Logo Design Software Reviews

Software makes it easy, fun to design logos

Monday, December 12, 2005

Linda Webb
Special to The Plain Dealer

If you need a new logo for a small business, or a new product or service, there are several options. You could create your own paper drawing and have it digitized, hire a graphic designer at significant expense, or design it yourself.

Designing your own might seem especially appealing if you're on a budget. Enter Logo Design Studio, an inexpensive software product for PC users who wish to design logos for a variety of purposes.

The software's main screen is composed of three panes: a drawing canvas in the center and tabbed task shortcuts on the left and right. Each pane is resizable; two toolbars round out the functionality of the panes.

Five steps will get you a simple logo. After you enter text, you modify it. Next, you add a slogan or tagline, and then add objects, pictures and graphics before finalizing your design. You can create a logo from scratch by following the five steps, or you can use any of 200 customizable logo templates to shortcut the process.

So, given that I'm not artistic, I decided to begin with a predesigned logo template for a free-lance technical writer.

Once I added my chosen template to the canvas, I changed the graphic object using the built-in graphic tools for controlling opacity, aspect and color. You can also tweak objects by rotating, flipping and aligning them, and experiment with changing the hue, brightness and contrast, fill and solid levels. As an example, my logo objects began with twin, right-pointing triangles in a caramel color - and ended up slanted upward, in a shade of blue, with shadow effects.

Next I modified the supplied tagline. The software advises caution here: The taglines are provided as general examples, and trademark or copyright research is in order so that you don't inadvertently use someone else's property.

After a quick tweak of the text with the text tools, I was ready to save my baseline logo. The software conveniently adds an additional folder to your Microsoft Windows My Documents folder, where it's easily accessible for use.

Before wrapping up, though, I had a bit more fun trying some of the special effects, then superimposing a yellow swoosh over the harder blue object - to soften the look and convey the integration of software and hardware.

Each step of the way, I could use the revert tools to cancel changes, manage the layers of the design, and change gradients for more depth. The logo objects and artwork are designed by graphic artists; text options are very extensive.

For the more artistic user, there are extensive graphical tools and attributes, accessed either from the toolbars or the menu bar options. Existing graphic artwork can also be imported into your designs. A My Projects tab keeps track of your completed logo projects so you can easily add them to the canvas at will.

The software uses a proprietary .LDS file format to save your logo, but you can export your work in full color or grayscale using a number of popular graphic formats. Several resize options are available for your logos. A baseline resolution of 300 DIP is supported, probably sufficient for most users of the software.

Some letterhead templates are available either in the software or via download, depending upon the age of your media. You can substitute the sample logo in the stationery with your own saved logo design in the PNG format.

An expansion pack with a variety of additional logo objects, templates, slogans and taglines along with alphabetic artwork and graphic arts designs is available for downloadable purchase at $19.99, and you can also purchase extra fonts.

The installation CD contains some useful video tutorials that step you through the software features and functions, helpful before you launch the software. The pocket-sized 40-page user guide describes each step necessary to create a logo and explains basic and advanced features. And the electronic help files include some food for thought regarding the legal issues and implications of unique design work.

With pressure to bring products to market sooner, software can often miss the mark or not perform as advertised. Logo Design Studio stands out as an example of a simple, well-thought-out product that is easy to install, easy to master, and fun to use while it helps you achieve a specific goal.

Webb is a free-lance writer in Shaker Heights.

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