Logo made with DesignEvo

We’re seeing a bounty of cool design tools these days.

In our correspondence, our promotional materials, our business cards, we can use these tools for our own purposes, to brand ourselves as professionals and to share our libraries in a more cohesive and polished way. These can also be used by our clubs, business and design students, parents, and teachers to brand their efforts and to promote school events

Here are some free or low price options:

DesignEvo, a free online logo maker, offers an impressive library of more than 3000 templates, millions of icons as well as hundreds of fonts, lines, shapes, flourishes and symbols (including a CC logo), and a suite of editing tools. You may start your logo from scratch or begin by searching templates or browsing through categories that include Childcare and Education, Technology & Communication, Sports & Fitness, Abstract, or Popular. The drag and drop features make it so easy to change design layouts, adjust text size and customize the size of your canvas. A handy preview allows you to see how your design will look in simulated letterheads, signs, business cards and t-shirts.  Note: In order to use designs for free, users must credit DesignEvo on their websites or post or share about it on a social media channel.

Logojoy is a simple logo generator.  Follow the prompts. First, pick five or so designs you like. Then, pick three favorite colors. It uses some cool algorithms to understand your taste. Add your name and a slogan and search for five possible symbols making use of the tags to refine your interests. Then wait while Logojoy generates a whole bunch of possible combinations for you to tweak. You can download or print your nice-enough low-resolution logo. (You may also purchase a premium package for higher resolution purposes, say, for instance creating signs and t-shirts.)

LogoMaker Shop. Available free at the App Store for iPhone and iPad. This simple app offers more than 1000 pre-made customizable templates and more than 5000 adjustable font, symbol and background options. It’s organized around 13 categories: Basic, Badge, Iconic, Letter-based, Round, Initial-based, Vintage, Doodle, Animal, Abstract, Colorful, Handwriting, and Cutie. It features autosave and easy undo/redo and high-resolution export.

AssembyApp, Recommended by my artist daughter and available at the App Store for iPhone and iPad, AssembyApp allows users to design icons, logosand scenes using a building block approach.  The free version includes 180 shapes, as well as symbols and stickers, 35 lovely pre-made color palettes, easy snap placement and grouping features, as well as sharing and high-resolution output. This one may be for the slightly more serious designer. Note: after AssemblyApp’s seven-day free trial, users need to subscribe.

And don’t forget those full-feature graphic design suites will also help you create logos!

My go-to’s are:

• Canva
• Crello
• Picmonkey