Logos can make or break a company. A company like Apple has an instantly recognizable logo that helps define the brand, and we can all think of hundred of corporate logos that are immediately bring to mind a company or brand. That’s why when I was approached to do a review of an online logo design service called DesignEvo, I thought I’d give it a try.
Being web-based, the idea behind DesignEvo is that you don’t need to download or purchase an app that you’ll most likely just use once. Instead, you sign up for an account with DesignEvo and then you can start designing a logo using over 7,000 professionally designed templates. Each template is fully customizable, so if you like the typeface but not the image, or hate the colors and the logotype, you can swap them out easily.
For review purposes, I decided I’d “redesign” the Apple World Today logo. Don’t worry – we’re NOT going to change the familiar logo. To start with, I chose “technology and communications” as a type of company, and started sifting through hundreds of logo designs.
Four of those immediately jumped out at me as potentially usable, so I clicked a “favorite” icon that put them in a queue for possible work. At that point, I figured it was time to give DesignEvo a try. I clicked on one logo I liked, entered the company name (Apple World Today), and then clicked “Get Started”.
The editor appeared with a quick draft of the logo in a 500 x 500 pixel box. Our existing logo is a 1300 x 225 pixel image, so I wanted to fit the “new” logo into that same size. That was easy to do by entering those dimensions into a size dialog, and then I started moving items around.
The online editor is quite easy to use, and both the icon and the text had various snap points that helped in aligning them. I clicked on the logo and could immediately see what colors had been chosen, and also found that I could easily replace them.
Likewise, the text was easy to change, both in terms of the typeface and color. A few clicks later, I had a logo that — while not as immediately recognizable and professionally-designed as the existing AWT logo — was passable. Here it is:
You can save logos for future work or reference, or download them. That’s where DesignEvo makes its money. For a one-time fee of $24.99 (regularly $49.99), you get to download the files in JPG and PNG formats and can also re-edit and re-download those files in the future. For $49.99 (regularly $99.99) you get vector files in PDF and SVG formats, as well as the font files associated with the logo and full ownership of the copyright to the logo.
While I was simply playing around with a website logo, there are plenty of other logo designs available for packaging, t-shirts, sports teams, you name it. Heck, if you wanted to design a beer bottle label, I’m sure you could do it on DesignEvo (and send me a sample bottle of your beer while you’re at it!).
Although there’s no substitute for a talented designer to create a unique logo that can truly stand out as the symbol of your brand, DesignEvo is an inexpensive and easy tool for creating mockups that can work as first drafts for that designer. For small businesses or individuals that might not be able to afford a designer, DesignEvo has enough flexibility and customization to produce a logo you’ll be proud of.
