31/03/2026
"Why does a logo cost that much? Can't you just do it in Canva?"
If I had a cedi for every time someone asked me this, I'd probably be designing from a beach somewhere instead of my desk in Dzodze.😊
Honestly, there is no offence here at all, I get it...
People see a finished logo and think the hard part was putting the shapes together. If that's all there was to it, yeah, Canva would be perfect.
But let me take you behind the curtain for a second.
This photo is me working on a brand identity design for Solidbase. What looks like just sketching and drawing is actually hours of strategic thinking compressed into visual form aiming to solve a puzzle:
"How do you take a business, with all its complexity and nuance and goals, and distill it down into a visual mark that makes people instantly get what you're about?"
Before this sketching phase, I sit down with the client trying to understand what they're really building with critical questions. I spent hours just listening to :
- Not just what they sell, but why it matters.
- Who else is out there doing something similar, and how are we going to make sure this brand doesn't just blend into the noise?
- What makes Solidbase different from every other company in their space?
- Who are they trying to reach, and what matters to those people?
- What are the assumptions people already have about this industry, and should we lean into those or push against them?
Those conversations shape everything that comes next because, if I don't understand the business, I can't design something that actually serves it.
Then there's the research phase most people don't know happens:
- What colours build TRUST in this industry?
- What typography or fonts feels premium versus approachable?
- How do competitors position themselves visually, and where's the GAP we can own?
See, colour isn't just about what looks nice, it's about what feeling you want to trigger.
Typography is the same way. The font that makes you look premium might make another business look pretentious. The one that feels friendly and approachable might make you look unprofessional in a different context. It all depends on who you're talking to and what you need them to believe about you.
These choices matter more than people realise. It isn't guesswork, it's psychology and strategy.
And those sketches you see in the photo? Most of them didn't make it past this notebook. I'll draw 30-50 different directions and maybe three of them are worth developing further. Some were too generic, some were trying too hard, some just don't FEEL RIGHT for the audience. That's not wasted effort, the rest taught me what doesn't work, which is just as valuable as finding what does.
Constantly think about practical stuff too:
- Does this logo work when it's tiny on a business card?
- Does it hold up on a billboard?
- Can you embroider it on a shirt without losing all the detail?
- Will it still make sense in five years or does it look trendy in a way that'll AGE BADLY?
All of that happens before the client sees anything. What they get is the distilled result of all that thinking, and because it looks clean and simple, they assume it was easy.
This is why brand design isn't just about making things look good. It's strategy made visible. Designs that did work, work because the thinking behind it was solid.
So when someone suggests Canva as a shortcut, what they're really
suggesting is skipping all the strategy and just hoping a nice-looking template will somehow solve their business problem. And look, templates have their place, you could use Canva for some things and save some money, that's totally fine.
But if you're serious about building something that lasts, something that needs to actually build recognition, credibility and revenue over time instead of just looking okay for a few months before you need to redo it, you need the thinking that goes underneath the pretty colours.
What's something you do in your work that people assume is simple because they only see the final result?👇
