Using a Canva logo template could hurt your business
Let’s get serious, Canva is an easy-to-use ingenious tool established to help people make their lives easier.
Small businesses can lean on it for simple designs that can be created with trendy ready-made templates that don’t look too shabby. Even the most inexperienced person can finagle their way into a rather decent end product.
Yet there are designs and collateral that loose authenticity, identity, and originally that would be better placed in the hands of an expert or designer. Plus, we often get asked “Can I trademark my Canva logo?”
Don’t do it
It is not unusual for small businesses just starting out or those prepared to shift into a more solidified brand identity to have very little understanding of what branding means.
There are steps to take to put in place a brand that is timeless, effective, and authentic. Time and time again, we meet with clients eager to claim their company name and entertain the idea of building a logo in Canva. Don’t do it.
Yes, we know – your sister’s best friend’s brother Kyle calls himself a graphic designer and can do anything in Canva. He can even build your company a logo for free.
We believe that Kyle probably can do great work. We get it – Canva is for everyone. Whether you feel inspired to hire Kyle or you choose to hire a designer to do so, Canva is not the place to create a logo.
There are crucial times when business owners and Canva users would benefit in the long haul from hiring a professional in the field, and branding and logo making is one of those times.
What content do I own?
When you upload your own content to Canva, you retain all ownership rights. However, when you begin to incorporate the various design elements available on Canva, it may get a little bit tricky.
While access to these elements is granted to you under a license agreement, they remain the property of their respective copyright owners/creators (either Canva or its contributors).
Logo design could be a costly mistake
Logo design in Canva can be a costly mistake and here are a few reasons why:
Big trouble & legal woes
You can’t trademark the logo you created in Canva. When you design logos in this the Canva software using their templates you risk infringing on another company’s copyright no matter the industry.
This can get you into big trouble and cause havoc on your business. To understand this more you would need to take into account intellectual property rights and Canva’s Licensing Agreements.
Lacking uniqueness – no trademark distinctiveness
Do you want to be unique and stand out from your competition? If you use a ready-made template, even if you change fonts, and colors and move things around, you are not unique.
Having strong business branding is very important to the success of a business. The stock graphics in Canva have been used thousands of times – meaning you will have the same graphic as thousands of other companies. Remember, a logo is something recognizable and unique.
Trademark Distinctiveness is also very important to consider. What is the distinctiveness requirement for trademark rights?
A proposed trademark must be distinctive. This means that the mark cannot be so similar to another mark that it causes consumers to confuse the brand or entity associated with that mark.
If yours looks basic and similar to numerous other company logos then you lose the opportunity for solid brand identification.
On the other hand, a well-designed logo will stand out to make your company unique and help you become recognizable in your field. Templates don’t do that.
Poor quality
After you download your logo and you ant to get a large sign printed? Too bad. Even if you feel it is the perfect logo, you can’t acquire a vector image from Canva which is needed to scale your logo and print it on enlarged materials.
Not Professional
As a business, you want to look professional. With Canva’s super basic templates your logo could appear cheaply made, mismatched, unaligned, weird proportions, or ugly.
You don’t want your logo to look sub-par or misrepresented which could in turn drive customers away.
Directly from Canva – trademark
“A trademark has to be a unique symbol. For that reason, you can’t use free or pro content as part of a trademark, design mark, trade name, business name, service mark, or logo. Our logo templates are for inspiration – a starting point for your own unique design.”
A logo is an essential part of a company’s brand identity. A widely and instantly recognized logo is a valuable intangible asset for a company.
This isn’t something you can achieve with Canva. Use Canva for other materials like social media graphics when your branding guide and assets are already in place.
If you would like to learn more about Canva’s Licensing you can read Canva’s Subscription Service Agreement and Canva’s Content License Agreement as well as you can read about Canva’s feeling on Copyrights & Tradmarks.
A quality logo is essential to your brand
As you know, sometimes professional services by a professional logo designer can bring your business to the next level. Your business deserves better than a basic Canva template-based logo!
Ready to invest in your brand? Schedule a free consult with us today!
