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Looking for best logo design software for an "amateur"

K

KonichiJ

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 29, 2009
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Anyone have a recommendation for logo design and graphic editing software?

I'm looking particularly for something that is easy to use out of the box, that can add shadows, 3d, or a few effects. Nothing too fancy.

Edit: Changed the title of the thread to better reflect what I'm looking for
 
Thanks for the links. Taking a look at Illustrator now. :)

With the niches I'm involved with, content rules, as my sites are more "one time" information sites than looking to develop and/or retain visitors. So first impressions and having a professional look is far more important to me than branding or establishing an identity.
 
KonichiJ said:
So first impressions and having a professional look is far more important to me than branding or establishing an identity.
Click to expand...

They are pretty much the same thing in my experience, professional look and identity that is. But personally if you're a non-designer a nice text type well kerned (Helvectica is a good start) would look professional and work well for the usage.
 
KonichiJ said:
Anyone have a recommendation for logo design and graphic editing software?

I'm looking particularly for something that is easy to use out of the box, that can add shadows, 3d, or a few effects. Nothing too fancy.
Click to expand...

You will find very few good logos with shadows, 3D or effects. The best logos have a distinctive style, but no gimmicky effects.
 
I should have clarified, that I'm looking for web design software for amateurs.

Basically, I want to add 3-d, textures, and a few other minimal touches to logos, and I don't want to spend a lot of time learning how to do it. Most of the logos i've done are through paint shop pro....which aren't half bad, but I'd like to add a few more details.
 
KonichiJ said:
So first impressions and having a professional look is far more important to me than branding or establishing an identity.
Click to expand...

KonichiJ said:
I should have clarified, that I'm looking for web design software for amateurs.
Click to expand...

I assume you meant logo design software...

But either way, what you are asking for is basically mutually exclusive.

The tool is not what makes a professional logo, the designer is.
 
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designguy79 said:
I assume you meant logo design software...

But either way, what you are asking for is basically mutually exclusive.

The tool is not what makes a professional logo, the designer is.
Click to expand...

Yes, logo design software.

btw, I didn't come to this side of the forum to insult graphic design....I'm a web admin/webmaster that needs to improve the look of a few of my logos. To put it another way, I own an SLR camera, which doesn't make me a photographer, but I do take some pretty good pictures....and I do seek advice from professionals on filters and editing software, know what I mean?

I need to sharpen a few logos, what can I buy to do this with?? Is Illustrator the only thing out there or are there other considerations?
 
KonichiJ said:
I need to sharpen a few logos, what can I buy to do this with?? Is Illustrator the only thing out there or are there other considerations?
Click to expand...

As I've said before Illustrator is the best option for logos, for editing them with FX you'll need Photoshop.If you are doing it on the cheap then Inkscape and Pixelmator are good choices.

But as others have said before (which I do agree with) is that the tool isn't 100% of creating/editing a professional logo concept, skill and knowledge creates a professional well designed logo.
 
ezekielrage_99 said:
As I've said before Illustrator is the best option for logos, for editing them with FX you'll need Photoshop.If you are doing it on the cheap then Inkscape and Pixelmator are good choices.

But as others have said before (which I do agree with) is that the tool isn't 100% of creating/editing a professional logo concept, skill and knowledge creates a professional well designed logo.
Click to expand...

Appreciate the advice. Such a big investment for both pieces of software though. I may try to demo it somewhere first. Too bad you can't rent software for a month or so.
 
KonichiJ said:
Appreciate the advice. Such a big investment for both pieces of software though. I may try to demo it somewhere first. Too bad you can't rent software for a month or so.
Click to expand...

That's why I suggested Inkscape, it's free. Although you can get a 28 day trial with most Adobe products including Photoshop and Illustrator so that may also be worth a try.
 
E3 x

I know this post is kind of old but I thought I would post anyway. I find it very easy to make logos with Microsoft Expressions 3 X. (The only thing I like from Microsoft) :D
 
Mutinygraphiks said:
I totally agree with you, I love illustrator for doing my logos, it allows me to review every piece of my work without having to use multiple programs.

Also being able to flip my stuff to photoshop to add to it is a plus.
Click to expand...

More to the point you can make logos look very cool in Photoshop but if they're not a vector making them work on other medias is very hard. Though there are some clients who only ever want to go for TV and Web so the vector approach doesn't really come into their sights only the "cool factor".

Illustrator is also good because it syncs well with Photoshop, allows tweaking and retains quality at all outputs.
 
SusanLane312

Wow, this thread is old.
Why would you recommend CorelDraw at all? That is a Windows only product and this being a Mac-centric website I would imagine that the original user (who no doubt has already solved his problem as it has been 8 years ago) was looking for something for the Mac. Plus CorelDraw's user-interface is quite possibly one of the worst user-interfaces I've ever seen. CorelDraw is powerful but I just never could get past the horrible user-interface and then when they went Windows only, that was it. If someone were looking for a good vector app at a reasonable price, then they should look at Affinity Designer (made by Serif). It is a great program and while it has a few omissions (no arrowheads yet, and you can't reset the origin point yet either), the developers are doing a great job working to add things that were missing in the original release. The developers are very fast and the price is great, $50, and that isn't a subscription. Much better than Corel's offering.

Mecha
 
My goto for simple project logo designs is Logoist 2 from Synium software. http://www.syniumsoftware.com/logoist
I second the recommendation on Affinity Designer. Just remember, like audio there is a big difference between sound and noise and design is the same, picture vs. impression.
 
Affinity Designer.
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/designer/


It's not amateur software, it's Adobe Illustrator quality but comes at a very entry level pricing so everybody can afford it. Professional or hobby/amateur why couldn't they use the same beautiful software. It's what you do with it that matters, not the label on the product.
 
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While we are at it, can someone recommend a Photoshop alternative? Free is better or reasonably cheap $20 and less.
I don't want anything fancy, just the usual cut, paste, layers, type.

btw, who uses CorelDraw when you have illustrator? The funny thing its expensive and Windows only, so I wonder how small the market is. Probably same code from 1995.
 
Pixelmator is still a very nice and friendly app in my opinion.

When I'm creating websites it's often my Go To tool for cropping and changing some images. I really like it for all my simple changes to images. Even when I also own Affinity Photo which is a real Photoshop alternative with more powerful features and tools. Pixelmator does the simple things still very very very good.

http://www.pixelmator.com/mac/

It's 30,- but it's the best 'cheap' and easy to use alternative. Plus it's made for OS X and OS X only so performance wise you'll hit a homerun and you don't need to install all sorts of old X software just to make and image editor work on your computer in 2017.
 
I don't know any easy software for amateur. The most effective and useful software is Adobe Illustrator. To create a logo like an amateur you need to watch few video tutorials. It is not that hard.
 
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