How online logo creators work
If you search “logo maker,” you’ll find hundreds of websites aiming to create the perfect logo for your business in minutes. I took a look at services like Adobe Express, Looka, Logo.com, logoai, and Logopony. The user experience is broadly the same across these platforms.
You’re able to create a logo by answering a short quiz. Enter your business’s name and industry, and choose your preferred fonts, colors, and styles. At this stage, the fonts and colors are limited to broad categories, but you’re able to modify the final design to some extent. Some tools prompt you to select specific font categories, while others prompt you to select logo examples you like as the basis for font choice and layout. Some tools also allow you to select imagery, ranging from keywords like “marketing” to the ability to search for a horse icon.
At the end, you’re presented with a grid of options to choose from. Logos range from free to $65 for usage rights and high-resolution image files depending on the design and website.
All of these services work in approximately the same way. The end results are a random set of logos based on some templates filtered by your quiz choices. If you’re looking for complex or unique ideas, you probably can’t use an online logo generator. Many of these services pull from the same set of commercially free fonts and images, so there’s no clear leader if you’re looking for an original design.
Current limitations of “AI-generated” logos
The popularity and vagueness of the term “AI-generated” may give each person a different impression of what a logo maker should be able to do. Only one service I tried let me input a sentence-long description of the company, but that didn’t meaningfully change the process compared to other websites. It showed the keywords it pulled from my description, which is ultimately what the other services generate from information like your industry.
All these services are easy to use, but at a cost to the level of complexity. If you start the process wanting a specific color or imagery, getting close is difficult, even with the ability to modify the end design. Some services allowed me to select specific horse icons, but they all pulled from the same websites (such as The Noun Project), which made the designs repetitive.
Ultimately, these generators are best used for a business that has minimal budget and wants a very simple logo. So, what’s the difference between these generators and other logo options?
A note on logos and brand identity
A logo is a big commitment when starting a business, so you’ll want to be clear about your goals. Your logo is a big part of the first impression your company gives off. Plus, other core aspects like your business card, website, packaging, tone, and social media content should relate to the logo for a cohesive brand identity. A strong brand identity is crucial if you’re trying to send a specific message to your target audience, but logo makers can’t consider this bigger picture.
Getting a logo on a budget
If you truly have a minimal to no budget for branding, online logo makers like Adobe Express may be your best option. Be sure to pay attention to the usage rights for these logos! Having the rights to use the logo will legally allow you to do things like sell a product with that logo on it. If you don’t have usage rights, the generator could tell you to stop using a logo at any time because it wasn’t yours. Looka allows you to pay $65 for full rights and a high-resolution image, but Adobe Express doesn’t clearly state which images are copyrighted, so you may have to do extra work to purchase rights to an icon from an external site.
If your budget is more than zero, there are websites that sell logo templates for you to customize. While this may sound more limiting than the AI generators, I find that there are actually more options for unique and specific logos. Canva has an easy-to-use interface if you’re not a designer. (Some options are free — but you’re limited to a basic PNG file for the finished logo. So, I would recommend at least paying for a month to allow you to download the logo in a vector high-resolution format like .EPS.) Creative Market and other design marketplaces also have logo templates that work in Canva, Photoshop, Illustrator, and more. However, this path doesn’t address your overall brand identity.
If you want to start with a strong brand identity, want professional branding advice, have a complex business or logo idea, or are just worried about your logo looking too much like a template — you should consider investing in a professional designer or agency. Even with a small budget, you’ll be able to find a designer who can work with you to understand your company and create something just for you. A unique logo can still be a strong start if a full brand identity is out of the budget now. Then, you can build it out or rebrand in a few years once you have a larger budget.
If you’re still trying to decide whether professional branding is worth it, check out our blog on 3 Major Benefits of Strong Branding or look at our branding process.
