Building credibility for your organization is an important part of managing a youth sports program. Your organization's logo can be used on uniforms, apparel, signage, social media, and the list goes on...
Unfortunately many sports programs have outdated, blurry, or unusable logos. Newly formed organizations also have difficulty affording a high quality logo or creating a logo themselves.
Whether you run a recreational or travel program you should have a clean logo that can help promote the organization so you can increase participation. In this post we have some tips to create a new logo or replace an old one - without spending thousands of dollars.
The Best Logos in Sports - Taking a Lesson from Pro Teams
Even though your youth sports program won't have a budget like a professional team, you can still emulate the most popular logos in sports.
It's critical to have several different versions of your logo that can be used for different purposes. For example, if you run a football program you'll want to have a simple version of the logo that can be used on helmets, and another version that includes text that can be used on t-shirts and other apparel.
You should also have a specific font that you can use in different materials like your website, donation letters, and sponsorship materials.
St. Louis Cardinals Logo - An Example to Emulate
You can research different professional teams to find logo inspiration before starting to create your logo. Some of the classic sports logos also have several variations that the team now uses on their uniforms, social media, and website.
The St. Louis Cardinals have a variety of logos that are all used for different purposes. For example, the main "STL" logo is used on their main cap, and the bat logo with text is used on their jerseys. The text version is used often throughout their website and the single cardinal sitting on a bat works great on their social media accounts and alternate cap.
Your youth sports organization should have a few different versions of your logo and branding. Source: cardinals.com
Once you have a general understanding of good logo design and some examples you'd like to emulate you can move on to creating your own logo.
How to Get a Youth Sports Logo Made
In many cases high quality logos can cost thousands of dollars (although there are some famous logos that were designed for almost nothing). But you can get a great logo without spending more than $100!
Here are a few quick and relatively cheap options to get a professional logo made for your teams.
Option A - Recruit a Local Volunteer
The best option is to get your logo created at no cost by someone in your community. You can start by searching a phrase like "graphic designer in {insert your town}" on Google.
You might be able to find a local student, freelance designer, or even marketing agency. You can post to social media letting your community know that you need a new logo and that you're looking for a talented designer to help.
Designing a logo for your youth sports program can be a fun project for the designer to put in their portfolio and a great opportunity for them to give back in the community. If you're able to find a designer you can list them as a sponsor for your upcoming season in exchange for their time.
Local designers might be willing to do pro bono work to help your youth sports organization.
Option B - Find a Freelancer Online to Create Your Logo
Finding freelancers online is easier than ever. You can use a site like Freelancer, Upwork, or Fiverr to search for designers that specialize in logo design.
You should be able to check out reviews from each potential freelancer and view their portfolio of work.
You can also post your project and budget and allow designers to apply. If you use one of the websites above to find a freelancer you should be able to get a high quality logo created for your organization for between $100 and $500.
Posting a job on Upwork just takes a few minutes and you can access designers from all over the world without breaking the bank!
Option C - Use a Logo Generator
If you'd rather have more control over the logo creation but don't have any design skills you can try using a logo generator.
There are lots of logo generators online and you can start by Googling "sports logo generator", "business logo generator", and other related phrases.
A few sports logo generators you can try are:
Placeit - choose from templates made for different sports including baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer.
Looka - generate a logo using the name of your organization & colors, then customize to fit your preferences.
Canva - build a logo from scratch - give it a try if you have some more time on your hands!
Placeit is a quick way to generate logo options for your team or league.
Promoting Your Logo on Your Website and Social Media
Once you have your new logo files you should make sure they are added to your website. Most website builders will allow you to integrate the logo into the design of the site.
If you're registering players online you can also include your logo in email receipts and other notifications to players.
Your website, social media, and other online content should all have consistent colors and branding.
Once you have your website updated you need to make sure to replace your logo on all of your social media accounts. Well organized social media pages can help your organization build credibility in your community. Your logo should be sized correctly and look clean on all of your profiles.
Make sure you size your social media logo and cover photos correctly so they work well on desktop and mobile. Image source: KnownHost
Saving Your Logo for Future Use
Once your logo is finalized you need to make sure you have editable files so you can make changes in the future! You want to have more than just the static file. Instead, you should make sure that the designer sends you the "working files" that they used to create the final version.
Most commonly these will come as PhotoShop (.psd), Illustrator (.ai) or InDesign (.indd) files. If you make changes to your organization name or color scheme you want to make sure you have a file updated quickly.
