How to get a logo for your startup

Guide · 6 min read · By Utkarsh Dhairya Panwar · Updated 8 Oct 2026

Most B2B startups should start with a wordmark: the company name set well, in light, dark and one-colour versions. Get it from a designer who tests it at favicon size and inside your product, and hands over usage rules and a full file set. A symbol can come later.

Four ways to get a startup logo

Route	Good for	Watch out for
Make it yourself or use an AI generator	A placeholder while you validate the idea	Generic marks, and no rights clarity on generated output
Contest or marketplace	Lots of options quickly	Many concepts, little thinking; usually no rules or file set
Freelance designer	A considered mark with usage rules, often as part of a small identity	Check they show past logos in use, not only on artboards
Branding agency	Naming, strategy and a large identity programme	Overkill before your positioning settles

A free logo is fine for the first months if you treat it as a placeholder. Keep it simple so it's easy to replace, and don't print a thousand hoodies with it.

Wordmark, symbol, or both

A wordmark is the name set in type. A symbol is a mark that stands without the name. A lockup puts the two together. A new B2B company needs people to remember its name and type it into a search bar, so the wordmark carries most of the load. A symbol only means something after people have seen it next to the name many times.

Linear's public brand page is a tidy example: the wordmark is the primary way to reference the company, a logomark is for tight layouts, and an icon is for social and chip-shaped spots.

Screenshot: Linear's brand page, October 2026. Two short rules: write Linear, not Linear app, and give the assets room.

The E-Summit logo I worked with at IIT Roorkee (the lockup at the top of this page) goes the other way: a combined E and S mark that stays the same each year, with only the colour changing, locked up with the edition's theme. That works for an annual event people already know by name, which a new startup isn't yet.

Pick a wordmark first if your name is short, unusual, or you sell to businesses who'll look you up.
Add a symbol when you need a square: app icons, avatars, favicons, the GitHub app install screen.
Avoid literal symbols, like a shield for security or a bracket for code, because every competitor already has one.

What to put in the logo brief

Who you sell to: 'Engineering managers at 50-person software companies' produces a different logo from 'developers who try tools on weekends'.
Where it will live first: Product UI, website, pitch deck, socials, swag. List them in order of how often people will see them.
Three words, and three you want to avoid: 'Calm, exact, quick' is useful. So is 'not playful, not corporate, not crypto'.
What you're keeping: The name, a colour already in the product, a mark people know. Say so up front.
Logos you'll sit next to: Your competitors and the customer logo strip on your homepage. Your logo has to stand apart in that row.

Tests a startup logo has to pass

Legible as a 16-pixel favicon in a browser tab full of other tabs.
Works in one colour, white on dark and black on light.
Holds up in a grey row of customer logos on someone else's website.
Sits in your product's top bar without looking louder than the content.
Survives print: on a hoodie, a lanyard, a standee seen from across a room.
Still makes sense if your positioning changes next year.

Clear-space rules drawn onto the lockup, so nobody crowds it.

Fanned stack of dark E-Summit '23 event passes with copper accents, dates and a list of inclusions — The same mark, small, on event passes.

The files you should get

SVG master files for the wordmark, the symbol (if any) and the lockup.
Light, dark and one-colour versions of each.
PNGs at a few sizes, plus a favicon and an app or avatar icon.
Clear-space and minimum-size rules, and two or three examples of misuse.
The typeface name and licence, so your team can set matching text.

If a logo arrives as a single PNG, you'll pay someone later to rebuild it. Ask for the list above before the work starts.

A logo is the smallest part of the brand

Logo work has mostly taught me how little a logo does alone. For E-Summit, most of the identity's strength came from the palette, the compass motif and the typography around the mark. At CodeAnt AI I built the identity together with the component library and guidelines, because people meet a SaaS brand in the product far more often than in the logo.

Type does as much branding work as the logo on these hoodies.

So when you brief a logo, brief a small kit around it too, with colours, a typeface and a few rules. That kit is where my own brand work starts, and my guide to brand identity for startups covers what goes in it.

Questions people ask

Can I use an AI logo generator for my startup?

As a placeholder, yes. For the long term, generated marks tend to look generic and rarely come with usage rules or a proper file set, so plan to replace it.

How much does a startup logo cost?

Public ranges vary widely by country and provider. My startup branding cost guide lists published ranges with their sources.

Do I need to trademark my startup logo?

Trademark questions are for a lawyer. A designer can help by avoiding marks that look like competitors', but cannot clear a name or logo legally.

Sources

Brand Guidelines, Linear
Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, U.S. Copyright Office

Working on this?

Tell me what you're building and where it's stuck: book a 30-minute call, email work@utkarshdesign.com or send a brief.