Tips from a Brand Designer: A Therapist Logo Guide

I’m going to be honest. I hate logos. It’s my least favorite part of the job. But I honestly think it’s because I overthink it.That’s why I design for therapists instead of, say, megacorps. Well, that and because y’all are a delight. But more importantly: the logos.

A therapist logo is easier than most because, ultimately, your name is your brand. And especially for those of you targeting a younger client, kids these days seem to prefer wordmarks over logo icons. Just look at the branding from people like Barb Puzanovova (The Non-Diet Trainer) and Casey Tanner (Queer Sex Therapy).

Symbolism in Therapist Logos

I know I’m making it sound easy, but a therapist logo is really just about symbolism and your name. The symbolism is the hard part, but I’ll give you a few questions to help you brainstorm:

1. When someone walks into your office, how do you want them to feel? Serene? Happy? Delighted? At-home?

2. What do you want to be known for, or what are some of your favorite comments about yourself clients have made? Are you thoughtful? Hilarious? Amazing at hyping people up? Confident?

3. What about your clients’ personalities? Do they tend to be confident, hilarious, loyal, etc?

The logo part of your therapist logo is going to represent some combination of these things. Once you have your list of adjectives, try Googling “Objects that represent ____.” Objects that represent Joy, for instance, include the sun. (Hence Barb’s use of the sun in her Joyful Movement Program.)

Some symbols for calm include:

• Lavender

• Peace Lily

• Humpback whales

• Manatees

• Colors like blue and pastel pinks and purples

Simple Ways to Draw a Therapist Logo

So you know what you want your logo to look like, but you suck at art, or drawing in general. I realize I am biased, but my first suggestion will always be to hire a designer. If that’s not quite in your price range yet, you can try one of the following methods to get a nice-looking result:

• Trace the outline of a stock image 

• Follow a simple watercolor tutorial on Youtube (this works great for flowers and other organic materials)

• Purchase stock drawings of your logo

If you’re priced out of hiring a designer but you have a little money to spend, buying an icon from a site like Envato or FlatIcon might be another good option. You could also try websites like Upwork or Fiverr to find designers within your price range. It also doesn’t hurt to reach out to a designer you love and inquire about your budget. Confident designers are never offended by a lowball offer– and we might even be able to refer you to someone cheaper if we can’t work with you ourselves!

The Wordmark

The wordmark is the text part of the logo, usually your name. This is the easy part. You can choose whatever interesting font you like, but if you want to go the extra step, you might want to whip that list of adjectives back out and search for something like “calming font” to give you some ideas as to the style you should be going for.

Importantly, you must make sure you have a commercial web license to use whatever font you choose. That means you can use it on your website, as well as in your marketing material and social media. Some places I like to use for fonts include:

• Adobe Fonts

• 1001Fonts

• DaFont

Some of the fonts on the latter two are free for commercial use, just triple check that before you settle on one.

If you like how the font looks alone, then wonderful! Save your logo as a .png and you’re done!

However, if you want to try out different styles, you can also pull everything into Canva and mess around with the letter spacing and effects.

Once you get your wordmark to a place where you like it, you’ll want to create a few different combinations of your logo and wordmark. I personally have two, because that’s all I need; a logomark-only version to put in corners and for social media, and a wordmark + logomark version for letterheads, banners, business cards, etc.

You may find that you like the look of your logo in multiple ways: logo on top of wordmark, logo to the side of the wordmark, logo to one side with first and last name stacked, etc. Experiment and save whatever layouts you like.

Conclusion

If you don’t have the budget to hire a designer to create your logo, you can 100% DIY your own. That being said, reaching out never hurts, and we may be able to work with your budget, depending on your needs. If you’re interested in booking a consultation to see if we’re a good fit, send me an email and I will reach back out ASAP!