logos onto the business card templates. I tried practising with Diane Wordsworth first, and when I was happy with that, I transferred the design to the gig list.

And then I grabbed the Monkey Dust image and had a go with that one too. I know we’ll use it for business cards there, but we’ll also use it for gig posters too – if ever they’re allowed to work again, that is.

I used the old one as a guide, but here is what that new logo looks like now:

Do you know, I can faff for England, me!

So, what do you think? Do you need a logo? Or is it just a fancy bit of frippery? Answers below in the comments section. 😇