You need a logo, you need it fast and you need it right. We understand. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a phenomenal resource that allows us to be more efficient in our workday. Despite AI’s strengths, its weaknesses often slip through the cracks and can leave you and your brand vulnerable in the future. Why shouldn’t you use AI for your logo? What is lost when generating a logo with AI?
With AI seeming to improve every passing day, we want to inform consumers on the pitfalls of AI in brand design.
Your Logo? No, Our Logo.
One of the biggest disadvantages of AI-generated logos is the way that these logos are made. AI generation tools use their training database of existing images pulled from a variety of sources to compose an image that best suits the prompt given to it. This means that AI-generated logos use other artists’ work, commonly without their permission, and opens you up to the risk of using elements that are copyrighted or trademarked by someone else. Copyright infringement could lead to legal back-and-forth, not to mention the cost of having to create a new logo.
AI-generated logos also do not qualify for establishing new copyright or trademarks. According to The Copyright Office, for intellectual property (IP) to qualify for copyrights, it must have human authorship. Because AI-generated logos can’t be trademarked, anyone could use your new logo on any product or service they wanted, all while being legally allowed to do so. With an agency like Yellow Duck Marketing, we transfer all ownership and rights to you once complete so you then own the artwork and can register for trademarks if you desire.
The Human Touch
Humans’ ability to make conscious, unique decisions is what makes us special. The human touch is something that AI can’t replicate. We have lived experiences, connections to the past, and feelings that we put into our designs. When designing, we look for the connections, references and emotions that we can display through iconography and typography. Experienced designers are creatives. We create systems and clever strategies to put a meaning behind your logo while AI can only produce what you tell it to. When working with designers, you have the luxury to take a back seat on the creative process and allow the designer to put their creativity to work and tend to your specific needs.
More than just agencies, online communities are increasingly vocal about their preference for big companies to champion artists and designers rather than rely on AI-generated content. In a recent, buzz-worthy announcement from Taco Bell, they enlisted a renowned 3D artist duo to create captivating imagery for their Cheez-It menu items. Despite acknowledging and tagging the artists, followers were quick to speculate about the use of AI, and their reactions weren’t favorable. This underscores a prevailing sentiment: AI-generated images lack the nuanced, human touch that true artistry brings. People cherish the authenticity and emotional depth that only real artists can infuse into their work, and they’re not shy about pointing out the difference.
Relationships, Requests, Revisions
Designing a logo for a client is an exciting, yet technical service that designers provide for brands looking to elevate their brand image. Designers constantly make tweaks to logos and wordmarks to ensure that the logo is reading properly in different scenarios. Optically adjusting text to be slightly off-centered so our brains can register it as centered and making measurements to make sure that the logo is ready for print on all sizes of paper. AI usually doesn’t allow editable, vectorized logos that can be tweaked and meticulously edited, meaning you’re stuck with what you get.
Vectors are graphics that are made using points, lines and paths that utilize mathematical equations to allow editing and infinite resizing, making them the perfect candidates for logos. If you want to add an EST. date, or change colors for printing on dark paper, then you’ll frustrate yourself finding workarounds.
Designers don’t just make you a logo and send you on your way; we design a family of logos for your brand which includes horizontal and vertical variations, in black, white and colors (RGB, Pantone, CYMK) and even sometimes a complementary submark. When working with designers, you have the option to go barebones or get the full suite of business cards, website, letterhead and accessories for your brand. You can request edits tailored to your vision. We do the heavy lifting for you; maybe your logo needs to have the text moved to fit on a business card or change the weight of a font when printed on a bag due to limitations with the printer and ink. Designers go through these trials so that their clients can have as little worry as possible when using their brand in different scenarios.
More than a Logo
When it comes to brand identity, logos aren’t the only one showing up to bat for your brand. Logos sometimes need a buddy to help them out with their message. AI is incapable of taking your brand’s identity and making a “family tree” of elements that reflect your brand’s DNA. When designing a logo, we don’t only take the logo itself into account – it is a foundation for the rest of your brand moving forward, and we consider everything about the target market, desired brand personality and brand themes.
That’s where elements such as typography play a crucial role in your brand identity, communicating your brand’s name and values. AI struggles to make clean-looking type; sporting discrepancies, anomalies and awkward paths in your typography will make it impossible for you to print your lovely brand on physical signage. Further, when AI generates type, it churns out a combination of existing typefaces, therefore creating characters that can’t be replicated for other instances in your brand identity, leaving you with an incohesive brand identity that appears unprofessional.
From newly created icons and hand-selected typography to harmonize with the logo to copywriting that rounds out a cohesive brand identity, we provide the whole brand package.
Be Cautious
It’s important our clients realize that while AI has its beneficial use cases, brand identity is far from a safe use for AI. It can be used for the beginning stages, ideation and brainstorming, but using AI for a final logo can leave your brand with a laundry list of issues that will make your life more complicated than it needs to be. The short-term benefits that come with an AI-made logo are severely overshadowed by the pitfalls that accompany it.
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