Which logo style should I choose?
Start from the smallest place the logo must work. If it has to be an app icon or a 16 px browser tab icon, choose a symbol (an emblem or a monoline mark): a short, bold shape survives being shrunk, and letters do not. If people mostly meet the brand by its name (a shop front, a book cover, a website header), a wordmark makes them remember that name. A mascot gives a brand a face for packaging, social posts and stickers, but it needs a simpler version for small sizes. Many brands end up with two: a full logo and a symbol cut from it.
Six of our example logos, one per style: wordmark, emblem, monoline, mascot, badge and sticker.
The styles compared
| Style | What it is | Strong at | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wordmark | the name in a crafted letterform, often with a small symbol | recognition of the name, websites, signage | long names shrink badly, so a separate symbol is needed for icons |
| Emblem or geometric | a symbol built from simple shapes, without words | app icons, favicons, social avatars | it carries no name, so it is used with the name nearby |
| Monoline | a mark drawn as one even line | a calm, modern look, single-colour printing | very thin lines disappear at 16 px, so thicken the line for small sizes |
| Mascot | a friendly character | packaging, merchandise, community, kids | detail; it needs a simplified head or pose for small sizes |
| Badge | the name and a picture inside a circle or crest | clubs, bakeries, breweries, "established" brands | the ring text is unreadable when small |
| Sticker | a bold mark with a thick cut-out outline | stickers, social, playful brands | the outline adds visual weight on light backgrounds |
How do I ask the generator for each style?
Open the AI logo generator and describe what the logo should show. Then pick a chip:
- Logo for an emblem or symbol. Add "drawn as one continuous line" to the description for a monoline mark.
- Wordmark for the name as the logo. It needs a name: type it in, or put the words in quotes in the description.
- Mascot for a character. Say who it is and what it is doing: "a cheerful round otter holding a big crayon, for a kids' art club".
- Sticker logo and Badge logo are one-logo styles inside the Stickers and Badges modes' style menus. The modes themselves make whole packs and sets; see the sticker pack guide and the achievement badges guide.
Every send gives four ideas in that style. Refine the closest one in words ("thicker line", "the otter facing left"), and vectorize it when it is right.
How do I write a good description?
Say what the logo shows, who it is for and the colours: "a fern leaf that doubles as a rising arrow, for a savings app called 'Fernvault', deep navy and warm gold". Name one idea, not five; a logo that tries to show a leaf, a coin, a graph and a shield shows none of them clearly. Leave out effects that do not survive as a logo, such as photographic lighting, fine textures and gradients across the whole mark. The result is traced into flat-colour vector paths.
Should my logo have text in it?
Put the name in the logo when the name is the brand and there is room to read it: a wordmark or a badge. Leave it out of the mark when the logo must work as an icon, and set the name beside it in a font instead. Words in a generated logo are drawn, not typed, so check every letter, and expect to fix a letter or the spacing in the SVG editor now and then.
What should I check before I use it?
- Look at it at 16, 32 and 64 px, and in one colour on dark and light backgrounds.
- Make sure it does not depend on a colour that will not print.
- Search the trademark registers where you trade for the name and for similar marks. A trademark protects a sign that tells your goods apart from others'. A generated logo is new, but nothing checks it against existing registrations.
Once it passes, turn it into app icons, a favicon and a full set of files: From an AI logo to app icon, favicon and brand kit.