Hello fellow founders!

With all the hoopla lately about AI, we have been thinking about the current AI-powered logo generator tools on the market.

These tools promise to create "unique" and "professional" logos in just a few clicks.

But do they actually deliver on that promise?

As founders (and designers!) we wanted to know. So, we tried out five AI-powered platforms to see for ourselves.

For this article we looked at the following platforms:

• Looka
• Brandmark.io
• Logomaster.ai
• Designs.ai
• Canva

To put these logo-maker tools through their paces, we decided to create a logo for a coffee shop run entirely by robots.

We're going to call the business "Robo Cafe", and then see how the robo-designers do.

Should you trust the opinion of...designers?

As design professionals, we do possess the expertise in design principles, aesthetics, and branding necessary to evaluate the visual appeal, originality, and effectiveness of the logos generated.

But that also means we are biased on this subject. You should know that upfront.

We know what quality is and won't be satisfied with less than we would ask of ourselves.

But that doesn't mean we won't do our best to give you the unvarnished truth, even if that means gasp recommending you use an AI tool instead of hiring a designer.

What we're looking for

We're interested in discovering 4 things:

• Are the logo generators easy to use?
• Is the process fast?
• Are the results unique?
• Are the results professional?

When it comes to assessing whether a logo is professional, what do we mean exactly?

There are a host of design principles that contribute to what is generally agreed upon as professional quality. While we won't cover them all here, a few of the top qualities include:

• Legibility: The logo remains easily readable on a neutral background, even at small sizes such as social media avatars.
• Kerning: A professional logo features well-adjusted spacing between characters, both intentional and consistent, for visual appeal. Inconsistent spacing between letters is an easy way to spot an amateur logo.
• Simplicity: Effective logos are clean, simple, and versatile, avoiding complex images or busy backgrounds that restrict usability.
• Usability: Logos are created as vector art, not pixels (ex., bitmap image formats like JPG or PNG files), using programs like Adobe Illustrator, enabling scaling without quality loss; SVG (scalable vector graphic) is a common vector file format.
• Distinct: The logo should be unique enough for trademarking.
• Brand Process: A professional logo is crafted based on insights gained from industry research, including a deep understanding of the market, competitors, target audience, and unique values. This knowledge helps to ensure a resonant and distinct brand, including the logo.

Now that you have a sense for what we were looking for and how we will judge the quality of the generated logos, let's dive into our reviews.

Looka

Hardly a newcomer, Looka (formerly called Logojoy) has been around since 2016.

In our experience, it has the friendliest interface, and offers even more control than Brandmark. In fact, it's clear that most of the tools on this list have "borrowed" extensively from the path Looka has forged.

Our favourite feature in Looka is the "More Ideas" function that offers up automatic variations on your logo. it will generate variants of the font and colors, letting you "follow your nose" to a better design.

Like many of the tools we tested, the icons (or "symbols") used in Looka are pulled from The Noun Project. Not only does this mean the logos cannot be truly unique or original, but there could be legal issues around intellectual property.

In fact, the Terms & Conditions of Looka shockingly state: "All use of these Symbols is AT YOUR OWN RISK." Not what you want to hear when you're paying to generate a logo using their platform!

Looka Summary:

• Uniqueness: Low (and problematic)
  • Relies on a library of pre-made icons (not generated per user)
  • Generic icons are pulled from The Noun Project

• Professional quality: Low to Medium
  • A passable logo is possible, but without design expertise the result is likely to be amateur
  • Not based on proper branding research

• Usability: Unknown
  • Unclear whether a vector / SVG file is available

• Speed: Fast
  ‍
• Ease of use: Easy Peasy
  • Most intuitive user interface

• Customization: Low to Medium
  • Some unique font options
  • Offers "More Ideas" with automatic variants

• Price: Dirt cheap
  • The cheapest option
  • $20 USD for a single bitmap logo
  • $65 USD gets you more sizes and "multiple high-res file types"
  • $96 USD for collateral templates (social, business cards, etc)

Brandmark.io

We found the Brandmark.io interface to be pretty straightforward and intuitive, offering just enough control without over-complicating things. The initial generated logos were more simple and straightforward than the other platforms.

After spending 15 minutes altering the third option seen above, we were able to generate a passable version of a logo for our robotic coffeeshop.

To help you understand why we say it's "passable" and not fully professional, here is a detailed assessment:

• Good: The type weight is thick enough to be readable when small
• Good: The icon is shown in a roughly balanced proportion to the type; if seen at a small size you want both the type and symbol to remain legible
• Good: The font has some interesting letterforms (shape of the individual letters) that add character and uniqueness to the logo
• Bad: While the icon is relatively simple, there is a risk that some of the details may be lost when viewed small
• Bad: The icon however is pulled directly from The Noun Project, which means it’s not truly unique so neither is the logo. As mentioned above, this could get us in hot water
• Bad: It's unclear whether we can download a vector file or will only get a bitmap image file

Brandmark.io Summary

• Uniqueness: Low (and problematic)
  • Relies on a library of pre-made icons (not generated per user)
  • Generic icons are pulled from The Noun Project

• Professional quality: Low to Medium
  • A passable logo is possible, but without design expertise the result is likely to be amateur
  • Not based on proper branding research

• Speed: Fast
  ‍
• Usability: Unknown
  • Unclear whether a vector / SVG file is available

• Ease of use: Easy
  • Straightforward and intuitive

• Customization: Medium
  • Provides some fine control

• Price: Cheap, but not the cheapest
  • $25 USD for a single bitmap logo
  • $65 USD gets you more sizes, and several collateral templates (social, business cards, etc) — along with "logo source files" (which likely means any icon files from The Noun Project)

Logomaster.ai

Unlike the other apps we've reviewed so far, Logomaster.ai lets you fiddle with elements by hand, right on the canvas itself. You can position, scale and rotate things, and even add or delete elements at will.

If you have design chops, then this advanced customization is a positive, letting you have more control over the outcome.

Then again, if you don’t know design principles then this power also adds a potential layer of complication, versus the simpler "on rails" approach of the other contenders.

Logomaster.ai also has the unique feature of letting you bend your text on a curve. Use this feature with caution, however, and remember that legibility is key!

Logomaster.ai Summary:

• Uniqueness: Low to Medium (yet problematic)
  • Relies on a library of pre-made icons (not generated per user)
  • Generic icons are pulled from The Noun Project
  • Higher level of customization options make the results more distinct

• Professional quality: Low to Medium
  • A passable logo is possible, but without design expertise the result is likely to be amateur
  • Not based on proper branding research

• Speed: Fast
  ‍
• Usability: Good
  • Vector / SVG file available

• Ease of use: Medium
  • Relatively intuitive
  • Extra customization options make it somewhat more complex

• Customization: Medium
  • The most customizable
  • Offers direct hand-editing of the logo elements (scale, position, rotation)
  • Can put your text on a curve

• Price: More pricey than others, but still inexpensive
  • $54 CAD for a single bitmap logo
  • $138 CAD for a transparent logo, the ability to edit later, and a vector file

Designs.ai

We found that the first drafts created by Designs.ai were generally weaker than the other platforms, requiring more massaging to get them into shape. In the end, we got better results when we selected icons that were more simplistic.

The first drafts generated by Designs.ai often have poor color contrast and tiny symbols. Both are issues for professional grade legibility.

On the positive side, the platform does not rely on The Noun Project icons. However, the keyword "robot" only offered a dozen or so icon options for us to choose from.

Designs.ai Summary:

• Uniqueness: Low
  • Does NOT rely on The Noun Project, but the icon selection is very limited
  • Relies on a library of pre-made icons (not generated per user)

• Professional quality: Low
  • Initial designs are often… we’ll just come out and say it —- ugly (bad color combos, hard to read fonts, overly detailed icons, etc)
  • Not based on proper branding research

• Speed: Fast
  ‍
• Usability: Good
  • Vector / SVG download possible

• Ease of use: Easy
  • Decent interface

• Customization: Low to Medium
  • Fine control over letter-spacing

• Price: Less cheap, but still cheap
  • $49 USD for vector/SVG, social kit and mockups

Canva

You have likely heard of Canva. It's a lightweight graphic design tool geared for creating social media graphics and banner ads, including animation. These days, they also offer AI-powered logo generation.

Canva has a different workflow. You begin by selecting a "Template", which resembles a finished logo; there is no brand wizard collecting your answers and populating logo options. To edit the logo, you can click directly on elements in the canvas itself, like text or icons, to change their size, color and other attributes.

In terms of the graphics on offer here, watch out! There's a lot of colorful, visually busy "clip art" in here which may not scale down cleanly, or even print nicely.

Canva Summary:

• Uniqueness: Low
  • Does NOT rely on The Noun Project
  • Relies on a library of pre-made icons and clip art (not generated per user)

• Professional quality: Low
  • Clip art imagery gives logos an amateur quality
  • Many graphics are not logo-friendly
  • Not based on proper branding research

• Speed: Fast
  ‍
• Usability: Good
  • Vector / SVG download is possible (premium feature)

• Ease of use: Easy to Medium
  • Intuitive interface
  • Extra customization options make it somewhat more complex to use

• Customization: Medium
  • Some unique font options
  • Provides some direct editing (scale, position)

• Price: Free - Dirt cheap
  • Download a low-resolution PNG logo for free (if no premium elements are used)
  • Premium features require a $16.99 per month subscription
  • Many features and graphics require a paid account
  • Can't purchase a single logo; requires a subscription

The final word...or is it?

All of the AI logo generators we tested were fast, cheap and easy to use.

But the question we set out to ask in this article was whether they deliver on the promise of creating "unique" and "professional" logos.

On that score, our assessment is: "No."

To be unique means to be one-of-a-kind or particularly remarkable, special or unusual. These generated logos are remarkably generic. The icons are pulled from a library of pre-made symbols which any of your competitors could also select from.

Certainly, some of the logos could be deemed to be passable if you possess the design knowledge to edit the results effectively.

Overall, however, the logos did not meet up to what we defined earlier as professional quality:

• Follows design principles: Out of the box, the generated logos are often rife with legibility issues, poor kerning, and often lack simplicity.
• Usability: it's often unclear whether you would get a usable vector file version of your logo.
• Distinct: Many also run the risk of not being distinct enough to be trademarked and may even run afoul of Intellectual Property laws.
• Brand process: None are based on proper branding research.

That said, we suspect this won't be our final words on the subject.

We expect to see a whole new class of logo generator tools in the relatively near future. With the new image generation capabilities of AI, this should just be a matter of time.

Despite not hitting the bar for uniqueness and professionalism, we happen to believe there still are times when a founder should use them over hiring a designer. (Say it isn't true!)

We'll share more about our opinions on that in our next article!

Until then,
s&k