Creating a logo and brand for your business is important - but in the beginning it's not worth investing thousands of dollars and weeks or months of your time.
Here's how to quickly get a logo and design you're happy with, without breaking the bank.
Branding overview and perspective for DPC practices
Your brand identity includes more than just a logo. It's everything from your logo, color scheme, icons and other visual aspects of your business. Branding also includes how you communicate about yourself in any public marketing and sales efforts.
If you haven't launched yet, or are in your first year - you don't need to worry about your entire branding package yet.
Let's just focus on your logo and visual elements.
Here's why it's worth spending a little time and effort on your logo and design:
- They are a first impression for many people
- They are the visual connection for people who have heard about you elsewhere
- They can imply thoughtfulness, quality, and how serious you are about your business
Ultimately your reputation will exist and word will spread because of the care you provide, not because you spent thousands on a fancy logo.
After you've been open a couple years, branding can change and you can invest more if necessary.
But starting out, there's no reason to spend more than $1,000 (yes, you can spend far less) on creating your logo and a couple important design elements.
Quick tips for brainstorming your logo
These all assume that you've landed on a name for your clinic. If not, here are some ideas as you consider naming your clinic.
Who is your ideal patient?
By defining your audience, you'll know who you're most trying to connect with through your brand.
Write down their age, income level, frustrations, desires, etc. You can even give them a name and a story! For example:
Jacqueline is a 43 year old mother of 3. Her husband works full-time as a plumber, and she mostly stays home with her elementary-aged children while selling home-crafted items on Etsy. They have health insurance through her husband, but it's a high-deductible plan, and it's been frustrating to take their kids to urgent care because often they don't do much, but they have to pay at least $150 out-of-pocket each time. They have rarely met their deductible except for during pregnancy.
Now, you have an idea of who you're designing for (of course you have to love it yourself, too).
Write down 3-5 words that you want to describe your clinic
Whether you're working with a designer friend or AI, describing the desired 'feel' of your clinic will help. Feel free to borrow any of these:
- family-friendly
- professional
- casual
- edgy
- comfortable
- safe
- welcoming
- warm
- approachable
- trustworthy
- personal
- reassuring
- boutique
- reliable
- cozy
- sophisticated
- calm
- efficient
- wholesome
- genuine
- modern
- clean
- down-to-earth
- attentive
One tip: combine some of your words together. For example, "warm and personal" might conjure up one image, whereas, "personal and reliable" would be quite different. Narrowing down your top words / phrases is important, as you can't be everything to everyone!
Find inspiration
Some designers might call it 'mood boarding' or 'word association' - but here's a step where you can dig into the feel of your brand.
Find images without words that help describe the feel of what you're looking for. Anything goes: colors, textures, paintings, nature photos, architecture, furniture... seriously anything.
You can then match these with words or groups of words from the previous step.
Try to narrow this down to 3-5 pictures / groups of words that you think absolutely nail what you're looking to communicate.
What other constraints?
Now write down anything you want to avoid: colors, icons, fonts, etc.
If you know that you want to avoid a certain color, it's worth naming here.
For instance, so many healthcare providers use blue as their leading tone. This has been associated with trust / calm, but certain blues have grown to feel more corporate and cold.
Affordable options for logo and brand design
Now that your branding 'feel' is ready, it's time to translate your ideas into a design. But how?
There are several services online, and several in-person options.
In-person, local design options
When using someone in-person, I would recommend seeing some of their previous work - especially if they have done branding for other companies or in school projects. The benefit of working with someone locally is if you need future changes, updates, or various materials it should be easy to work with them again.
- Local design students ($-$$)
- Freelance designers / small design agencies ($$-$$$)
- Friends or family (0 - $$$)
Online services
There are some great online services specifically tailored toward brand-design. They are fairly priced and should get you an excellent product.
- Crowdsourcing services: 99designs, DesignCrowd, or similar ($$-$$$)
- Typically for a flat fee, you submit your ideas (like what you created above), and then designers 'compete' for your final design.
- Great price upfront, but if you need alterations or additional materials in the future, it may be difficult to find the same designer.
- Freelance designers via Fiverr or Upwork
- Can post a job offer with a set price and review applicants to work with you on them.
- You can often hire these same designers in the future if you need alterations or additional materials
DIY options
- Online design software (Canva is the most popular)
- If committing to doing this yourself, opt to purchase a plan for the most flexibility and options
- AI Logo Designers
- AI is getting better every day, so by the time you read this article, this could be a viable option for everything.
- You may need to pair this with a Canva (or similar) software if you want to create or modify your own materials.
Creating and reviewing designs
Keep these in mind when creating your logo and designs...
Simple is best
You want your logo to be recognized at various sizes: large and small, which means you don't have room for an immense amount of detail.
Most designers will agree that 2 colors in your logo is plenty - any more and it starts to become confusing.
Which leads into...
It should translate to grayscale or black and white easily
You'll find there will be several times where you want to print or display your logo in simple black and white - so ensuring that it looks good in grayscale (or even straight black and white - no gray).
Consider Your Applications
Think about where your logo will appear:
- Business cards
- Website and email signatures
- Social media profiles
- Letterhead and forms
- Signage
- Possibly embroidered on shirts / hats
Your logo should be versatile enough to work in horizontal layouts, square formats, and vertical orientations. Many designers will provide you with several versions — a full logo, a simplified icon version, and variations for different backgrounds.
If possible, see some mockups of the logo in various applications AND in various color formats (full color, black and white, and grayscale).
Tips and advice for branding, ordering materials, and more
Be cautious with bulk orders
It's tempting to order 1000 business cards because it's cheaper per order. But, one little change (address, phone number, email address, logo, colors, etc.) might force you to throw those out.
Start with a manageable number of orders - 100 business cards, 50 flyers, 50 brochures, and re-order when necessary. Your re-order may be a blessing because you'll want to make a slight change anyway.
Purchase these materials first...
Once you get your logo and design elements finalized, I suggest ordering the following:
- Business cards: one generic with only company name, office phone and email, and one with your personal information. 50-100 of each.
- Postcard-sized flyers: Generic information plus a quick explanation of your practice benefits. Great to hand out or leave at small businesses willing to talk about you. 50-100 total.
- Brochures: More detailed explanation of practice benefits, pricing, and how your practice works. 50-100 total.
Where to order materials...
First, consider having a local printing company do your printing. They are often easy to work with, will save digital copies of your materials in house, and sometimes offer simple design change services for low-cost. You're also supporting a local business and meeting potential future patients!
If local isn't an option, or you don't trust their quality (unfortunately sometimes quality is an issue), then consider these online merchants that I have personally used with success:
- Vistaprint.com - fairly inexpensive with plenty of options and decent quality
- Moo.com - very high quality, but a bit more expensive
- Printingforless.com - good quality, fair pricing
Remember to celebrate!
The process might be a bit stressful, but it's rewarding to put together a vision and see a part of your business come together on the other side. Remember to celebrate those milestones and wins!
Have fun along the way, and remember - it's not worth stressing over your branding and logo. You probably won't win a design award - but if you run a great practice that cares for people the way they deserve, you'll build a brand that connects with people in your community.
Share your logo or get ideas from our Skool community!
It's free to join - we'd love to see you there.