Tips on How To Create A Logo Design with Procreate

Created by Skilline | https://dribbble.com/shots/19398640-Label-Design

Are you looking for an easy-to-use logo design app? Procreate is one of the good options you can try. People may look down on this app when they first see it because Procreate has a simple interface and streamlined features. Yet, this app will help you to create beautiful and artistic logos anytime and anywhere.

People may know Procreate as the first and foremost drawing app, but you will be surprised by its ability to handle design tasks, similar to software like Adobe Photoshop. You can design a logo using Procreate as long as you keep the expectations realistic. For a clearer idea, you can take a look at the simple logo-making demonstration in the following explanation.

Created by Ilham Herry | https://dribbble.com/shots/17431673-Logo-Collection

What is Procreate?

Procreate is a raster graphics editor app instead of a vector design app. It means that Procreate is not the best app for designing logos. Not to mention after you know that this is unable to produce offsets. It becomes the primary weakness of this app when it comes to logo-making tasks.

However, it does not mean that you cannot make a logo design with this app at all. Procreate has still become a good app for aspiring artists to support their creativity. You can use this app to create a functional logo and export it as an image with transparent background in PNG format.

Procreate is a top creative app available for iPad. It is a good tool for you who want to improve your drawing skills. It is user-friendly, so artists at all levels, from newbies to pros, can use it. Aside from creating good-quality of drawings and illustrations, it can be an alternative for making a logo with a simple design.

Created by Shane Harris | https://dribbble.com/shots/17171558-2021-Roundup

Making a Logo Design with Procreate

In the following demonstration, you can follow several steps of creating a logo with two interlocking letters in the middle of a circle with a border surrounding it. The designing processes have several primary steps, but you must pay attention to the details in each step to create a perfectly simple logo.

1. Create the Letters

The first thing to do when you want to make a logo using Procreate is to open a new canvas on the app. Then, you need to make the background layer invisible by turning off its visibility option. You are not going to remove the background. Instead, you are just leaving it off during the logo-making process.

You should remember that you will export the logo into a transparent PNG format. Hence, turning off the background visibility will allow you to create logos with transparent backgrounds. After you have done with the backgrounds, you can start adding some text on the canvas through the following steps.

Created by NienowBrand | https://dribbble.com/shots/17252500-Hummingbird-Illustration

1.1. Select text color
It is essential to have a specific logo design in your mind before making one. It will be easier and faster for you in the making processes because you can directly transfer it into the canvas. You can choose any color for the text but make sure that it does not go beyond the concept and message you want to convey.

You can learn about color psychology before designing a logo. It is a key to making good and convincing branding because each color delivers specific vibes to people who look at it. Identify the goals behind logo making, and it will help you to choose the right colors to include in this visual branding.

Understanding color psychology also helps you to mix and match the colors in the logos. Select the color that you want to see in the text through the color option in the app. For instance, in this demonstration, we will use white color to make the text inside the emblem.

1.2. Add the text
Continue the step by tapping the wrench icon on the top screen in its left corner to add the text. In this demonstration, we want to make a logo with two letters that form an initial of the name. Hence, we will make two different objects; one letter will interlock with another.

For time efficiency, create a text object to form the first letter. Then, duplicate the layer. Edit the next text to make another layer. In this phase, it will be better if you use a lightweight font to ensure the two letters you make can interlock each other. You can select which letters to use based on the name initial.

Even you can use three letters if you work with a longer name. Here, we will use two letters which are S and E, to make the logo design demonstration. These two letters will interlock perfectly and appear nicely in the middle of visual branding.

Created by ForSureLetters | https://dribbble.com/shots/19391726-Jude-Gimeno

1.3. Select the Font
As mentioned before, a lightweight font is more suitable for creating this simple design. The heavier font you use, the more difficult it is for you to have a negative space between letters to make them interlocked. In this tutorial, we use Avenir Light font among numerous types of fonts available in the Procreate app.

1.4. Rasterize text layer
The next step is rasterizing each layer of the text created. Then, you can use the ‘Select Tool’ to move the text layer manually. Next, you put the letter next to each other as it looks like one letter is above another. You can continue to the next step after arranging the letters into this necessary position.

You can tap the ‘Eraser’ icon and start removing each segment that connects one letter to another. You must switch between active layers of the letters to remove them. Rasterizing the text layer allows you to get a smooth logo design look with two letters interlocking each other.

Created by Ulysses Design Co | https://dribbble.com/shots/17223479-Logofolio-2021

1.5. Merge the letters
After finishing removing the text layer, it is time to merge those letters. You only need to open the ‘Layers’ menu and tap the text layer seen in the topmost position. Then, you can re-tap the text layer to launch the flyout menu and select the ‘Merge Down’ option. This step will create a single layer for two letters.

Now, you can work with ‘Select Tool’ after those letters are merged into a single layer. This tool helps you to move the letters into the middle position of the canvas. It enables you to conduct snapping to convince you that both letters are in the perfect position in the center.

You will know those letters in a perfect center align if a yellow rule appears on the horizontal and vertical axis. The yellow rule shows that you have successfully snapped the selected object into the appropriate axis. It means that the iconic mark for the logo is complete at this point.

You can export this iconic mark into a logo design or icon based on your needs or preference. Besides, you can create some decorations for more convincing visual branding, like adding the circle emblem.

Created by Dusan Sol | https://dribbble.com/shots/16560373-Hog-Smoke-BBQ

2. Create the Circle Emblem

The next step of designing a logo using Procreate app is making a circle on the emblem. This circle will surround the interlocked letters and become a border that gives an accent to the emblem. Below are several steps that you can follow to encircle the letters in this emblem.

2.1. Use layer
First, you are going to activate layer one, which is unusable thus far. Then, you should tap on the ‘Selection tool’ icon. You can continue the process by selecting the ‘Ellipse’ option and dragging a tap on the canvas to make an ellipse. You must ensure that the ellipse creates a perfect circle.

You can just do the ellipse by drawing it with one hand while another hand holds a tap on the canvas at the same time. It is essential to hold and tap on the screen with your other hand. It helps you to convince that your selection makes a perfect circle.

2.2. Fill the selection
The second step of creating a circle emblem is filling out the selection. We will fill the circle with black color in this logo design tutorial. It is free for you to use another color based on your preference because it is just an example. You can select your preferred color in the color picker to fill in your selection.

Next, you must tap and drag the color circle toward the selection after picking the selection color. This step will fill the circle with the selected color. You will use the ‘Select Tool’ again after filling the circle with the chosen color successfully. Now, you use this tool to place the circle in the center of the canvas.

You will use the same snapping technique as the previous step. Thus, it is essential to remember the snapping process you do when previously merging the letter because it will ease your work during this step.

Created by Oz Tsori | https://dribbble.com/shots/17362234-Horse

2.3. Add a white border
The third step in creating the circle emblem is adding a white border surrounding the circle. It is very simple to do because you only need to repeat the steps when creating the black circle. Though, you must make a new layer first and put it under the layer of the black circle.

Next, you have to ensure that the circle created is a bit bigger rather than the black circle. Then, you can fill the circle you make with white color so you can distinguish it from the black one. The presence of a white border creates a unified look because the text also uses white color.

2.4. Create another circle
After adding the white border, you need to create another circle and put it on in the logo design. Now, you make a black circle once more, and it will be larger than the previous white circle. You must ensure that this circle lays perfectly on its layer and put it under the existing white circle layer.

Alternatively, you just need to duplicate the black circle layer and move this layer underneath the white circle layer. Then, you can scale this layer up with the Scale tool. It means that the logo design portion is complete at this point.

Created by NienowBrand | https://dribbble.com/shots/17111406-2021-Flash-Sheet-Round-Up

3. Resize the Canvas

If you design a logo either using Procreate or other designing software, it is necessary to ensure the conformity between the logo dimension and page border. Many people who use Procreate app are aware of this matter and include a step to convince the page border suits the logo dimensions.

You can start to tap the wrench icon in the left corner of the upper screen to resize the canvas. It is to ensure the canvas matches the newly-created logo. Then, you can choose the ‘Canvas’ option and tap on the ‘Crop and Resize’ option. You can move the canvas boundaries inside to surround the logo perfectly.

When you already achieve this step, it means that you have finished the logo design. All you have to do with the design now is save it into a usable logo file that comes with a transparent background.

Created by Andy Boice | https://dribbble.com/shots/14835539-Ramblers-Barbershop

4. Export as a Transparent PNG

The last step of designing a logo using Procreate is exporting the complete logo design in a PNG file format with a transparent background. This step helps you to put the logo above any type of background. You do not need to worry because the background will be visible around the logo boundaries.

It is crucial to export the design you make into PNG file format because other file formats are not supporting the transparency option. For instance, if you select to export the logo into JPEG file format, it will appear with a white background as its default look.

You just need to tap the wrench icon found in the left corner of the upper screen to start exporting the complete logo design. Then, tap the ‘Share’ option and choose ‘PNG’ as the file format from the available list. This is how you can design any simple logo using Procreate app from the beginning to the end.

Created by Konstantin Reshetnikov | https://dribbble.com/shots/15178033-True-Spark

The Advantages of Procreate for Designing a Logo

We know that Procreate is not the best app for creating high-quality logos, but it still helps you to make one with a simple design. Although it is a raster-based app that cannot support vectors, there are still several advantages that you can get when working with this app to make simple logos.

1. Ease of use

People who use Procreate for designing are quite happy with this app because of its ease of use. It is also intuitive that supports a logo design maker to express their creativity anytime the inspirations come to mind. Another factor that makes Procreate easy to use is the straightforward UI (user interface).

Once open this app, people will easily do their work without getting disturbed by the complex interface. You will never find any complications no matter what kind of designing tasks you are working with as long as they are raster-based. You can easily move your hand and start to transform your creativity.

Aside from simple maneuvering, it will be fast to learn. Even people that previously do not have experience in using this app can quickly understand the features and how to use it. Thanks to the user-friendly interface compared to other famous designing software like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Corel Draw.

Created by Elmira Gokoryan | https://dribbble.com/shots/18024720-Gecco-Sound-Studio

2. Features

Procreate offers a variety of features that helps you to edit logos. You can discover numerous types of brushes, designing tools, and functionalities in this application. While exploring the available features, you can directly understand how they work. It has huge brushes and a texture library for a better logo design.

You can find numerous resources to learn using Procreate, and you can design and import the brushes. It is beneficial to create a preferred stroke if the available brushes are not suitable or less support your design. It also has layers that are easy to use and looks similar to other drawing software.

3. Value the Price

Procreate is a good application for creating graphics for logos by working with a hand. Its affordable price is worth the quality of design and features offered. This application is suitable for beginners or mediocre artists who might be cautious about investing in pricey software. Using this app can be an alternative option.

You just need to buy it at one time and use it to create a logo design without necessarily having to subscribe to anything further. It is a nice option to play around with the simple design and explore your design skill at the basic level. There are multiple simple tools that you can use to make a creative design work.

Created by Andy Nelson | https://dribbble.com/shots/18914748-Introducing-Fishybirds

Final Words

You have to consider that creating a logo design with a Procreate app has some limitations. You will not get the scalability of designing with vectors because Procreate works as a raster digital editor. It is essential to ensure that your logos are very large to support the scaling-down process better.

It is the reason why this app is a good choice if you are designing with an iPad because it supports a high screen resolution than other mobile devices. Besides allowing you to create an emblem with an interlocking letter, it is better if you ensure to make the design as simple as possible when working with Procreate app.