Your branding is one of the most important elements of your shop. You have the best products of your category, the best materials and even the best photos but if your shop does not inspire professionalism and trust to your potential customers, who will buy? No-one that’s who!
As in most articles on this blog, I will certainly not push you to hire a team of graphic designers to create your branding (if you can afford it, why not!)
No, I’m proposing to create a logo and a banner that will make really professional without knowledge of Photoshop and for a cost of, hold on, $0!
For this tutorial, we will use Canva, a free creation tool offering many common features with Photoshop while remaining intuitive and easy to use, what more could you ask?
1 – Etsy Logo
Your Etsy logo is what sets you apart from your competitors. It says more about your style, about the universe of your brand and is therefore an important part of the creation of a shop.
Before creating your logo more professionally on Canva, I advise you to scribble what goes through your mind when you think
of your shop.
Draw the graphic elements, the style of text, anything that you think represents you, your brand and your products.
Once your ideas are clearer on your desires and your style, it’s time to switch to Canva!
Once logged in, click on “Create a design” on the top left to see the different designs offered by the platform. For our Etsy Shop Icon, we will select the “Logo” option in the Marketing Materials section.
And here, let yourself be guided by all the designs offered by the platform. According to your desires and the ideas that you could gather in the previous part, perhaps you will find the logo which suits you perfectly or maybe you will be tempted by a style to which you would never have thought. It’s the magic of Canva!
Points to keep in mind when designing your Etsy logo:
– Keep it simple. Do not add too many graphics, if so, you might be losing your customer. Your Etsy logo must first and foremost be memorable and reflect your shop.
Once you have finished designing your logo, all you have to do is click on “Download” button at the top right corner and choose the JPG format. Final step is to upload your logo to your Etsy shop and pat yourself on the back seeing how professional it looks!
Nothing prevents you to change this logo whenever you want to, nothing is set in stone and improving the branding of your shop to be more in line with your ideas is always positive!
2 – Etsy Banner
You have the opportunity to add or not a banner to your Etsy shop but I can only recommend you to add one.
First because your shop will look more professional but not only. This is the opportunity to make the most of a large space placed at the very top of your shop.
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes: you discover a product that you like and you want to take a look at the other listings of this shop. The first thing you will see by clicking on the link of the shop is this large banner so, definitely, do not miss the opportunity to make an impression!
You can use this banner in different ways:
– Highlight your brand, your name and tagline
– Promote your products
– Highlight your offers
I advise you to choose only 2 of these choices. More and you could overload your banner and lose your potential customer.
Once again, do not think that creating a banner should take you days of hard work. As for the logo, do a quick brainstorming session on the universe you want to share with your potential customers, graphic elements you particularly like and go on Canva to put it all together!
In the design creation window, choose to use a custom size with dimensions of 3360 x 840 pixels. This size is optimized to give the best result once uploaded to your Etsy shop.
You can then use all the features of Canva to add shapes, text and photos and even include your own pictures of your favorite product for example. To do this, click on “Uploads” in the left panel, then “Upload your own images” to select your file.
You can also find images related to your market among the hundreds of free photos available in the Canva library. The easiest way is to do a keyword search. Supposing that your shop sells wedding products, by a simple search of the keyword “wedding”, you will surely find what you’re looking for!
Then add your text, most often it will be your name and your tagline. As I said earlier this is also an opportunity to share your current promotions or new products.
Once your banner is created, all you have to do is click on the “Download” button at the top right and choose the JPG format to finally discover your completed banner and upload it to your shop.
Points to keep in mind when designing your Etsy banner:
– Avoid overloading your banner with too many photos, text or colors. Keep it simple so your message is easily understood by your customers.
– You can update your banner according to your different offers but also at different times of the year. Why not add a winter touch for the Christmas period for example?
That’s it, you have everything you need to lay the foundations of your Etsy shop. With your logo and banner, you will not be drowned among your competitors, your potential customers will more easily understand your shop identity and you will feel the effects on your sales!
While both of these are important for your Etsy shop, do not spend ages creating them. The most important thing in your shop is still your products so take 2 to 3 hours maximum to create your branding and quickly return to what you prefer the most: design your most beautiful creations!
