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Have you ever wished you had a team of graphic designers on hand to help your business with branding, marketing, and outreach, but can't afford to hire more people? How about a custom AI service? This is something with an amazing name “design.com” aims to suggest (it's incredible that the URL is still available).
Design.com: Pricing and Plans
- There are almost no free templates, but at least you can try all the tools before choosing a subscription plan.
While you can explore everything Design.com has to offer and experiment with all of its tools to your heart's content, you'll find that the service is mostly a paid service. Sure, you'll notice the odd free design here and there, distinguishable by the “free” moniker in the top left corner of the template thumbnail, but unfortunately, these are few and far between.
When it comes to choosing the paid tier that suits your needs, I found the choice to be somewhat confusing as the plans offered vary depending on the services you use.
For example, working in the logo section will result in a “Premium Logo Package” or a “Premium Logo Package + Website” costing between 3 and 6 euros per month, billed annually (monthly fees are significantly more expensive: 9 to 14 euros).
However, if you come from, say, the YouTube Banner, Instagram Post or T-Shirt sections, you only have one option: Premium Account for 5 euros per month billed annually or 9 euros per month, but both Premium Account and Premium Logo Pack allow you to edit posts, logos and more… Why is there such a difference in the tier name and cost depending on What service do you start with?
I should note that in the days I've spent experimenting with this service, these options have changed: there used to be three different tiers from the logo service and two from others, so it's possible that these will change again once you try the service out for yourself.
Design.com: Categories and Templates
- Lots of different categories with hundreds of templates for each. It's very easy to navigate all of them.
Design.com is certainly rich in features. Sure, it's a logo maker, but it also offers you the ability to create business cards, posters, flyers, YouTube and LinkedIn banners, Facebook and Instagram posts and stories, email signatures, entire websites, T-shirts, and more.
The platform's main focus is to let the AI do most of the work for you, with customization available down the line if needed. The goal here is to offer you a design that is so good that you don't have to do anything with it other than insert your company information.
The way it works is incredibly simple: at the top of the page there is a menu bar divided into categories, and the options within each category are quite extensive. If this seems too clinical to you, instead scroll down to the bottom of the main page and look at the list of the most common services, with large, friendly images and descriptions of what to expect.
Remember: the vast majority of templates will require you to pay. Only a few of them are available for free, and as you might expect, they won't be the flashiest or prettiest. However, free is free. You can also explore and customize all the templates, even the premium ones, as the paywall is only available once the design is complete, giving you a good chance to try out each feature.
If you're looking for a free logo and don't want to scroll through a long list hoping to find some free templates available, Click here to see free designs rather than premium ones.
Design.com: Choices
- Such a large number of options increases the likelihood that you will find the perfect AI creation for you. You're given a few basic customization options, with deeper changes saved for another part of the service.
Browsing through Design.com's huge selection can be overwhelming, although the developers have made every effort to ensure the results are focused on what you're looking for.
To make this work, once you've chosen the type of service you need (whether it's a poster, website, message, business card, logo, etc.), you'll need to enter a list of keywords so the website's AI can get to work. There are exceptions to this rule, such as the Business Card or Logo sections, which ask for your company name instead.
If you already have a logo designed, you can upload it at the same time and it will be integrated into the results.
Once you click the big blue “Get Started Now” button, you'll instantly be presented with dozens of options based on your business name and/or keywords. Actually, scratch that: this is just the first page: scroll down and you'll find hundreds of additional pages waiting for you, meaning you have thousands of templates to choose from, which you can narrow down with a selection of filters, additional keywords, and search.
Click on the one you like best to select it and move on to the next steps, which include changing the default template colors, changing the text (or letting the AI write something for you), and finally choosing a layout from six options if you don't like the original one.
If this is as much editing as you have the time or inclination to do, click “Download” to claim your prize…at least that's what I hoped. I already said that most templates aren't free, but if you're working on one, you'll have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it. I lost count of how many pages offering me special (paid) offers I had to skip to finally be able to download my file.
Design.com: customization and export
- The level of customization is high, giving you complete control over your creation, although this is exclusively available to paying customers. When it comes to exporting your work, the number of options offered is very large.
Simplicity is great and very useful for saving time, but if you have specific ideas that aren't reflected in the AI results, you'll be pleased to know that these designs are fully customizable, although keep in mind that this feature is only for paying customers.
You have access to the entire layout, you can move, resize and even rotate any object present in the template. You can even add new shapes and pictures if you want.
To change the color of an element, just one click is enough. You have complete control over text fields, from style to format and font. It's all fun and easy to use. If you're familiar with Canva, you'll feel right at home here.
Whether you've customized your layout or not, now is the time to upload it. The choice you have is incredibly vast, and this also applies to the free templates you can use.
The ability to upload a full design is a given, but you also have the option to export a version with a transparent background, or just grab an icon, capture just the text, or turn the entire creation into grayscale. You even have a choice of format: JPG, PNG, SVG, EPS or PDF.
This level of choice is welcome as it can allow people to edit the design elsewhere if they choose.
Should I buy Design.com?
Buy if…
You're looking for a service that uses artificial intelligence to create designs for your business at a fraction of the cost of maintaining a creative team. There are several free templates, as well as reasonable subscription prices that allow you access to all templates and full control over customization.
Don't buy it if…
You want complete creative control over your projects without the involvement of artificial intelligence. And the free options seem pretty sparse compared to the more luxurious premium templates.
To learn more about additional features, we tested and reviewed best logo makers And best free logo makers.
