If you’re looking to turn your passion for gaming into a professional endeavour, you might want to consider joining or starting your own eSports team. Games like Overwatch, Dota 2, and League of Legends are fast becoming some of the most popular eSports. In order to work, they rely on teamwork, cooperation, and shared values, and what better to represent this than the perfect eSports logo. It’s time to step into the shoes of a professional eSports logo maker!
Not sure how to make an eSports logo of your own? Not even sure what an eSports logo is? No problem at all, that’s why we’re here.
Let’s take a closer look into what an eSports logo is, the benefits, how to be an eSports logo maker, and how to make an eSports logo for free. Stay tuned until the very end so you don’t miss any key information!
Why Make An eSports Logo?
Think of an eSports logo to be your team’s expression of individuality among a sea of other gamers. You want to be noticed. For this to happen, you need to make a stand publicly, and a great place to start is your eSports logo.
The benefits of having one far outweigh the hassle of creating one. Although you’ll find that it’s no hassle at all really. It’s quite fun to come up with an artistic representation of yourself and your team. To have total creative freedom over how the world will see you. So, what are the benefits exactly?
Representation
Your own eSports logo typifies you and your team’s online identity. The opposition will likely see your logo before you meet which means it will be their first impression of you. This is all-important.
Having a custom logo in the eSports community is a sign that you are serious about gaming as a profession. You’ve taken the time to create your own brand. If it is well-rounded and defined, you will give the opposition a good first impression as to who you are as a team before competing against you in any gaming competition.
Comradeship
Think of your eSports logo as a badge of honour. The symbol you and your team stand behind to show the online gaming world who you are. A comprehensive logo symbolises comradeship, teamwork, and trust.
Trust in the people you stand beside to maintain standards and hold the team up when it is their turn to compete. Even though there can only be one winner, the opposition will look favourably on this as you will appear to them as worthy competition.
Communication
An eSports logo is essential for communication within the eSports community and with the outside world. If you are competing in competitions, you will need to design a logo for representation as we have mentioned above. Good clan logos and an aesthetic, unique logo idea will always help regarding recognition.
If you happen to win, you will be expected to have a logo to your name. If you don’t meet these expectations, you might go virtually unnoticed even though you are the winners. And if you are noticed, the attention would surely die down quickly if there was no associated logo to reference you in the media.
Target Market
You’ll need an eSports logo to build and maintain a fanbase. Your followers might be the key to your success. You should consider the typical age demographic of the video game or games you play professionally, as well as genre and location.
Fans can spread information about your team a mile a minute on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Twitch with discussions. They could also organise watch parties if given the opportunity. This means you’ll need professional designs for a logo. To represent your team’s online persona, grab the attention of the online community and direct them to your gaming channel.
Something bold, bright, and unique. Something memorable. We all know how short consumers’ attention spans are nowadays, so find a way to combat that.
eSports Logo – Sponsorship
If you are already an established eSports team, maybe you already have a logo but you’re not exactly sure what use it is. Maybe you haven’t got one at all yet. Either way, having an eSports logo is essential for garnering recognition not only by fans and fellow gamers, but also sponsors.
Sponsors are companies who bring money into the equation. An eSports logo can be used as a method of introduction to sponsorship companies like Red Bull and Nintendo. Once an introduction is made, you can form a relationship with them and build your brand even further with funding behind you.
Sponsors have become the main source of income and revenue for eSports teams, and the only way you can find sponsors is through recognition in the eSports community. Initiate this yourself and approach some well-known companies.
Even lesser known companies will give you a backbone to stand on if you’re having no success with the former. Any funding is better than no funding. The best place to start is to create a professional looking eSports logo and get noticed.
What Makes A Good eSports Logo?
The next point of discussion is the logo itself: what makes a good eSports logo? A good eSports logo is determined by the team name or chosen catchphrase and appearance. This includes colours, font, imagery, and symbolism.
Bold. Bright. Prominent. Striking. Eye-catching. Unique. Clever. Thoughtful. These are the kinds of words you want to hear describing your logo.
If you’ve read this far and decided you want to be your own eSports logo creator, that’s great! Let’s go into more detail as to how to make an eSports logo remarkable and noteworthy amongst the vastness of the internet.
Appearance
The key to creating a memorable eSports gaming logo are the visual aspects such as colour and shape. The most minor details can determine how the gaming industry understands you as a team.
A deep shade of magenta might give a sense of pride and fortitude or as opposed to the energetic connotations of a bright cherry red. Likewise, a rounded, bubbly shape exuding youth and fun stands in opposition to the severe, sharp-edged shape of a team that values strength and vigor.
You might be thinking right about now: how could the shade of a colour really invoke that much thought? But it’s true. Like we said before, first impressions are everything, and as such you must be extremely pedantic in the colours and shapes you choose. They are what attract a viewer’s attention, so they must be welcoming, interesting and impactful.
Imagery
Imagery can be utilised to your advantage just like colour. If you want to present to the world as a team who values strength and determination, you could draw on some symbolism from Greek mythology such as the Nemean Lion or an oak tree. If a certain public figure inspires you, you can incorporate them in some way too.
Be careful not to copy something too closely in the name of ‘inspiration’ though. You might have a lawsuit on your hands. Allusions and homages to others through colours or similar imagery is okay, but try your best to keep everything your own.
Text
Your logo doesn’t have to include any text, but if you want to, make sure it’s well established and thought out. Short and sweet is the key. A logo is not a bio. It’s a visual resumé that should give an idea of who you are with just a glance.
If you are going to include text, make sure it’s one or two words at most. This can be your team name if it’s something short like ‘Vikings’ or ‘Power Dogs’. No judgement on the cheese-factor here, they are just examples.
Like you would do with a symbol as discussed above, have your eSports logo design revolve around the text, helping the word or words to stand out.
How To Make An eSports Logo For Free
Hopefully, by now we’ve convinced you of the need for an eSports gaming logo, and maybe you’ve decided to make your own which is great. You can create your own eSports logo for free in 5 simple steps.
From creative inception to publication in the eSports community, you can have complete control over how your eSports logo looks, how it reads and ensure that it represents exactly what you want it to represent.
So, keep in mind the following steps if you want to know how to make your own eSports logo.
Step 1: Logo Brief
Even if you’re not commissioning someone else to come up with an eSports gaming logo for you, you should write your own brief. You are commissioning yourself for this task, so all the relative formalities should remain.
It’s also easier in later stages to have a brief you can look back on to see how well you followed your initial ideas. Maybe you’ll have strayed from the basic idea completely, or you’ll remind yourself of something important you forgot to include.
In your brief, write down what you would like to see. Old-fashioned pen and paper can be very beneficial for this exercise as you can branch off words and bounce off your own ideas with ease. All of a sudden, a mind map has emerged!
Your brief should include:
- Your team name or team symbol if you have a long name or would just rather an image.
- Colour combinations you like as a team. Limit it to 3 colours if possible, you don’t want too much going on. Keep them as block colours. No gradients. If you plan on making team uniforms or selling merchandise, it will be more expensive the more colours and effects you have. Less is more.
- Size and shape of your logo. For example, circular, square, defined, rounded, abstract.
Step 2: Logo Sketch
For all those game designers out there, this one is for you!
If you know you’ll be using an online sketching platform like Adobe Illustrator to create your logo, pause for a moment and go back to basics. Grab your pen and paper again, maybe a pencil this time, and begin sketching your logo.
Block shapes out and follow your instincts. Don’t be afraid of making a mistake. If it takes 5 drafts of 50 drafts of your first sketch, it will all be worth it. You only have one shot to make your debut appearance to the eSports community, so make it count.
Once you’re in, you can make slight adjustments or updates to your logo but as we said before, the first impression is what really matters.
Step 3: Rough Concept
Once you have the basic sketch done, it’s time to take this thing seriously. As your own eSports logo creator, you have total creative freedom and have liberty in what you can do with your design. But you also need to establish some ground rules, otherwise, you’ll never get it finished.
Set a deadline that is non-negotiable. If this is a group effort, allocate roles to ensure the creation of your logo meets this deadline. It’s good to set boundaries. Having a set timeframe to work within allows for tension and expectations and often enhances the experience.
Now it’s time to start up your vector graphics editor and bring your eSports logo design to life. If you’re not sure where to start, Adobe Illustrator, Procreate and Inkscape are some of the best design programs available.
When you’ve chosen your program, copy your rough sketch or sketches into the program and gradually add details. Bold lines, defined shapes and colour combinations are the most important elements to settle on at this stage. Other more refined details come later.
This stage may take a lot of trial and error, it’s unlikely you’ll be happy with your first complete concept. But don’t be discouraged, all the best things take a hefty input of work. It’s worth the time and effort and it shows your dedication to eSports as a profession.
Step 4: Refined Concept
At this stage, you’ll have chosen your favourite concept to roll with. Don’t settle. Make sure you absolutely love the one you have chosen because you’ll be looking at it for the foreseeable future. And so will everyone else. Ensure it represents you and your brand well and accurately.
This stage of the eSports logo design process takes a lot of TLC. Tender Loving Care. As with any artwork, project, or essay you’ve written in the past, the creation of a logo includes a lot of editing, fine-tuning and creative manipulation until you have come up with the best possible version.
Individual Elements
Focus on individual elements first. Text. Symbol. Image. Background colours. Overall concept. For the text, you will have no doubt tested out different fonts in the initial stages and settled on one. Play around with typographical emphasis like bold and italics. There might be a combination of effects that augments the letters and complements the design as a whole.
If your name is something like ‘Power Dogs’ or you’re involved in an Overwatch league, a darkened bold background would be striking. If you’re looking for something more delicate and mystical to suit a League of Legends tournament, for example, a stylised impression using italics might be more befitting.
The same goes for the image or symbol you’ve designed. Tweaking may be in order if you’re using a 3D image of an animal like a lion, or a flat object like a hammer or fist. It might look 10 times better a fraction smaller, a centimetre to the left or in a slightly lighter shade of blue. You won’t know until you try.
Once all elements have been inspected, look at the eSports logo design as an overall concept. Step back, literally, and look at it on the screen from afar. Can you imagine that logo beside your team name in every tournament you compete in?
On the front of baseball caps or the back of a hoodie? Can you imagine that logo on a trophy or side by side with sponsors like Nintendo and Activision? If so, then you’ve successfully designed your eSports logo. If not, then fix what needs to be fixed, you’re only a few tweaks away.
Other Ways To Make An eSports Logo
It’s helpful to know how to make an eSports logo for free. But there are other ways to create an eSports gaming logo. If you think you lack the artistic ability or creativity to make one yourself, you could hire a professional logo designer to help you out. You can still provide insight into how you want the logo to look and what it should convey to the public.
You could seek out an aspiring graphic designer, perhaps one with a gaming background or a knowledge of eSports. Not sure where to start? Try e-commerce websites like Etsy or Fiverr. You’ll find countless freelance graphic artists looking for paid opportunities.
If you’re searching for an eSports logo maker free of charge, try an online logo creation platform like Placeit or BrandCrowd. There are plenty more, just type ‘eSports logo maker free’ into your search engine and do some research before you dive in. Make sure you’re using the best possible source for what you want.
There’s no shame in using an online logo maker since these have yielded great results for many teams!
That Was Our Guide On How To Make An eSports Logo
So there you have it, our guide on how to make an eSports logo. We hope this has helped you on your journey to becoming your own eSports logo creator and designing the perfect logo for you and your team.
The most important thing to take away from this article is the importance of your logo in the gaming industry. Putting in the effort now means you won’t have to worry about it in the future. Pay close attention to the appearance of your logo, namely colour and font. You want it to be striking and memorable in the minds of competitors, fans and sponsors alike.
You want to be noticed. Recognised. Remembered. You aren’t here to play around, at least not figuratively. You’re here to battle. You’re here to win. Have your logo say this to your opponents before you even meet. You want your logo to instill confidence in sponsors. Have your logo build a strong and faithful support system in your fans. You just have to put your pen to paper and begin the creative process, that’s all it takes.
If you liked this article, why not check out another on our blog! We recommend, Game Designer Guide: How To Become A Video Game Designer, Esports Team: Our Guide On How To Make An eSports Team, and What Musicians Can Learn From The Video Game Industry to get you started!
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