6 Steps to Stunning Magician Logo Design (Sample Included)

Updated: Dec 31, 2022

Do magicians need a logo? 81.4% of magicians we polled said "Yes."

What are the steps any magician can follow to design a stunning magician logo? Here's a helpful step-by-step guide.

Your magician logo is a visual representation of how you want others to view you and your brand.

Designing a logo for magicians or mentalists requires a specific tone that matches the performer. Most mentalists have a mysterious vibe, and magicians range from serious to comedic.

Should all magicians have a logo? Are there reasons a magician shouldn't have a logo? What steps would a professional take design a custom logo?

We will answer all these questions and provide the six steps to designing a logo that stands out. Something magical.

Six Steps to Designing a Killer Magician Logo:

Step 1: Define your brand
Step 2: Research
Step 3: Start Creating/Sketching/Designing
Step 4: Get Feedback
Step 5: Refine
Step 6: Publish

How to Design a stunning Magician Logo (Step-by-Step)

First, today we're walking you through the steps to creating a logo-- not a brand. A brand is not your logo.

Let's design a magical logo!

Step 1. Define Yourself

The first step in designing a creative magician logo is writing out the things that make you unique.

What makes you different? What makes you stand out?

Your logo is the part of your personality that casts a shadow. Details have a significant influence; complexity does not.

This includes colour choices, personality and voice. Some of that is easy because YOU are the product. In our design example, it's a logo for a magic show.

Step 1: Define

In our example, we are creating a logo for a magic show called "Magician VS." We outlined the must-include items of this undeveloped brand:

Defining our brand for our sample Magician Vs Magic Show

The brand for Magician VS must:

Fun, bold, sporting tone
Simple, clean, bold font
Scream "magician" from across the room but not cheesy
implement a visual hook with something recognizably 'magical.'
Competition vibe to support VERSUS
Glitchy (I love the look but decided against it for my brand)
No rabbits. No wands. Ever.
No cheesiness.

These are the things I wanted to communicate in the Magician VS logo.

Step 2. Research What Magician and Non-Magician Logos. Get some inspiration.

Time to do some research. Look for the magician's designs you like but more importantly, look at the other brands and logos that draw your attention. Take inspiration from outside the magic industry.

Please bookmark your favourite designs or store them in a folder.

Start asking yourself, "why do I like this brand?" There may be a great visual hook, but try understanding what the logo is projecting.

It's like cold-reading for your brand.

Step 3. Start Sketching

Design time! Pen, pencil, Photoshop, tablet, scroll and quill-- whatever! Just get everything out of you. This is idea-vomit. Trust me-- there's going to be some terrible @&(! in there. It takes time to get your juices flowing. Spend more than twenty minutes and play around.

My initial design work: Magician VS Logo

If you create something you like-- polish it into a much brighter diamond.

Part of that work is playing around with the design. The rest is decision-making.

Here's something that came out of my first design session.

The first attempt at Magicians Vs Logo. Clean and simple but didn't match all our objectives.

After chatting with my buddy Graemazing Reed, this idea was abandoned. Why? It may be visually appealing, but it didn't service the brand.

Back to the drawing board.

Step 4. Get Feedback on Your Design

Design and then sleep on it. You need to make sure you are comfortable with the design. I returned to this design, and here was my next idea-vomit:

Magician VS Logo Design Attempt #2

In this last image, you can see the mistake that causes the design. I copied over the spade pip onto the design, and the story revealed itself to me.

I started with a purple background because I had pre-established this colour for the brand. You don't need Photoshop for this process. Use whatever you available to you.

Canva is a great free option.

Step 5 - Refine Your Logo Design

This is where you add some final touches and changes from your feedback.

When designing-- keep your work and save the steps.

There's something mentally encouraging about seeing progress (it's called momentum), but more importantly, any opportunity to make a mistake is an opportunity for something extraordinary to happen.

Mistakes are the birthplace of creativity.

If you lack creativity, it's most likely lacking effort. Ask yourself, what's the very first step-- and then do that.

Step 6 - Publish Your Work

Your logo should be finished in black and white and ideally vector. It's like hot sauce-- you should be able to put it on anything.

Getting your logo finished as a vector graphic is essential so you can scale it for any project, on any medium or back-tattoo.

Finally, after all this work, it's time to publish. Put it to bed. Brands and logos evolve incrementally.

Final Design: Magician Vs Logo

Conclusion

Do magicians need a logo? No.

A logo isn't required for magicians to be successful. Have a great act, offer something unique and be consistent with your designs. Choose a nice font and stick with it.

If you are interested in creating a brand, the first step is to start, get your ideas out on paper and start brainstorming.

Start designing and use the tools available to you. Define the things that make you stand out and find ways to showcase them in your design. Select and refine. Make mistakes, and don't judge too early in the process.

Rinse and repeat.

You must do the work actually to make progress. Creativity is born from mistakes.

Ask for opinions from people you trust. Make tough decisions, and don't be afraid to start again. Commitment is the hardest part of creating your brand.

Have you ever searched magician on a stock photo website? Horrendous! Here's a solution.

Another problem that's unique to magicians is terrible stock magician photos and images. Check out these resources if you need high-quality graphics for your magician's website.