How do I design a cool gamer, streamer or clan logo?

January 05, 2021
Posted by Benjamin Arndt
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We'll explain step by step how to design a unique gaming logo!

Maybe we should first start by defining for ourselves what the purpose of a logo actually is? You can compare the function of a logo to a country's flag, a king's crown on his head, or your personal signature. It's about identity, origin and statement. Just as the king's crown declares his status, your signature reveals a lot about yourself.

That might sound a bit abstract, but I want to make it a little simpler. A really good logo reflects the personality of you or your clan. Are you or are you particularly aggressive or daring in terms of your playing characteristics? Have you as a clan been around for a particularly long time and therefore do you have a great tradition? Do you only play FIFA and therefore consistently play one game?

If you become aware of the characteristics and things that particularly distinguish you, you will think of attributes that can be reflected in a logo. This means that the logo becomes a reflection of you or yourself. So the logo becomes a kind of metaphor for you or you. This would be a first font that is important in terms of content for your new and good logo. And believe me: this is not an easy task. But with the following tips you'll definitely be able to do it!

How can I design this into a unique logo?

You probably know companies that use a logo that consists of a pictogram. For example, the bitten apple from Apple. Other logos like ours from Etrition consist purely of letters. For example, a well-known antivirus software company uses lettering as a logo and a protective shield as a symbol. This symbolizes the security promise of the software. Each of these characters ultimately consists of individual components.

These are composed as follows.

Form language (round, square, geometric, free-playing,…)
Color world (colorful, black and white, monochrome)
Typography (font)
Arrangement of the elements (Where is which element in the logo?

A concrete example

Define theme and characteristics
For example, does your clan have a long tradition in FIFA gaming? Then the topic has already been defined. It's probably about football. For example, it would be advisable to use a coat of arms or a form of coat of arms. Like every football club, you certainly use your special colors. These should appear in the coat of arms. Perhaps the founding members of your clan have become known for their incredible ability to react quickly and strike coldly at the gate. Maybe you're thinking about getting a heraldic animal? How about a snake, like the Cobra? It stands for quick reactions and ice-cold precision. So you could integrate a cobra head into your coat of arms. Sounds exciting, right?

“A logo is good if you can scratch it in the sand with your big toe.”
- Kurt Weidemann, German graphic designer

Choose font
Now you may need a font for your coat of arms. The font usually makes a big difference and gives you a good feeling about which brand is behind a logo.

Would you like a little try?
Take photos of the headlines of various advertisements from car brands, for example. But really ONLY the writing. Now show your friends the photos and ask them what brands they are. You'll be amazed at how many brands are recognized based on font.

Therefore, you should choose a suitable font carefully. A slap serif font might fit our coat of arms. This is a font class that is characterized by particularly thick serifs (the feet on the letters). Or a simple sans serif (plain, straight letters like Helvetica or their cheap and crappy Microsoft copy Arial). You then have to try it out for yourself to see which font fits best in the respective logo.

Keyword font: there are well over 10,000 different fonts available for free use on the web. Unfortunately, 99% of them are poorly cut (technical term for designing and drawing a font) and are not suitable for professional logo design. At the end of the article you will find a few helpful links where you can buy good fonts for little money. I strongly recommend this to you in any case.

Pay attention to reproducibility
In addition to the content and aesthetic aspects, there is another important component for a good logo. It must be easily reproducible. That means: it should work just as well in small form on your website as it does on a jersey or as a sticker on your notebook. It should be able to be enlarged and reduced without loss (not pixelated). Therefore, professional logos are created as vector files in special graphic design programs such as Adobe Illustrator or open source software such as Inkscape or Gravit. If you want to use the logo on the monitor, you have to make sure that it is in RGB (red green blue) colors. To print stickers, for example, the logo must be constructed in CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow Key (black)). Then it can be printed correctly.

Help
Now, to stick with our coat of arms example, it's about the placement and size of the font with your name in the coat of arms. Should your name be inside the coat of arms or above it? Placed curved or at an angle? There is no general answer to this sort of thing. It takes a trained eye to correctly assess the logo as a whole. If you are not satisfied with your own designs but don't have the money for professional designers or a graphics agency, turn to design students. Professional young designers offer you good support for very fair conditions.