A Non-Designer's Complete Guide to Building a Professional Text Logo for Free

Adobe Express is the tool we recommend for this tutorial. It is free, requires no design experience, offers the largest font library of any free logo maker, and lets you download your finished logo as an SVG or transparent PNG at no cost. If you do not have an Adobe account, you will need to create one before you can save and download your work. Registration is free and takes about two minutes. Get started at adobe.com/express/create/logo/text.

What Is a Text Logo and Do You Need One?

A text logo, also called a wordmark, is a logo made entirely from typography. No icons, no symbols, no illustrations. Just your brand name, set in a carefully chosen font, with intentional color and spacing choices.

Some of the most recognized brands in the world use wordmarks: Google, Coca-Cola, FedEx, Sony, Visa, and Calvin Klein are all text logos. The power of a wordmark is in its clarity and versatility. Your brand name is always present, always readable, and the logo works at any size from a phone screen to a building-sized billboard.

Text logos are particularly well-suited to:

• New businesses that want their name recognized quickly
• Personal brands built around a name or professional identity
• Service businesses where the owner's reputation is the product
• Brands with distinctive names that do not need an icon to stand out
• Businesses with limited design budgets who want a polished result without the complexity of an illustrated mark

If you are not sure whether a text logo is right for you, it almost certainly is. The vast majority of small businesses are better served by a clean, well-crafted wordmark than by a complicated illustrated logo that may not reproduce well at small sizes.

What Makes a Great Text Logo

Before you open any design tool, it helps to understand what separates a great text logo from a forgettable one. The following principles will guide every decision you make in the tutorial steps that follow.

The right font does most of the work. Font choice is the single most important decision in text logo design. The shape, weight, and character of a typeface communicates personality before anyone reads a single word. A condensed gothic sans-serif communicates urgency and authority. A flowing script communicates warmth and craftsmanship. A geometric sans-serif communicates modernity and precision. Choose a font that matches the personality of your brand, not just one that looks attractive in isolation.

Simplicity ages better than complexity. The most enduring logos are simple enough to be drawn from memory. Avoid decorative treatments, multiple fonts, or elaborate effects that add visual noise without adding meaning.

Color is a choice, not a decoration. Every color carries psychological associations. Navy blue signals trust and professionalism. Warm red signals energy and appetite. Black signals authority and luxury. Sage green signals calm and naturalism. Choose a color that reinforces your brand's positioning rather than one you simply find attractive.

Legibility is non-negotiable. Your logo must be readable at small sizes. Test it at the size it would appear as a favicon or a social media profile picture. If it is not readable at that size, the font is too decorative or the spacing is too tight.

Your logo needs to work in one color. The best logos are designed in black first and color second. A logo that only works in its specific color palette is a logo with limited application.

Before You Open the Tool: Brand Prep Work

Rushing into a design tool before you have thought through your brand fundamentals is the most common mistake first-time logo makers make. Spending twenty minutes on the following questions before you open Adobe Express will save you hours of indecision inside the editor.

Write down three words that describe your brand's personality. Not what you do, but how you want to be perceived. Bold, warm, precise, playful, authoritative, approachable, luxurious, honest. These three words will guide every design decision.

Identify your primary audience. Who is this brand for? A logo aimed at young creative professionals should feel different from one aimed at established corporate clients.

Look at logos you admire. Spend five minutes on Google Images or Pinterest searching for logos in your industry. Save the ones that resonate with you. Note what they have in common. You are not looking to copy; you are identifying your aesthetic instincts.

Decide on your color direction. You do not need a specific hex code yet, but decide whether your brand is warm or cool, bold or muted, dark or light.

Confirm your exact brand name as it should appear in the logo. All caps? Title case? Lowercase? A combination? Make this decision before you start designing, because it affects which fonts will work.

Step-by-Step: Creating Your Text Logo in Adobe Express

Step 1: Open Adobe Express and Start a Logo Project

Navigate to adobe.com/express/create/logo/text in your browser. If you are not already signed in to an Adobe account, you will be prompted to sign in or create a free account. Registration requires an email address and takes about two minutes.

Once you are signed in, you will land on the Adobe Express logo creation page. You will see a search bar for templates and a canvas area. Take thirty seconds to familiarize yourself with the interface: the left panel contains design elements, fonts, and templates; the right panel contains formatting controls for whatever element is currently selected; the toolbar at the top handles canvas-level settings.

Step 2: Choose a Starting Point

Adobe Express gives you two ways to begin: starting from a template or starting from a blank canvas.

Starting from a template is recommended for most users, particularly those without design experience. Browse the logo template library by scrolling down the page or using the search bar to find templates relevant to your industry or style. When you find one that loosely matches your vision, click it to open it in the editor. You are not committed to this template; it is simply a starting point you will customize completely.

Starting from a blank canvas gives you complete creative control but requires more design decision-making from the outset. If you have a clear vision and feel comfortable with the editor, this is a valid choice.

Step 3: Enter Your Brand Name

With your template open in the editor, click on the existing text element to select it. Delete the placeholder text and type your brand name exactly as it should appear in the finished logo.

If your template has multiple text elements, such as a main name and a tagline, replace each one with your own text or delete the ones you do not need. To delete a text element, select it and press the Delete key.

Pro tip: If your brand name is longer than about twelve characters, consider whether it can be broken across two lines. A long single-line wordmark can feel cramped, while a two-line treatment with a clear typographic hierarchy often feels more considered and balanced.

Step 4: Choose Your Primary Font

Font selection is the most important step in this process. Take your time here.

With your brand name text selected, click the font name in the right-hand panel to open the font browser. You will see Adobe Express's full library of 20,000+ fonts. Use the following approach to narrow it down efficiently:

Filter by style first. Adobe Express allows you to browse fonts by category: serif, sans-serif, script, display, and monospace. Based on your brand personality words from the prep work phase, choose the most appropriate category. If your brand is modern and clean, start with sans-serif. If it is warm and artisanal, start with script or serif. If it is bold and expressive, start with display.

Preview before committing. When you hover over a font name, Adobe Express previews it in your actual brand name text on the canvas. This is a powerful feature — use it extensively.

Narrow to three candidates and live with them for a few minutes. Once you have found two or three fonts that feel right, switch between them a few times. The right choice will feel more settled and more right with each viewing. Trust your instinct.

Step 5: Set Your Brand Colors

With your font selected, click on your text element to select it, then find the color control in the right panel. Click it to open the color picker.

Start with one primary color. For a text logo, your brand name color is the most important decision. Choose a color that reflects your brand personality and works well against both white and dark backgrounds.

Check contrast. Your logo color must be legible against white. Dark navy, forest green, deep burgundy, charcoal, and black all work reliably. Very light colors, pastels, and pale yellows often fail the contrast test on white backgrounds.

Test against black as well. Click on the canvas background and temporarily set it to black to see how your logo reads on a dark background.

Save your hex code. Once you have settled on your brand color, write down the hex code. You will need it in the brand kit step.

Step 6: Refine Your Typography

With your font and color set, it is time to refine the finer details of your typography. These adjustments are what separate a polished logo from one that looks like an unmodified template.

Letter spacing (tracking). Many great text logos use slightly wider than default letter spacing. Increasing tracking by a small amount often makes a wordmark feel more considered and intentional. Experiment in both directions.

Font size. Adjust the size of your brand name so it fills the canvas comfortably without feeling cramped. The text should feel confident and well-proportioned within its space.

Font weight. If the font you have chosen offers multiple weights, try switching between them. A medium weight often feels more versatile than a bold or light weight, but the right choice depends entirely on your brand personality.

Alignment and positioning. Use the alignment tools to center your text on the canvas, or deliberately off-center it if that suits your aesthetic. Most wordmarks are centered, but left-aligned wordmarks can feel more editorial and distinctive.

Step 7: Add a Tagline or Secondary Text (Optional)

Many text logos consist of a single brand name. But some benefit from a secondary line of text: a tagline, a descriptor, or a professional title. If you want to include secondary text, click the text tool in the left panel and draw a new text box below your brand name.

Apply a different typographic treatment to this secondary text to create visual hierarchy. Common approaches include using the same font in a lighter weight, using a complementary font in a smaller size, or setting the secondary text in all caps with wide letter spacing to contrast with the main wordmark.

The secondary text should be noticeably smaller than the brand name, typically about one-quarter to one-third of the size. Pro tip: If your tagline is more than five or six words, it will almost always be too long to include in the logo itself. Keep it short or leave it out entirely.

Step 8: Test Your Logo in Context

Before finalizing your logo, test it in the contexts where it will actually be used.

Test at small sizes. Zoom out in your browser until the logo appears at roughly the size it would on a business card or a social media icon. Is the brand name still legible? If not, adjust the font weight, size, or spacing until it works at small sizes.

Test on a dark background. Temporarily change the canvas background to black or dark navy. If your logo disappears or becomes difficult to read, you need either a lighter color version or a white version for dark background use.

Test on a colored background. If your brand has a primary brand color, test the logo against it. You may need a light or white version of your wordmark for use on colored backgrounds.

Screenshot and step away. Take a screenshot of your logo and close the browser tab. Come back to it in thirty minutes or the next day. Fresh eyes catch problems that familiarity hides.

Step 9: Save Your Brand Kit

Adobe Express includes a free brand kit feature that stores your brand colors, fonts, and assets for use across all your future designs. Navigate to the Brand section in Adobe Express (accessible from the main menu). Create a new brand kit and enter:

• Your brand name
• Your primary brand color (enter the hex code you saved in Step 5)
• Any secondary colors you plan to use
• Your primary font
• Any secondary fonts used in your logo or brand materials

Once your brand kit is saved, every new design you create in Adobe Express will have instant access to your exact brand colors and fonts. This is how consistent-looking brands are built efficiently.

Step 10: Export Your Finished Logo

Your logo is ready to download. Adobe Express offers several export formats on the free plan.

SVG (recommended for print and professional use). Click the download button and select SVG format. This is a vector file that can be scaled to any size without losing quality. Use this file for print materials, signage, merchandise, and any application where the logo may be reproduced at large sizes.

PNG with transparent background (recommended for digital use). Click the download button and select PNG with transparent background. This is the file to use on your website, in presentations, in email signatures, and anywhere the logo needs to appear on a colored or patterned background.

Standard PNG (for simple use cases). If you simply need a logo for a white-background context, the standard PNG is sufficient.

Keep all three files. Store your SVG, transparent PNG, and standard PNG in a clearly labeled folder. You will use different formats in different contexts, and having all three ready avoids the need to return to the editor every time you need a different version.

Typography Rules Every Non-Designer Should Know

• Never use more than two fonts in a single design. Two complementary fonts create visual interest. Three or more create visual chaos. For most text logos, one font is ideal.
• Contrast creates hierarchy. If you are using two fonts or two weights, make the difference obvious. A slight variation in weight or size is worse than no variation at all, because it looks accidental rather than intentional.
• All-caps text needs more letter spacing. When setting text in all capitals, increase the letter spacing noticeably. This is standard professional practice.
• Avoid the most overused fonts. Certain fonts have been used so extensively that they now carry the weight of every mediocre brand that used them before yours. Helvetica, Arial, Times New Roman, and Papyrus are among the most overused. Adobe Express's library of 20,000+ fonts gives you no excuse for reaching for a cliche.
• White space is a design element. The space around and between your letterforms is as important as the letterforms themselves. Generous spacing reads as confident. Cramped spacing reads as anxious. When in doubt, add more space.

Common Text Logo Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Using a font that does not match the brand personality. Return to your brand personality words whenever you are unsure.

Choosing a color that does not work on white. Very light or very saturated colors often fail on white backgrounds. Always test contrast before finalizing.

Making the logo too complex. Adding effects, multiple fonts, or decorative elements rarely improves a text logo. Simplify by default and add only if something is genuinely missing.

Not testing at small sizes. A logo that looks beautiful at full screen but becomes unreadable at sixty pixels is a logo that fails at most of its actual applications. Always test small.

Skipping the SVG export. Many first-time logo makers download only a PNG and consider the job done. Then, six months later, they need their logo printed large and the PNG is too low-resolution. Download the SVG from the start and keep it safe.

Finalizing too quickly. The best logos are the result of iteration. Create three or four variations before committing to one. The first idea is rarely the best idea.

What to Do After Your Logo Is Done

Set up your Adobe Express brand kit if you have not already done so during the tutorial. This makes every future design task faster and more consistent.

Apply your logo across your key brand touchpoints. Update your website header, social media profiles, email signature, and any existing marketing materials with your new logo. Consistency matters from day one.

Create a simple brand style guide. Even a one-page document that lists your logo files, brand colors with hex codes, and primary font names will save enormous time and ensure consistency if you ever work with a designer, printer, or marketing partner.

Save your logo files in at least two locations. A cloud storage folder and a local backup. Logo files are small and losing them is frustrating. Store your SVG, transparent PNG, and standard PNG safely.

Do not change your logo too soon. Brand recognition is built through consistency and time. Resist the urge to refresh your logo every few months. Live with it, use it consistently, and let it become familiar to your audience before reconsidering it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need design experience to create a text logo in Adobe Express?
No. Adobe Express is designed specifically for non-designers. The interface is intuitive, the templates do the heavy lifting, and the font previews help you make good typographic choices without needing to know design theory.

Is my Adobe Express logo truly mine to use commercially?
Yes. Adobe Express's free plan explicitly allows commercial use of designs created on the platform. You own the logo you create. Always check the current terms of service for the most up-to-date licensing information.

Can another business end up with the same logo as mine?
Because Adobe Express uses a shared font library and template system, it is theoretically possible for two businesses to create very similar logos. The risk is low if you customize your design thoroughly rather than accepting a template unchanged.

What if I want to change my logo later?
Adobe Express saves your projects automatically. You can return to your logo at any time, make changes, and re-export the updated files.

I do not like any of the fonts in the library. What should I do?
With 20,000+ fonts available in Adobe Express, this is unlikely, but if it happens, try using the search bar to look for fonts similar to ones you admire. You can also search by the name of a specific typeface and often find similar alternatives within the Adobe Fonts library.

Last updated: 2026. Adobe Express features and interface may change over time. All steps in this tutorial were verified against the current version of Adobe Express at the time of writing.