AI or artificial intelligence, as a concept is more than half a century old. But it’s within the past decade that people everywhere seem to be talking about AI quite a lot. The world of marketing is no exception. Wherever there are repetitive tasks and a constantly growing workload, people think of automation and AI. that’s why AI sounds like the perfect fit in the marketing graphics segment. 

But what about “creativity” and “human touch” in your designs? Do you think AI design tools can mimic the designs of a professional graphic designer? We’ll briefly go over that question and then talk about some of the most popular AI design tools out there. 

AI design tools – an overview of what the scenario looks like 

When we talk about AI design tools, DALL.E 2 is perhaps a name that pops up everywhere. DALL.E 2 is an AI design tool that can effortlessly generate images based on the description you provide. A beta version of this sequel to the original DALL.E introduced in January 2021 is now available. 

Here is an image generated by DALL.E 2 for the idea of “an astronaut riding a horse in a photo realistic style”

DALL.E 2 is easy to use and comes with a lot of features too. Another big announcement that caused quite a stir in the world of AI graphic design is Microsoft Designer. This app is also powered by DALL.E 2 and is all set to revolutionize the way people generate designs. 

With AI design tools like these, there are a few common benefits that most people cite:

• They are quick – you can generate designs in seconds.
• The possibilities are endless – you can let your creativity run wild when it comes to describing the idea and the tool will generate the design for you. 

While superficially they do come with a few benefits, remember that the penetration of AI in the world of graphic design is still in its nascent phase. And there are a few limitations to this idea. We’ll discuss them toward the end of this blog. Now, let’s dive into our list of popular AI design tools available at the moment. 

AI design tools – 6 popular ones that have grabbed attention 

There are a few sophisticated AI design tools that can create images from scratch. These are based on text-to-image software that lets you describe your idea in text for the AI tool to generate an image in seconds. 

In other cases, there are tools that use AI to generate specific content types like social media profile images, logos, and more. Finally, there are AI design tools that can be used for specific functionalities like background removal, generation of color palettes, recommending and pairing fonts, and more. We’ll list down a few in each category to help you understand the scope of these tools and their shortcomings better.  

1. Designs.AI 

Designs.AI offers a suite of services ranging from social media designs to voiceovers, logos, and videos. The tool is easy to use and with its responsive interface, you end up saving a lot of time. The pricing starts at $29/month for the Basic plan for a single user and $69/month for the Pro plan that allows 5 users. 

Designs.ai offers both à la carte packages for branding designs and comprehensive packages. So, it becomes easier to choose your budget based on your current design requirements.

In addition to the regular logo designs, the tool also lets you create complete brand kits. Moreover, there are also tools in the interface that help you match colors and pair fonts to tweak your designs more professionally. 

But yes, the plans are slightly overpriced considering the scope of designs covered. And the complicated licensing of designs and assets might be a turnoff for some entrepreneurs.

2. logomaster.ai

If you are looking for AI design tools for logo design alone, then there are many choices out there, like logomaster.ai. The idea is simple – the tool comes with a big collection of standard logo templates. Depending on your industry, and the visual style you prefer you can choose the template and customize it to create your logo. 

The pricing of the plans available is as follows (these are one-time charges) 

• Basic – $29
• Premium – $69
• Enterprise – $109

With logomaster.ai, you are only paying a one-time fee to download your design. So, it is a good option for those times you wish to experiment with AI design tools without getting into a long-term commitment. 

Also, since the interface is beginner friendly, you do not have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out the features. 

But yes, there are a few downsides. The basic plan does not allow you to make changes to your logo after downloading the finished design. Moreover, there is no free trial. So, you must pay to download your logo. That’s a big risk to take without understanding the kind of designs you get for your plan and how the interface works. 

3. LogoAI 

Using an AI engine, this tool lets you create logos and other branding designs quickly and easily. In addition to logo designs, this tool can also be used to create mockups, profile images for social media pages, basic image editing, and social media designs. 

The plans are priced as follows:

• Basic – $29
• Pro – $59
• Brand – $99

LogoAI has flexibly priced plans for small business owners with a tight budget. In addition to this, some of the plans let you download vector files for your logo. This makes it easier to scale up your logo for larger designs, without causing them to be blurry. 

However, the problem is that logo animations and matching brand assets and other useful branding design features are only available with the Brand plan priced at $99. And on top of it,  changes to your designs are only possible for up to 3 days after purchasing the designs. 

4. Colormind 

Letting AI take the driver’s seat in your marketing designs might seem like a giant leap. In such cases, tools like the Colormind help you tap into the potential of AI while still having full control over your designs. Colormind uses deep learning to suggest color palettes for your designs. 

The most appealing designs and the most meaningful ones all have one thing in common – they use the right colors. If you are struggling to come up with brand colors or colors for your social media designs and you need some inspiration to give you direction, then this tool comes in handy. 

This is a free tool and you can easily generate color palettes in a quick few seconds, based on existing designs and standard templates as well. 

5. Let’s Enhance.io

One of the main applications of AI in design has been with respect to image enhancement. You might have some old team photos that you wish to reuse in your campaigns or an existing design that you wish to scale up and use in print. In such cases, there is limited scope for editing with standard tools. That’s where an AI-powered image enhancer like Let’s Enhance.io comes in handy. 

This tool lets you upload an existing design to upscale the file or enhance it to get it ready for a bigger surface. With this, you can quickly edit your images, correct colors, and avoid a blurry/pixelated effect on upscaling the image. 

The plans are offered in the subscription model for businesses and they are priced as follows: 

• $72/month for 1000 credits 
• $160/month for 2500 credits 
• $290/month for 5000 credits 

The credits here can be used at the rate of 1 per image. That explains the upper cap on the number of images you can edit per month. The drawback here is that there is no rollover for unused credits. That can be a problem for those times when you do not have too many images to edit. A better option would be the pay-as-you-go plans where you get limited credits for use within 6 months. 

6. Photosonic 

Remember? We spoke about text-to-image generators that generate designs based on the descriptions you provide? Photosonic is one such.

The plans are priced as follows:

• Basic- $10/month for 100 credits 
• Unlimited – $25/month for unlimited credits

The tool also comes with a free trial where you get 15 credits but you cannot download HD images during your trial period. 

By giving a clear description of the kind of image you are looking for and the visual style you prefer the tool quickly generates images for you to download. 

Factors to consider while choosing AI design tools 

As you can see from the above list, there are plenty of options when choosing AI design tools. So, how do you know which one would suit your marketing plan? Here are a few things to consider: 

Pricing 

Some of the tools are priced based on credits and some work as subscriptions while others have a one-time charge. Compare your options before you make a payment. Some of these tools do not let you carry forward your credits beyond a particular time period. Therefore, if you do not anticipate a steady inflow of design requirements, it might be pointless in spending on these tools. One-time payments are a much better option in this case. 

Image specifications supported 

From the file size and resolution to the file format of the output, there are several factors that vary from one tool to another. Not all tools support all the standard social media sizes. So, if you are creating images for your social media page, you might have to spend extra time resizing your designs. You cannot risk losing the quality of the image or being left with pixelated designs in the process. 

Capabilities of the AI tool 

We’ve not even scratched the surface when it comes to using AI for image generation and image processing. The AI capabilities of the many AI design tools available in the market are all drastically different from each other. While some of them learn continuously, others are based on rigid datasets. The latter tends to get outdated in no time. 

Moreover, depending on the capabilities of the tool, its interpretation of the prompt varies as well. Therefore, when you plug in the same prompt to all these tools you might get images that look very different from each other. 

To be sure that you are paying for a tool that understands your requirements and creates designs that align with your needs, stick with those that have a free trial option or a money-back option that lets you back out if you are not satisfied with the results. This way, you can use the same prompts and compare the results. That lets you proceed with paying only for the tools that accurately capture your idea. 

Kimp Tip: Whether you are working with AI design tools or graphic designers, having all your design requirements clearly documented comes in handy. So, a design brief ensures that your idea is clearly laid down. This helps you come up with the most accurate prompts for your AI design tools. 

A few imitations of AI design tools 

Having spoken about the AI design tools available in the market here’s a word of caution. These tools appear quite flexible and are potential time savers. But they do come with their fair share of limitations. 

• Intellectual property violations – since some of these tools use standard templates or AI-generated versions of them, you need to be cautious about the licensing terms and conditions of your designs. Therefore, there is limited scope for Whitelabel design while using AI design tools. 
• The question about originality – since your competitors might also have access to the same templates in these tools, there is a good chance of your design looking very similar to what’s already there. 
• Inherent complexity in relaying the ideas – the output design in most AI design tools is only as creative as the prompt you give. Only a few of them have Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities. So, even the slightest ambiguity in your prompt can lead to bad designs. 

These are a few areas where you might find it much more convenient to work with professional graphic designers instead of relying entirely on AI design tools. 

Put an end to your marketing design problems with Kimp 

Critics and experts in the field of design and AI feel that in a creative space like graphic design, AI will be more augmentative than about replacing existing talent. In other words, designers might continue using AI design tools for editing and enhancing designs. But to overcome the shortcomings and the scope limitations with most AI design tools, you always have the tried and true approach of working with professional designers. And to make things even more manageable and to have access to unlimited revisions and unlimited designs, you always have design subscriptions, like Kimp. 

With design subscriptions, your workflow is nearly automated and the process is nearly as straightforward as working with an AI design tool. But you have a dedicated design team handling your designs. So, you can work with them to fine-tune your designs as you please while also being assured of creative variations of your design to provide you the freedom to choose what works for your brand. 

Want to give design subscriptions a shot? Register now for our free 7-day trial.