One huge reason you shouldn't be designing your businesses logo in canva. hint: it's not legal.
I'm going to first start out by saying ... don’t get me wrong, Canva is a fantastic tool! It’s not only easy to use, but allows even the most non-design-savvy person to create eye-catching and on-brand content. Heck, for the past year I’ve used it myself almost daily. It’s the perfect free tool for all things social media creation because it’s quick and easy, but there are several reasons it’s not the best for brand and logo design - these next couple of paragraphs I’m about to touch on being the most important. Ready for it? 🫣
Legally you cannot trademark a logo created in Canva. 😬 Why is that important for you to know? Your business name is one-of-a-kind and specific to you, right? You established ownership (and rights) to your business name when you created it. To ensure that ownership, businesses often choose to trademark their business name, especially as their business grows, ensuring their business is protected from theft or misuse. Canva and all of its contributors (aka the artists that design all of the fonts, elements, etc.) have done just that. They own the rights to their designs, not us.
Here is what Canva’s licensing agreement on their website states:
“All Content on Canva is protected by United States and international copyright. Canva and its contributors reserve all rights that aren’t explicitly given to you under this license. That includes all copyright and intellectual property rights. You definitely can’t do these things with any free or Pro Content on Canva: use any of the Content as part of a trade-mark, design-mark, trade-name, business name or service mark (excluding fonts). Canva's logo templates are customizable and can be used by anyone. This means that your rights to the logo are non-exclusive and you can't register it as a trademark.” 😧
(While Canva states that fonts are excluded from this, I would still be cautious as fonts (typography) have their own licensing agreements outside of Canva - that’s another post for another day.)
Well sh*t, you just spent the last month perfecting your logo design in Canva and now your in a puddle of tears cursing my name. 😫 Don’t fret just yet. If you’re a new business owner and you don’t have any plans to trademark just yet, that logo template might get you by until your business starts to grow. But once you start to grow, definitely start to consider investing in a professional.
You could also “technically” create a unique logo in Canva from scratch by using basic lines and shapes from their ‘free’ library. But no doubt this takes a lot of time and effort, not too mention an eye for design and an understanding of what different logo types require.
I know this seems a little overwhelming, especially if you have created all of your brand assets in Canva. The intent of this post is not to scare you or stop you from using Canva as a tool, but to educate you as a creative business owner and ultimately help you make your business the best version it can be!
If you are looking for a brand and a logo design that are original to you, look no further. I’m here to guide you every step of the way. With strategy and a passion for helping you reach your business goals, I will create a logo for your brand that is unapologetically you (and easily trademarked!). Click here to learn more.