Watermarks are one of the best ways for artists and photographers to protect their work against unauthorized use. Creating your own watermark is easy, but you need to make sure it’s done right!

When creating a watermark, it must be on-brand with the business, present a professional look, and be properly placed. There are multiple programs and resources to use while creating a watermark, and the best choice depends on individual needs and preferences.

Below, we’ll highlight some of the best tools and resources for creating your own watermark, as well as some arguments to consider when deciding if you need one.

What Is the Purpose of a Watermark?

The primary purpose of a watermark is to prevent either counterfeiting or copyright infringement. It will typically take the form of a superimposed:

• Logo
• Signature
• Stamp

While most people are familiar with watermarks as they’re used by photographers and artists, certain government documents also feature watermarks in order to reduce the chances of counterfeit documents. Some government-issued documents that feature watermarks include:

• Currency
• Driver’s Licenses and other forms of identification
• Stamps
• Official stationery from an elected official

In addition to preventing copyright infringement and counterfeit documents, watermarks may also be used as a way for artists to create brand recognition.

When a watermark contains the name of a business or contact information, such as a website, it’s easy for people who like their work to view more or contact them.

Who Should Use a Watermark?

Anyone who will be posting their copyrighted work online should use a watermark to prevent theft and unauthorized use or duplication. This might include:

• Photographers
• Artists (especially digital artists)
• Authors and writers

When in doubt, use a watermark on any work you’ll be posting online to protect yourself against unauthorized use!

What a Good Watermark Looks Like

It’s not enough for your images to just have a watermark – it has to be a good watermark! The right kind of watermark to use depends on how you do business and what’s recognizable for your brand.  It should be:

• Easy to read
• Relatively simple
• On-brand with your business’s message

How to Know Which Type of Watermark to Use

What you incorporate into your watermark depends on your business needs and how well-recognized your brand is. Here’s when each type of watermark is appropriate:

• Use a logo if your brand already has an established, recognizable logo.
• Use your business’s or your own name if it’s well-known in your community. Make sure to keep the font and style consistent with other branding materials.
• Use your website’s URL if you do most or all of your business online. This is also a great way to increase traffic to your site!

The best watermarks tend to have some degree of transparency, as professional watermarks aren’t typically 100% opaque. This is usually done to minimize the distraction, as well as to make them more discreet and difficult to find to prevent removal.

How to Create a Watermark

Creating a watermark for your brand is simple. You can use pretty much any free or paid drawing program to create your watermark, including:

• Microsoft Paint
• Logo Maker for Mac
• GIMP

You might also want to use an online graphic design program if that’s easier for you. Here are some of our favorites:

• Placeit
• Canva
• Brandmark.io
• Adobe Illustrator

Here are the pros and cons of using each program to create your brand’s watermark.

Microsoft Paint

If you have a Windows computer, Microsoft Paint is probably the easiest program to create a watermark.

Microsoft Paint comes standard on all Windows computers and is relatively easy to use, plus it includes all the tools you could ever need to create a basic logo or stamp.

It is, however, a pretty basic program that won’t let you get as creative as you can with other programs. If you value simplicity, Paint is a good option. If you want to really go wild with your design, however, look elsewhere.

Logo Maker for Mac

Logo Maker is an Apple application, available to download for free in the App Store, that is specifically designed for creating logos. While it does offer a few free templates, users have the option to upgrade to Logo Maker Pro to gain access to over 3,000 different templates for:

• Logos
• Invitations
• Flyers
• Business cards

Along with the templates, subscribing to Pro will give you these additional benefits:

• Save custom shapes
• Sync your logos to your iCloud
• Save in high-resolution
• Make your logos more aesthetically pleasing with over 200 overlays and over 100 backgrounds
• Access to over 5,000 different logo icons made by professional designers

If you don’t mind spending a few dollars, this is an excellent choice for Mac users. Even if you opt for the free version, you’ll probably be able to create a pretty nice-looking watermark with this program!

GIMP

GIMP, which stands for “GNU Image Manipulation Program,” is a free option that’s compatible with both Windows and Mac computers. It offers a similar range of tools like Photoshop, making it a very high-quality free choice.

The downside here is that it is a bit more difficult to navigate than other options, but there are a good number of tutorials online that show you how to take full advantage of its features.

Placeit

Placeit is a free and paid online design tool. They only require internet access, and no need to download any software. Placeit is known for their large library of templates, ranging from logos all the way to video templates.

You’ll be able to browse different categories of templates and find one that matches what you’re looking for. Then you can customize the colors, fonts, and every design features of the template, and instantly download it to your computer or smartphone.

Placeit is our favorite tool on this list because of it’s ease of use.

Canva

Canva offers you the choice to “Design Anything” and offers a variety of templates for each! It has a very user-friendly interface and step-by-step pop-up instructions for creating your logo.

You can instantly download your logo as soon as you’re done, and you even have the option to do so with a transparent background perfect for watermarking. You can sign up for a free account to create and save more than one logo for 100% free.

Brandmark.io

Brandmark is a paid service that automatically creates logos for you based on your preferences. The process is very quick and simple, and you can choose between a few different automatically generated options. Here’s what happens:

• When you first visit the website, click “Create my logo.”

• This brings you to a new page where you can enter your business’s name and slogan if you have one.

• On the next page, you can enter all the keywords that describe your brand. For instance, if you’re a photographer, you could type in “photography,” “camera,” or “nature.”

• You can even choose a color palette or color scheme you’d like to include in your logo’s design!

• Finally, it’ll generate logos for you to scroll through, save for later or purchase.

• If you’d like, you can even edit the pre-made options to fit them perfectly to your style.

The logos created by Brandmark aren’t free, but they’re pretty reasonably priced and look very professional.

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a professional-grade program that offers a ton of options for creating a stamp or logo to use as your watermark. It’s also vector-based, meaning your image will never lose its quality from scaling the size up or down.

Adobe Illustrator is another paid option, available as part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite. When you subscribe to Creative Cloud, you’ll gain access to Illustrator, as well as several other Adobe programs:

• Photoshop
• InDesign
• Premiere Pro
• XD
• Acrobat DC

If you’re a photographer who already subscribes to Creative Cloud to use Photoshop, Adobe’s image editing program, you likely already have access to Illustrator! One of the benefits of Creative Cloud is that it offers a one-week free trial to let you decide how you like it before you subscribe.

If you’re creatively challenged when it comes to logo design, you might even want to try hiring a graphic designer to design a watermark for you!

Hire a Graphic Designer to Create Your Watermark

While it may seem gratuitous to hire someone to create your brand’s watermark, having a graphic designer on-hand can be beneficial in the long run. This is especially true if you don’t have a great handle on digital art or will have future graphic design needs.

If you want to hire a designer, the first thing you’ll need to decide is whether you’d like to bring one on as part of your permanent team or hire a freelancer to do the work. There are pros and cons to each approach, as noted here:

Hiring In-House

If your brand is big enough and already includes a team of employees, or if you’ll have a recurring need for a graphic designer, it might make the most sense to hire a permanent employee and make their first task to design your watermark.

On the plus side, this will mean you have someone who is always available when you need them and is very familiar with your brand. This will allow them to design the best possible graphics for your business.

However, it will also mean another employee to pay, even when you don’t have any graphic design needs. Because of this, hiring a permanent in-house graphic designer isn’t usually the best option for those just starting out or businesses that don’t have a constant stream of graphic design needs.

Hiring a Freelancer

If hiring an in-house digital artist or graphic designer doesn’t make sense for your business, or if you’d like your watermark design to be a one-off project, hiring a freelancer is probably the better option.

This is a more flexible option, as freelancers are typically paid from project-to-project and don’t require a traditional salary.

On the downside, you’ll have to spend time explaining your brand identity to them, and if you ever need to hire them for another project, there’s no guarantee they’ll be available to do the work in the timeframe you need it done in! Finding the best-quality freelancers can also take a great deal of time and effort, as you need to know:

• What they can do
• Where to look
• What to look for
• What to avoid

What to Expect from a Graphic Designer

The first thing to remember is that a graphic designer is there to create graphics for your business. You shouldn’t expect them to come up with an entire creative identity for your brand, and they’ll need a good amount of guidance to achieve the goals you set. You tell them your vision, and they’ll bring it to life. Some of the guidance they’ll need includes:

• What you need to be designed
• The color palette/fonts you’d like used
• The feel you’re going for
• Information on your target audience and established brand identity

Where to Find Freelance Designers

There are a few places you can look to find freelance designers available for hire. These include:

• Freelancing websites
• Local guides
• Artist portfolio websites

Freelancing Websites

Some of the best freelancing websites to find graphic designers on are:

• 99designs
• Fiverr
• Upwork

99designs is a hiring platform specifically meant for artists and designers. You can browse through the portfolios of various artists or create a “design contest” where designers compete to “win” your project!

With a design contest, you’ll browse through different designs submitted by artists and choose which you like the best. Then, you can work with the chosen winner to design your brand’s logo to use as a watermark.

Websites like Fiverr and Upwork, on the other hand, offer freelancers with a variety of specialties. It may be harder to find graphic designers on platforms like these, but they’re out there if you look hard enough!

These websites usually offer payment protection as well, meaning payment will be required upfront. However, the money you put in will be held by the website until you personally approve the project. Then, it’ll be released to the seller. This is a huge advantage of using freelancing websites, as it protects both parties from fraud.

Local Guides

Finding a freelancer through local guides or the recommendations of fellow business owners is probably the hardest way to hire a freelancer, but you might prefer to work with someone who already has a reputation in your community. Some ways to find a local designer include:

• Taking out an ad on a local website or in the local paper
• Asking for recommendations at your local Chamber of Commerce
• Browsing through websites like Yelp
• Asking others in the community if they’ve worked with local designers in the past

Art Portfolio Websites

There are a ton of websites out there that allow you to browse through different artists’ portfolios. If you’re able to find a graphic designer that you identify with on these sites, you can contact them to see if they’d be willing to create a watermark for your brand!

Some of the best websites for browsing art portfolios include:

• Behance
• Dribbble
• DeviantArt

Using these types of websites is different from the traditional options because they’re not hiring platforms and require you to reach out to artists yourself. As such, they also don’t offer the payment protection that other websites do. However, this may be your best option at finding the perfect graphic designer for your brand.

How to Choose the Right Designer for Your Watermark

The first step in choosing the right designer is always to view their portfolio and relevant samples. This gives you insight into their typical style, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.

You might also want to look into what kind of companies they’ve worked with before. For example, if you typically do nature photography, it might be best to work with someone with experience in the field. They’ll usually understand more of what exactly you’re looking for.

One of the biggest mistakes people make when hiring graphic designers is cutting corners in terms of payment.

The last thing you want is a subpar, unprofessional looking watermark on your photos, as this will reflect negatively on your business. It’s always better to pay more for a better design.

Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Designer

As with everything, there are some definite red flags to avoid when choosing a graphic designer to create your watermark. These include:

• Large gaps in communication
• No availability of references or samples
• Requests for the entire payment upfront

While it is typical for a designer to request partial payment upfront as a deposit, you shouldn’t send the entire amount before approving the final product. This keeps your investment safe.

When working with a freelancer, always make sure you have a contract in place to avoid miscommunications and other problems down the line.

Some freelancing websites, including 99designs and Upwork, have a contract built-in as part of the hiring process. If no contract is drawn up by the platform, however, you’ll have to create one yourself. Make sure to include the following information in your contract:

• A timeline for the project
• All relevant deadlines
• Pricing terms and payment structure
• Copyright information
• Any confidentiality agreements you need
• How many revisions are included in the agreed-upon price

Adding Your Watermark to Your Work

Now that you or the graphic designer you’re working with has created your watermark, it’s time to actually add it to your photos, text, or artwork! Here, we’ll cover doing so in two different programs: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom.

How to Add a Watermark in Photoshop

Photoshop is one of the most popular editing applications for photographers. It’s relatively easy to add a watermark to your photos using it but does require quite a few steps before you’re able to do so. Here’s how to get started:

• Start by creating a custom brush of your watermark. To do this, you’ll first create a new document with a white background.

• If you need to scale your image, try to stick to scaling down rather than scaling up. Although some programs won’t cause images to lose quality as they’re scaled up, most will.

• Import the logo or stamp you’ll be using as your watermark onto the new document. If you’re just using a text watermark, simply type out the text you’d like for your watermark! Then, go to Edit > Define Brush Preset and name your custom brush.

• Now, the document will function just the same as any other brush! You can change the color, size, and opacity.

Use this custom brush to place your watermark wherever you’d like on your image. Make sure your placement is consistent across all of your work for a more professional feel.

How to Add a Watermark in Lightroom

Lightroom is another popular option for photographers and artists to edit and organize their work. It allows you to add a watermark to multiple images at once, so it’s typically a better option for photographers who edit in large batches. With Lightroom, you’ll need to create watermark “presets,” which can be either text or a graphic added to a:

• .JPG file
• .PSD file
• .TIFF file

Step-by-Step for Adding a Text Watermark

Here’s how to create and add a text watermark to your images:

• Once you’re done editing a photo or batch of photos, click “Export.” Then, click the “Watermark” checkbox near the bottom of the Export window.
• From the menu, choose “Edit Watermarks.” This will open a new window.
• In this new window, you’ll see a text box in the lower-left corner. Just enter the text you’d like to use as a watermark and choose the:
• Font
  • Alignment
  • Text color
• Then, click “Save” and name the preset. In the future, this preset will be added to the options in the “Watermark” drop-down menu.

Step-by-Step for Adding a Graphic Stamp or Logo

The process for adding a graphic stamp or logo watermark in Lightroom is similar. Here’s how to do it:

• You’ll still open the “Export” window and select “Edit Watermarks” from the drop-down menu. This time, however, you’ll select “Graphic” in the top right corner of the Editing menu.

• Locate the logo or stamp on your computer, and cycle through the options to customize the watermark’s:

• Opacity
  • Positioning
  • Size

• Once you’ve finished, click “Save” and name your preset! Again, it’ll now be available as an option in the drop-down menu.

Unlike Photoshop, Lightroom doesn’t let you choose the exact location on the image where your watermark will be placed. However, it is a better option if you need to export multiple images with watermarks at once. The placement, size, and opacity will be the same on each.

Pros and Cons of Watermarking Your Images

There are lots of arguments for using watermarks, but there are also quite a few against using them! Whether you’d like to use a watermark on your images or not is 100% up to you, but it helps to understand the advantages and disadvantages before making a final decision.

The Case for Using Watermarks

As previously noted, the main purpose of watermarking is to protect your work from unauthorized duplication and copyright infringement. Many times, photographers will send “proof” images to clients before accepting payment for prints, so they can decide which and how many prints they’d like to purchase. Here’s why a watermark helps:

• Prevent unauthorized or unpaid use of your work. Using a watermark on proof images prevents clients from declining to buy prints from you and keeping the proof images to print themselves without paying.

• Branding. A watermark can also be used as an excellent branding strategy. If people see your watermarked images online and like them, the addition of your personal or brand name makes it easy for them to contact you for prints or licensing.

• Legal protection. Watermarking can also offer you legal protection. If someone removes your watermark and unlawfully duplicates or uses your image, you potentially have a case for copyright infringement! With the proper litigation, you might even be awarded compensation from the guilty party.

The Case Against Watermarking

The main argument you’ll hear against watermarking is that if people want to steal your photos, they’ll do it whether it’s watermarked or not. There are many programs and websites that offer to remove watermarks from images, and unless it’s very large and obvious, they’ll usually succeed!

The solution to the above problem would be to use a larger watermark, but many people argue that this creates an eyesore and detracts from the image’s value.

People might find large, intrusive watermarks too distracting, which may take away from their incentive to look further into your work.

Typically, it’ll be individual people, not companies, who use your images without your authorization. This is incredibly common on websites like Tumblr and Pinterest, but anti-watermarking advocates argue that people usually link to your work on these websites anyway. You’ll usually still get credit for your work without ruining your photo’s appeal.

The Bottom Line

Using a watermark is one of the best ways to prevent any problems with the unauthorized use of your images online. If you do use a watermark, make sure it is:

• Properly branded
• Professional looking
• Placed in a way that’s not too easy to remove but also not too distracting

The decision of whether or not to use a watermark is up to you and what you’re most comfortable doing.

Coming up with a unique logo for a business or organization can be challenging, especially with all the logos currently in use. If you find one with general elements or graphics that you like, you may be wondering if you can alter it slightly for your own use. 

A logo may be changed and used as long as the original is not copyrighted, the changes are significant enough to no longer hold the “essence” of the original logo, and the new logo will not be confused with the original.

If possible, we recommend using a logo creator to start from copyright/trademark free templates to create your own logo from scratch. This helps avoid any confusion down the road should your brand grow quickly.

Coming up with a unique logo will ultimately help to differentiate yourself from other brands. Keep reading to find out more about altering logos and pertinent information about copyright law.

Can I Change a Logo and Use It?

There are many moving pieces at play when trying to change a logo for your own use. To legally change a logo and use it, you’ll first want to look at the current registration of the logo. If the logo is trademarked, it can still be modified and used as long as the changes are significant enough to avoid any brand confusion or recognition.

If a logo is copyrighted, it cannot be changed and used legally. Copyrights protect logos that have specific creative or artistic elements as intellectual property (Source: Investopedia). Many logos are not protected under copyrights and can still be altered. This is especially true for simpler logos that do not have creative art incorporated.

You should always check if there are any registered trademarks or copyrights before attempting changes to a logo. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has a database where you can search for a specific company’s trademark registration and compare companies to your trademarks and services (Source: USPTO).

You should be careful when changing a logo and using it to ensure that you are not infringing on any trademarks or copyrights to images and artwork. Companies may take legal action, which can be time consuming and expensive.

Standards for Changing Logos and Using Them

There are no set standards for how much a logo needs to be changed for you to legally use it. This means no percentage or specific requirements detail what needs to be changed either.

If you want to change a logo and use it, you will need to consider whether the following conditions are satisfied:  

• No confusion with the original brand or owner: Avoiding confusion between the original logo and your logo is the biggest factor in determining if you can use the changed logo. It should be different enough that there is no way that a reasonable person or customer would confuse your brand with the original logo. Changes to colors, text, font, and other key elements will help to differentiate the two.
• Logo republication: There should be enough alterations made to a logo that it would need to be registered with the USPTO as a new trademark and satisfy their standards (Source: Small Business Chronicle). This would ensure that the new logo will not infringe upon any trademarks placed on the original logo.
• Different business sector or geographical location: The globalized nature of the marketplace can make these standards more obsolete than previously and may need to be doublechecked with a lawyer in your specific state.

Similar logos are typically not a problem if you operate in an entirely different industry or geographical location. For famous brands, this does not always apply, as anti-dilution laws protect large brands from any small company that could tarnish or distract (Source: Digital Media Law). This will help to solidify the fact that there is no confusion between logos and brands.

Enforcing Trademark Infringements on Changed Logos

Even if you do not change a logo substantially, the company that owns the logo you changed will have to press legal action to stop you from using their logo. The organization or individual will often send a cease and desist letter as a warning to stop using their logo or legal action will follow (Source: LegalZoom).

Companies can press legal action as a first step if they feel that there has been harm caused to their brand due to your changed logo. This could result in monetary damages and sizeable legal fees. 

If you are using a famous logo and changing it, you will often be at a much greater risk of trademark infringement and being faced with legal action. Trademark dilution can blur or tarnish the public’s impressions of a brand when others exist with similar logos (Source: Cornell Law). Famous brands have the capital to fight these cases more effectively than small businesses. 

We do not recommend using any elements of a famous logo for commercial use.

Can You Change A Logo Without Permission?

If you adhere to the guidelines mentioned throughout this article, you do not need permission to change a logo and use it as your own. Whether or not you need permission will depend on your intended use and the degree to which you make changes.

These are the situations in which you do not need permission to change a logo:

• Substantial changes are made to the logo: This assumes that you have changed the logo to such a degree that there is no confusion or brand recognition of the original company. The key stipulation is that you modify it “enough” to legally use it.
• Fair use: Protected under free speech protections in the U.S. Constitution, logos can be modified and used for informational and editorial purposes or parody and satire (Source: American Bar Association). If changed and used, “fair use” is a defense that can be used in court if a lawsuit is filed. This can sometimes be used for commercial sales, such as a parody t-shirt of a brand.

If you are not substantially changing the logo, it is always safest to ask for permission to avoid potentially expensive consequences.

These are the situations in which you do need permission to change a logo:

• Small changes to a logo: If you want to make small changes and use a logo, you will need to seek permission from the owner of the original logo. This will give you a clear answer and ensure that you can use the logo without any trademark or copyright infringement.
• Changing a famous logo: Unless used for informational or satirical purposes, you should always ask to use a famous logo. It can be difficult to obtain this permission, but they are often the companies that will crack down on these types of infringements.

If you are only changing a logo slightly and want permission, it should not be for commercial use unless it is a parody. This will often drive sales based on the original logo’s brand and likeness, especially if it is a recognizable brand.

Final Thoughts

If you do choose to change and use a logo, make sure that you have added enough of your own original design to avoid confusion with the original logo. This will help to ensure that you don’t run into trademark infringements. It is in your best interest to do your research on the trademarks or copyrights that the original logo holds and proceed with caution.

Existing logos can help to inspire your logo design or serve other purposes for the communication of information and satire. Just make sure that any time you do change and use a logo, you are doing so with the proper protocol given the specific use.

It’s a graphic designer’s worst fear: you spend hours creating a stunning logo for a client, only to have them run off with the design before paying a dime. If someone is using your logo without permission, either due to nonpayment or because your agreement kept the rights with you, it can be disheartening, to say the least. But is there anything you can really do about it?

If someone is using your logo without your permission, there are several steps you can take to resolve the issue, including registering the logo, double-checking ownership, filing a cease-and-desist or trademark violation letter, or taking legal action.

Fighting a battle over a stolen logo design is costly and time-consuming, but it can be done. Below, we’ll break down the steps required to take action, as well as some suggestions for how to avoid a similar situation in the future.

Can You Sue Someone for Using Your Logo?

While you can sue someone for using a logo that you have legal rights to, it’s a long, stressful (not to mention expensive) process, so if you can settle the matter out of court, that’s usually ideal.

That being said, below are the steps to take if you find out that someone’s using your logo without your permission:

Make Sure You Own the Logo

We know what you’re probably thinking: “Of course, I own the logo, or I wouldn’t be accusing someone of using it without my permission.” But bear with us.

The very first thing you should do if you find out that someone is using your logo without your permission is to double-check your contract and make sure that you definitely have the rights to it.

After all, nothing would be more embarrassing than starting a fight about the theft of your creation if it turns out that it’s not really yours after all. In most cases, you’re going to naturally want to start with the contract.

Do You Have a Signed Contract?

You did have your client sign a contract before beginning work on the logo, didn’t you? And you definitely read anything they may have had you sign, right? Good.

Because, as you doubtlessly already know, it’s super important for freelance graphic designers (and freelancers of all kinds, really) to have ironclad contracts for any and all projects they agree to work on. (Yes, this includes favors for friends. Yes, this includes that nice little old lady who runs the cat cafe down the street.)

We’ll get into the importance of contracts a bit later, as well as how to go about creating a contract for your freelance graphic design business. But, of course, that won’t do much good for your current situation if a client without an agreement has run off with your work.

If you do have a signed contract belonging to either you or the client, take a closer look at it.

Does Your Contract Specify Who Has the Rights?

Now, not all contracts specify who owns the rights of work created, but many do. If, by the way, you currently use an arrangement that doesn’t include a section about rights and licensing, you might want to add that in.

Many artists don’t realize how much they can profit from rights and licensing if they play their cards right, and they end up selling themselves short, frankly.

For the most part, artists generally maintain all the rights for anything they create for a client unless they sign something stating otherwise. The most common scenarios are:

• Signing away the rights ultimately, so the client owns them in an unlimited capacity
• Licensing the rights for limited periods or only in certain capacities

“Work for hire” contracts also give full rights to the client in most cases.

If you haven’t signed anything that would give the client the rights or have their signature on a legal document that proves the opposite, you might have a case. Press on.

Did the Client Pay You?

Here’s another place where a contract may come in handy: payment (or lack thereof). Say you and a client have a contract stating that they’ll own any and all rights to the logo that you create for them. It also states that they must pay half upfront and half upon delivery. You deliver the goods on time, and poof, the client disappears into the night.

Well, guess what? They didn’t fulfill their end of the contract, so that means that the rights to that logo are still yours. If you find that they’re using it without your permission (and without paying for it), then you have just cause to pursue legal action.

Freelancers take a bit of a gamble with every new client they work with since it’s so easy for a shady client to disappear into the night without paying you for your time and energy. The freelance artist’s strongest ally in the fight for security is a well-crafted contract.

A signed contract stating that the client has agreed to pay you money is undeniable proof that you own the logo’s rights if that final payment hasn’t been made.

See What the Logo is Being Used For

If someone is using your logo without your permission and it’s clearly for normal business purposes, they’re clearly in the wrong. But what if they’re not using it in a commercial application and aren’t necessarily profiting from it?

Believe it or not, there are times when people can use your work—even if it’s copyrighted, trademarked, and everything else under the sun—as long as they’re using it in a way that’s consistent with fair use law.

What falls under the umbrella of fair use? Well, these are the main things, according to Nolo’s legal encyclopedia.

Informational Use

If someone is writing an informational piece or filming a documentary or news story about your logo, they’re allowed to use a picture of it. This makes sense since they’re not claiming that it’s theirs; they’re just using it for descriptive purposes.

Parody

In many cases, trademarked works like logos can be used freely for works of parody and commentary. Again, this is because the artists making the parody aren’t attempting to claim the symbol as their own, and no reasonable audience would think that that was the case.

Comparison (Usually)

In many cases, logos can be used for comparison purposes, as long as:

• The logo isn’t altered in any way, especially in a derogatory manner
• The information provided in whatever the logo is being compared in is probably accurate

For the most part, fair use covers instances in which it can’t reasonably be proven that a company is attempting to imitate a logo (or other trademarked item) or pass it off as their own.

Consult a Lawyer

As you probably guessed, if you’re confident that someone is using your logo without your permission and not in a way that falls under fair use laws, your best bet is to consult with a lawyer about your next steps.

A good lawyer will know inside and out the laws relating to:

• Intellectual property (copyrights, trademarks, etc.)
• Fair use
• Freelance artist rights

Find a lawyer who specializes in such matters—if you can, get a recommendation from other graphic designers you trust. The more experience an attorney has with intellectual property law and fighting for independent artists, the more smoothly the process will go for you.

It’s generally a good idea, by the way, not to contact the person who’s using your logo without your permission directly, instead of going through your lawyer. This way, everything has a paper trail, and you won’t make any missteps that may cost you later.

When you first consult the attorney, they should be able to give you a good idea of:

• All fees associated with the process
• An idea of the total cost based on their rates and the case’s complexity
• The experience they have with similar situations
• Your options (suing is only one way to handle it)

Now, keep in mind that it’s not necessarily reasonable to expect a lawyer to be able to give you an exact figure and timeline because so much of it depends on how the other party handles it.

The other party might stop using the logo with the first cease and desist letter or get themselves a team of powerful attorneys who want to fight with everything they have and draw it out for ages, costing you time and money.

Register the Logo

One of the first things a lawyer will probably advise you to do is register your logo, so there’s absolutely no question about who the owner is.

The United States Trademark and Patent Office’s website has trademark basics and the process involved, but your lawyer should be able to walk you through it.

Even if you own the rights to a logo, if you’re going to be fighting about it in a legal capacity, getting it registered will give you that much more of an argument.

Send a Trademark Violation Letter

Most people are familiar with cease-and-desist letters or have at least heard of them. But not so many people know about the cease-and-desist letter’s friendlier cousin, the trademark violation letter.

Basically, a trademark violation letter lets the other party know that they’re violating trademark rights, so they can’t claim that they were unaware of the violation if they use it in the future. On the other hand, a cease-and desist letter threatens them with legal action for already having used it.

Talk to your lawyer about which might be a better option for your particular case.

File a Cease-and-Desist Letter

Most likely, the first thing your lawyer will want to do is file a cease-and-desist letter, which, as you might have already guessed, basically just informs the other party that they’re committing intellectual property theft and details exactly how that is.

Cease-and-desist letters usually ask that the other party do one of these two things:

• Stop using the property (logo)
• Pay the artist for licensing rights

Alternatively, they can ask that the artist gets the credit for the logo, but since you were hired to create the work, you’re most likely interested in payment rather than in recognition alone.

Depending on the person or business using your logo, a cease-and-desist letter might be all it takes to get them to stop.

If, on the other hand, you’re up against a big corporation, this step might be just the beginning of a very long legal battle. An independent artist from Los Angeles, Tuesday Bessen, found this out the hard way during an expensive battle with Zara, who used her designs without permission.

Seek Alternative Dispute Resolution

If sending a cease-and-desist letter doesn’t solve your problem, but you really want to avoid the hassle and expense of a lawsuit, you might want to consider ADR, or Alternative Dispute Resolution. ADR basically involves using a neutral mediator to help the two parties reach a resolution without taking the case to court.

While this can be an efficient option for solving issues of intellectual property theft, the only caveat is that both parties must agree to it for it to work. If the other party isn’t willing to work with you after receiving your cease-and-desist letter, it might be a sign that they’re not willing to play nice.

On the other hand, they may genuinely believe that they’re in the right and are just as eager as you are to quickly resolve the matter.

Your lawyer will best be able to advise you on how to proceed with alternative dispute resolution if that’s the option you’re most interested in pursuing.

Take Legal Action

If alternative dispute resolution doesn’t appeal to you or the other party doesn’t agree to it, your next step will probably be to take legal action to get the results you want; this will involve getting the court involved, which is a costly and time-consuming affair.

If successful, you might receive:

• An injunction to stop the other person from using your logo in the future
• Payment of what they owe you (licensing fees, unpaid contract)
• Lawyers’ fees

Now, keep in mind that even if you win the case, complete with lawyers’ fees and all, lawsuits are expensive in themselves, plus the time you’ll spend dealing with it instead of making money on other projects.

Plus, there’s no guarantee that the other party will pay you right away, even if the court decides in your favor. That can mean more fighting just to get your settlement.

Be Persistent

It’s easy to feel like the little guy up against a big, scary entity if someone—especially a large corporation—has stolen your work.

But keep in mind that a lot of the time, unreputable companies do that kind of thing because they know they can get away with it and that an independent graphic designer or other freelance artist isn’t in a position to fight back.

So if you really don’t want to let it go, resolve to stay in the fight for the long run and do all you can to get what’s right. It will take a ton of work (not to mention expense), but remember that you’re fighting for all the other independent artists out there.

Know When to Walk Away

That’s right; we’re going to contradict the previous section completely. And that’s because every situation is different, and every graphic designer’s life is different.

Maybe you’re a single parent fighting to make ends meet while taking care of your kids and can’t afford an expensive lawsuit right now. Perhaps you’re dealing with other adversity or financial hardship and just don’t have the mental capacity to deal with the stress of it.

If you and your lawyer decide that it’s going to be more trouble than it’s worth, there’s no harm in walking away, either. Chalk it up to a lesson learned, and focus on building relationships with better clients in the future.

How to Prevent It from Happening Again

It would be fantastic if there were a 100% foolproof way to keep people from using your designs without your permission, but that’s just not possible.

So what can you do to protect yourself?

• Put it all in the contract: this includes rights, payments, etc. Have a lawyer double-check it.
• Vet all new clients: see if their online footprint turns up anything shady, and ask mutual acquaintances about them.
• Trust your gut: if something feels off about a client, it’s better to miss out on potential money than to sign a contract with someone who’s going to try and steal your designs.

These simple things will help keep you out of harm’s way when it comes to intellectual property theft concerning logos and any other designs you create.

Final Thoughts

It’s nowhere near fair that the artist is the one who’s stuck jumping through hoops and shelling out a ton of cash because someone else has decided to steal their creation, but that’s, unfortunately, the world we live in. However, keeping a good lawyer on file and making sure to have all clients sign contracts before you do any work for them will go a long way towards protecting you in the future.

Hiding messages in logos is a great way to expand the iconography, meaning, and impact of a brand. However, it can be difficult to pull off effectively. If the message is too obvious, it may reduce the impact of the logo. If it is too subtle, it serves no purpose. Luckily, there are plenty of examples to look toward for inspiration and tips for beautifully hiding a hidden message.

To insert a hidden message in logos, first decide what the message will be. It should be a subtle, secondary mark that compliments the logo as a whole. Utilize negative space, color, and typography to make the hidden component blend in. Use famous logos with hidden messages for inspiration.

We recommend using a logo template to get the ball rolling. This will give you design inspiration, and allow you to choose a template with the opportunity for a hidden message. Here are our top logo template recommendations.

The rules are fairly basic; a large part of any good hidden message in a logo is proper execution. Finding the balance of all the different parts and ways to hide a logo is the main challenge.

How To Put Hidden Messages In Logos

Putting hidden messages in logos should be carefully considered and planned before executing. Otherwise, the result may be unclear, resulting in a useless hidden message that also serves as a detriment toward the logo as a whole. Effectively using alternative space, colors, typography, and symbols is essential for putting hidden messages in logos.

While exploring ways to place a hidden message in a logo, be sure to not lose sight of the logo as a whole. Good design should always come first, for all parts.

If trying to place a hidden message in a logo is not working, take a step back and analyze the whole piece to get a hint about why. Do not be afraid to constantly iterate on ideas until you land on one you are happy with.

Put Good Logo Design First

It is imperative to not destroy the logo or business identification aspect of a brand while including a hidden message. This becomes even more essential if the logo is a redesign; people will have gotten used to the old logo, and too much of a shock will result in a failing rebrand.

Define the purpose of the logo as a whole, then define the purpose of the hidden message. There are plenty of additional steps to explore for both of these aspects, but it is important to at least set a baseline before moving on. Largely, defining these aspects comes down to understanding the business. The next section goes over this in more detail.

After that is complete, employ good design principles while creating the logo. Keep the logo distinct, legible, and effective. For more tips on general logo design, you can find more here. Thinking of these various tips while incorporating the hidden message will be essential in making it good.

Utilize Negative Space When Possible

Negative space is essential for creating logos that stand out and breath. Essentially, negative space is the area between distinct areas of a design. Popular examples include the area between Apple’s apple and leaf in their logo or the blank space of the “P” in Pinterest’s logo. Any vacant space between two design elements is considered negative space.

It may be helpful to think of negative space as only being affected by the design elements around it; when you manipulate the shapes, you are also affecting the empty area. This can prove incredibly useful for hidden messages, as this negative space can be shaped into a hidden symbol or word.

A Few Examples

Let’s create a quick example. If you are producing a logo for an ice cream company based in Louisiana, it may be possible to hide the shape of Louisiana in the negative space between letters and the cone. Of course, this is still a highly creative process – it is important not to force the negative space to be something it cannot. Otherwise, it ceases to be negative space and the design will become too busy. 

For a real world example, look toward Yoga Australia’s logo. The main logo is a woman performing a yoga pose, the predominant design. Hidden within the pose, however, her body creates an outline of Australia.

Negative space can also be utilized in between letters when creating a wordmark – it is not just an aspect of symbolic logos. When in between letters, simpler messages are better as there is less space overall to work with.

Arrows, circles, triangles, etc. all work best. When using negative space to include your hidden message, it is a good reminder that the hidden message must be secondary to other parts of the logo.

Optimize Color Usage

Switching between colors, introducing new ones, or using the changes between them are great ways to introduce a hidden message in a logo.

When colors are used effectively, they can create illusions and make negative space easier to notice. In this way, optimized color usage is a way to improve the look of a logo as a whole, or compliment a hidden message that already has plans to exist.

Of course, there are plenty of other ways to use a logo to include a hidden message, as well. Introducing a rainbow color scheme to a subtle part of a brand will suggest a different message than keeping the whole logo black, for instance.

While these are not direct hidden messages, they speak to the power of color. You can find more information on color theory as it relates to logos and their hidden components here.

Especially when rebranding a logo to include a hidden message, explore previous uses of color from the brand or similar companies to ensure that you are keeping the logo noticeable while also being unique. For instance, if a company is heavily focused on nature or recycling, introducing green into the logo is likely a good choice.

If the logo has multiple colors, it makes the negative space between them much more powerful. Areas where color is missing can easily be shaped into hidden messages, often by changing just a few lines or aspects.

When it comes to using color for hidden messaging, it requires a holistic view of the logo. Most often, inserting a hidden message works best due to the absence of color – making color just as important to the entire design.

Explore Typography And Symbols

Exploring options with typography and special symbols in your logo is one of the best and most unique ways to introduce hidden messaging.

Ultimately, the sky is the limit with this method; unlike negative space and color, utilizing typography to create a hidden message allows direct control over what is happening without necessarily influencing other parts of the design.

The ways to use typography in hidden messaging are endless, from switching fonts to cutting letters. Even something as simple as splitting an “L” into two separate lines can end up having hidden messaging, or creating a face out of the parts, as LG does.

Other common examples of using typography to create hidden messaging often include utilizing “O”’s as eyes, switching font so that it looks like it could also be something else, or using typography that meshes seamlessly into the rest of the design.

It is easy to fall into the trap of cliches when incorporating hidden messaging through typography, so be sure to continue following the rules of good design. Keep everything legible, effective, and distinct. Otherwise, the hidden message may become lost among the other elements.

Various symbols can also be used for hidden messaging where typography may fail or not make sense. Symbols, in this context, are any design element that is not directly related to font, color, or negative space. For instance, incorporating a smiling face or arrow into your design would be using a symbol. Often, these can be used to include a hidden message.

Utilizing symbols for hidden messaging works exceptionally well for logos where the wordmark is not as important as the logo, or pieces that use artistic lines. The more abstract the symbol, generally speaking, the easier it is to include hidden messages.

Of course, this does not mean that all hidden message logos must be abstract; Amazon, one of the largest companies in the world, includes an arrow that unifies the word Amazon while stretching from the letters “A” to “Z” – because the store stocks everything.

There are a plethora of examples of hidden messages through additional symbols or modified typography. It is likely the most popular way to include hidden messages in logos, but certainly not the only way. It is also a dangerous habit to get into while early in a design career; it is easy to go overboard with symbols and destroy the overall look of the logo.

When possible, it is best to incorporate symbols that also complement the main purpose of the logo instead of just focusing on the hidden message.

Understand The Business And What The Hidden Message Is For

Before starting any design work on the logo, it is essential to define some aspects of the business and point of the logo. The main purpose of a logo is, generally speaking, to be easily identifiable; customers should be able to look at a logo and know it relates to that specific business. The presence of a hidden message should not interfere with this at all.

In order to successfully hide a hidden message in a logo, the main message of the logo must be defined first, then the hidden one. Essentially, a hidden aspect of any logo simply exists to provide an additional point – one that ideally accentuates the first one.

Aim to know as much as possible about the business before starting to set yourself up for design success.

Define What The Business Is About

Learning more about a business may seem unnecessary, but preliminary research may end up being the most important part of the process. Whether designing a logo for an entirely new business or reworking an old one, there are some essential questions to ask that will make the process of inserting a hidden message easier.

First, figure out what the business wants the logo to represent. Do they want to be kid friendly? Elegant? Business-oriented? There are a plethora of options here, and narrowing it down is vital to producing good work later.

Getting some specific information will help with this if the client does not have a clear vision. Asking questions such as:

• Who is the primary customer?
• Has market research been done?
• What brands do you see as most similar to yours?
• What competition exists?
• What logos do you like?

Will help make the process much easier. Ultimately, the point of these questions is to figure out the main message that the logo is attempting to give off. Once you have that defined, you can begin work on the second message, as well as on actual design work for the wordmark and logo.

Well-established businesses likely have other material that you will want to incorporate or change as well. Which you choose will depend on whether the logo design is part of a whole rebranding package or a purely logo refresh.

Overall, establishing a secondary message is much easier when things are consistent. That way, the notable change where the hidden message enters is clearer.

Figure Out What The Hidden Message Wants To Say

After the main message of the logo has been established, or at least thought out a bit, the process of figuring out what the hidden message should be can begin. This process is largely similar to the ideation process of establishing the main message, with a few key differences.

Some of the key differences are:

1. The hidden message should complement or reinforce the main message
2. The hidden message should have a good reason to exist and be part of the logo

Keeping these tips in mind will allow for the previously mentioned techniques to actually be effective. Otherwise, the hidden message may fall flat and end up hurting the logo more than it helps it.

Compliment or Reinforce The Main Message

This key difference is likely the most important. It is wise to consider a hierarchy of importance when it comes to logo messages. People tend to focus very little time on logos; they want to be able to quickly look at one, recognize the brand, and move on.

During the first look at a logo, the observer should only notice one message. That being, the main message. This is true for a number of reasons, but the main one is that people do not want to be confused or have to spend extra time on something like this. Ultimately, when people look at the logo a second, third, or even fiftieth time, they should notice the hidden message.

Think of popular logos that have hidden messages, such as Amazon or FedEx. It is likely that you did not notice the hidden message of these logos until much later – after you easily recognized and identified the logo with that brand. Making the hidden message too obvious will alter people’s perception and make it more difficult for the initial recognition to occur.

Toward this goal, it is a good idea to choose a hidden message that helps with the main message of the logo. Consider, for instance, designing a logo for a beauty company. The company wants to feel sophisticated and well-established. They have been around for a few decades and want to incorporate that into the logo, but it should not be the focus.

With that example, the dichotomy between the main message and the secondary message is clear. Using this information, incorporating the date, silhouette of their first building, original colors of their first logo, or any of the above can easily be done as a hidden message. It complements, rather than distracts from, their main message. 

Having A Good Reason For A Hidden Message

Although it may seem like a good idea for every logo to include a hidden message somewhere in it, it is often not the best-case scenario. The fact is, very few people spend time analyzing and constantly looking at one logo.

Especially for small businesses where their logo needs to stand out more than most, the inclusion of a hidden message may detract from the logo’s effectiveness.

Logos are small and need to be legible quickly; if a hidden message interferes with that, it should be cut. They really cannot store an incredible amount of information. However, a good logo will call customers in, who then become interested in the brand. At that point, they can learn more about all the other reasons to support the brand.

Consider, for instance, designing a logo for an old-time popcorn company. Let’s say the company was established by the son of one of America’s first presidents. While that is an interesting fact that may draw in extra customers, it is probably not the best decision to include an homage to that in the logo. It likely does not mesh well with the other message of the logo and could make things confusing.

However, if that same popcorn company’s logo is effective at drawing customers in, marketing material or their website can then dive into the company’s history and mention that fact. Be critical in determining whether or not to include a hidden message in your logo, and only include the best.

Placeit is a fantastic branding and design website made to allow anyone to create beautiful designs quickly. It has grown to include an enormous library of options for almost any creative or internet user comprising both free and premium assets. The number of features on the site can be staggering, and first-time users may be confused about some options.

Placeit uses a subscription pricing model or the ability to purchase individual designs. It hosts templates on a wide variety of subjects ranging from logos to videos to design mockups. There are some fantastic alternatives available out there, but Placeit has the most extensive easy-to-navigate library.

This review will cover a significant portion of the website and its options so that users can make an informed decision about what Placeit offers them. For more details about pricing, features, and alternatives, keep on reading.

Pricing

Placeit offers a few different pricing models so that users can make the best choice for what they need. Placeit offers a wide selection of free templates and assets that can be used for any purpose, but most of the site includes paid content. These free templates and mockups are perfect for learning how the site works and experimenting with various styles before moving on to paid services.

When you are ready to take the next step, Placeit offers payment for templates through two different models. The subscription model is the most popular and, generally speaking, the best deal. Placeit also allows for the purchase of individual designs if you only need one or two cheaper purchases.

Reading through the details on pricing and the differences is essential before dedicating to one over the other. Purchasing one higher-priced design before realizing you need more will ultimately result in more money spent, while paying for a subscription and only using one cheaper design will also be a bit of a waste.

To optimize your pricing model, try to make a list of all the graphics and designs you will need before starting. You can then easily compare the price of purchasing designs individually to the price of a subscription and make the best choice.

Paying for Individual Designs

Paying for individual designs allows for Placeit’s online template tool to craft a custom image and purchase it. There are a few key things to note about choosing this pricing route:

• You purchase the design, not the template
• Price may vary significantly between categories
• Designs are saved online through an account and downloaded to your computer

When you decide to pay for one design you need, you are purchasing the finished design you created, not access to that template. This means that if you want to make even minor changes in the future, you will have to purchase the design a second time. As such, it is best to create the final design before moving on to purchase. You can experiment with Placeit’s entire library of assets before paying anything, so take the time to get it right!

While some templates are cheaper to buy once than a monthly subscription, some are not. When you are ready to move on to payment, be sure to look at the design price and compare it to the price of either a monthly or yearly subscription.

Examples such as:

• Animated logos
• Most Mockups
• Flyers
• Business cards

Are cheaper than paying for a subscription. However, some designs, such as most normal logos, cost more to purchase than access for one month. In this case, consider why you are interested in a one-time purchase over a subscription.

Finally, a small benefit of using a one-time purchase is that Placeit will save the design to your online account forever, in addition to letting you download it. On a subscription model, designs are lost when the subscription ends. This means that, using a one-time purchase, you could theoretically come back and find the design at any point in the future. Placeit’s specific licensing terms can be found here.

Choosing the Subscription Service

Placeit also offers a subscription service, a popular option that allows full access to all of the site’s templates and assets. There are a host of benefits to choosing the subscription service, including:

• Lower overall price
• Monthly or yearly payment plans
• Unlimited use
• Access to all templates and mockups

When looking at the subscription models Placeit offers, comparing the yearly and monthly plans is essential. If you will use Placeit’s services for the majority of the year, even on an irregular basis, choosing the yearly plan will ultimately save over 50% over a monthly subscription of the same period.

A per month subscription costs $14.95, and a yearly subscription costs $89.69, or $7.47 per month. When deciding between the two, it is best to consider how long you will use Placeit’s services.

Pro Tip: Placeit also offers an additional 15% off any plan with this coupon.

People like UI designers or T-shirt designers who will create designs or mockups continuously throughout the year will benefit from choosing a yearly subscription. People who are looking to establish branding and design for a business, for example, may only need the service for one to two months at a time.

It is worth noting that, with monthly subscriptions, you can cancel immediately when you feel that your work is complete, ensuring that you will not get charged extra. Additionally, all licensing rules are the same whether you are currently paying for a Placeit subscription or not.

Unlike an individual payment, either form of subscription unlocks the entire site for unlimited use. This is especially great for people who want to test out multiple designs off-site or who need to make multiple images. Pricing and details can be found on Placeit’s website by clicking on the “Pricing” button in the top left.

Features

Placeit offers a host of different features and categories for creating designs and is one of the largest mockup libraries, offering over 50,000 templates. The massive number of options can be generally split into four categories, but there is some overlap between them. They are:

• Mockups
• Designs
• Videos
• Logos

In addition to the number of templates and availability, Placeit makes it easy to actually use their services. Editing any template is surprisingly simple and allows for a significant amount of control over the process. Plus, if you do not like a template, it is easy to backtrack and select a new one.

Any part of a template can be changed to perfectly fit your needs, so you can get a unique product that represents whatever you are making this for. Specific parts of a design change depending on what category you are designing, but some options include:

• Font
• Colors
• Imagery
• Background / background color
• Text

Using Placeit is as easy as uploading an image for a mockup or choosing from design assets to create a logo or video. They easily list recommended sizes for uploads to get high-quality mockups and provide all logos in high-quality sized files.

Due to the number of templates available and the categories they fit into, each section also includes additional features. These make using templates easier and finding the perfect one a breeze.

Easy to Use Mockups

Placeit’s mockup offerings are some of the best on the web. Simply put, a mockup is any image that a design can be placed on top of to show how the design would look in the real world. For instance, a design for a t-shirt can be created and then placed on a mockup of a woman wearing it to show how it fits and would look.

Mockups are extremely useful for many reasons. They can be used as marketing materials for sellers, showcase designs to stakeholders or clients, or test out visibility in different locations.

Due to the number of applications these have, the mockup section of Placeit is quite large. You can find the general section here, but it is often in your best interest to employ the website’s search and tags feature to narrow down results.

App Design

Showcasing an app or webpage design is one of the most common ways that mockups are used. They allow people to actually see what the app would look like on a real phone screen or other device and are essential for presenting final work and testing.

App, UI, and UX design are growing categories that are becoming more and more essential to the success of new companies. Placeit’s broad library of app design mockups is excellent for showcasing how essential the work has been, and they offer several different options.

Subcategories on Placeit that encompass app design include:

• iPhones
• iPads
• Android Devices
• App Store Screenshots
• App Videos
• iMacs
• MacBooks

Each of these categories (and more) includes multiple photographs of the phone or device in many settings, featuring some different people or objects. By including many options, specific mockups that match the tone of the app or website can be selected to showcase the project better.

Merchandise

Merchandise mockups are some of the most popular templates featured on Placeit. This is likely due to the growing number of people and businesses starting to create their own t-shirts, mugs, pins, and other apparel. Like the app design mockups, these are meant to show the merchandise being worn and used as usual.

Thanks to the popularity of this category, there is a wide variety of subcategories and mockups available. Using Placeit’s search function or category search shows a number of them. A small selection of highlights includes:

• Apparel
• Beanies
• Face Masks
• Hoodies
• Mugs
• Tote bags

Almost any physical product you can create and place a design on has a mockup on the website. Plus, the details of various mockups can be changed to better match the merchandise you are selling, including things like the background color of a shirt, mug, or tote bag.

Packaging

Package design mockups are also a feature of Placeit that allows graphic designers to test how their designs will look on real objects and boxes. This is often an essential step in both testing out your work and presenting it for review.

The number of different package mockups available is staggering and ensures that you will almost always be able to find the right image. A quick look at the category reveals just how many are out there, along with the customizability that Placeit allows for.

Covering packages from chip bags to shipping boxes, these mockups allow designers to showcase every part of the complicated package design process. Ultimately, as with any other mockup, these will help to imagine, refine, and sell the design you have created.

Ready-made Designs

Placeit’s mockup library is one of its biggest draws for designers with work to showcase, but their ready-made design templates are transformative. These templates allow anyone, regardless of their graphic design knowledge or background, to produce fantastic-looking and usable designs.

Thanks to the number of templates available, designs can be created on just about anything. Things like Facebook ads to album covers have multiple templates available to start with.

While subcategories are helpful in the design realm, this is a case where it is probably best to search for what exactly you are looking for. That way, you will avoid the paralysis of choice that can often come from having so many options in front of you. Still, using categories before the search can help even more.

Apparel

Designs for apparel such as t-shirts, hoodies, and tote bags can be crafted directly on Placeit. Thanks to the number of assets and fonts available, you can easily create a unique design that fits what you are looking for and is perfect for selling.

For example, these t-shirt templates are excellent mockups. It is possible to edit the graphic, colors, text, and font, ultimately resulting in a unique product in a process that likely takes less than 5 minutes.

The design template process can be opened up even further, however; images from Placeit’s entire asset gallery can be pulled up and placed on the shirt, or you can even upload your own. This is especially useful for people who currently have apparel that they want to update or upgrade through Placeit.

Things like apparel designs can also benefit from being placed on a mockup that is also available on Placeit, bringing the whole ecosystem of options together. This is one of the most powerful parts of Placeit: everything can quickly be done on one website.

Business Needs

Businesses often need a surprising amount of design work done, especially while the brand is establishing itself. From large categories like a logo and wordmark, to smaller details like business cards and custom stationery, Placeit has templates for every step.

Logos are generally considered their own category thanks to the number of options that Placeit has just for them, so an exploration into those will be done a bit later. Everything else, however, is covered here.

Getting the details right for any business can help drive traffic and present the image you want out to the world. Leaving things like a business card design to the end of the process may feel like the right decision, but remember that it is the first thing many people will see about your business. It must make a good impression.

Carrying over that impression to the rest of your work is also essential, and where the rest of the business designs come into play. While using these designs, remember to keep things consistent; use the same colors and font, and place your logo tastefully.

The designs for business needs are just as varied as the rest of the site and support any sized business, from a freelancer to a thousand-employee plus operation.

Tech & Social Media

Designs in the technology and software space are hugely popular, and Placeit offers a number of templates that fit in this category. Ranging from social media post design templates to dedicated designs for placement on the back of phones, there are several templates that Placeit features to help.

This category is so popular that there are even specific categories for Instagram stories and posts as well as Facebook ads. Anything that an average person or even a small business may want for their social media needs can be found here.

As the business needs designs, it is best to maintain a consistent look and feel across your social media and technology templates, which Placeit makes it easy to do. Creating your own style from the templates will help you stand out from the crowd.

Video and Animation Capabilities

Among similar websites, Placeit is relatively unique in offering video and animation capabilities on its website. Rather than learning complicated video editing and animation software, Placeit has a growing number of templates that cover everything from animated GIFS to video introductions for YouTube.

Customizing these videos is a bit more complicated than the simple designs and mockups previously mentioned, but it is still easy enough for anyone to get started with. As always, you can customize the text, font, colors, and visuals of each template to make them your own.

Online Video Maker

Placeit has a fantastic online video maker that walks users through the entire process of creating slideshows, Instagram stories, video intros, product demos, and Instagram videos. It is an easy-to-use tool that simplifies an often difficult to understand process into just a few minutes.

This tool eventually takes users to the classic template editor of Placeit with the original choice’s added tools. For example, creating an Instagram story also allows users to add or find sound to accompany the animation and set up animation frames.

The number of videos and animations available on Placeit is consistently growing and even adding new categories like streaming screens and services.

While this tool is likely best suited for small business owners or designers looking to expand into animation, it is just as usable for the average person looking to step up their social media presence with some fantastic looking effects.

Logos

The number of logo templates is one of the best features that Placeit has. The available options are high-quality and span across a large number of fields, professions, and interests, all but ensuring that any business or person in need of a logo can find precisely what they are looking for.

The number of subcategories in logos that Placeit has is staggering and includes categories ranging from law firms to moving companies. Choices for logos are incredibly similar to how other designs on the site work, allowing users to customize each aspect to get what they are looking for.

Searching logos can also be done by look rather than sector. For example, if you are particularly interested in abstract logos, it might be better to search that way instead of looking through your most related sector.

Gaming

Gaming logos are trendy on Placeit for anybody looking to start a stream or YouTube channel around the topic. Alternatively, even actual games can create their logos on the site and use them.

Business

Placeit offers logos for a wide variety of businesses and supports assets that cover all sorts of aesthetics. The sheer number of options ensures that you can combine looks and businesses until you get a logo that truly represents what you want to represent your business.

Searching the logo section can be daunting at first, especially if you do not have a solid idea of what you want at first. In this case, there are a few good options:

• Use Placeit’s search and tags features to find what is popular right now
• Organize by field
• Use Placeit’s “save” feature to create a collection that you think could work

Any of these methods alone or in combination with the other should ultimately narrow the list down to a workable option. Then, if you are still unhappy, you can reset and start at a larger filter to find what you are looking for.

Alternatives

There are a few available alternatives to Placeit, although very few cover the same number of topics and features that Placeit offers. For those looking to standardize an ecosystem that allows them to design, brand, and mockup an entire business, Placeit is likely the best offering.

However, people interested in a single category can find some alternatives out there.

Creating Designs Without A Template

Creating designs, logos, or mockups without a template is undoubtedly an option for many people. Doing this is often more work but allows for excellent control over every possible aspect.

Creating your own designs from scratch is a good idea for designers already confident in their skills and handling of technology. For small business owners interested in easily getting some options out quickly, this is a significant amount of work to learn.

There are a few different options for those looking to get seriously into design. Some of the most popular include:

• Adobe Creative Cloud
• Affinity Professional Suite
• Procreate

These are programs or groups of programs that specialize in important parts of the process, such as image manipulation, creation, editing, and additional utility for animation and video. Each of them also costs either a monthly fee or a one-time purchase.

Using Similar Services

Similar services exist online that can do many things that Placeit can, often with smaller libraries or while specializing in one part of it. For those looking for an alternative or to simply compare, there are a few popular options.

Artboard Studio Works Wonderfully for Mockups

Artboard Studio is a similar website that offers a variety of mockups and image editing for those interested. It is a more powerful customization tool than Placeit and highly specialized. Their website can be found here.

Like Placeit, they also offer some free templates and a host of assets, as well as a possible upgrade to a premium subscription for $15 per month. As they are more focused on professional teams and designers, the cost is for each team member added.

This is a great option for those exclusively interested in mockups who wish for more control over their templates, including options to introduce layers and additional items. However, the tool may involve too many options for those who want a quick way to create product mockups.

Canva Includes A Host of Templates

Canva is a popular choice for creating quick animations and designs using templates that function similarly to Placeit. They include many different plan levels for using designs for personal use, small businesses, and even non-profits. Their website can be found here.

Their categories are similar to Placeit’s and include social media posts, videos, and designs.

Upgrading past their free plan can quickly get expensive for large teams, but the service works exceptionally well on the free level.

Recap

Placeit is a service for design, logo, and mockup templates that is meant to be easily usable and feature a host of different categories. It includes free templates as well as a subscription model or a pay-by-piece model.

The website is built to be easy to use for everyone, so no previous design experience is necessary. It has a huge number of templates, over 50,000, to ensure that anyone can find what they are looking for and make it unique.

Alternative choices exist but are often more complicated or do not include the entire ecosystem of products that Placeit does.

Important Links: Placeit also offers an additional 15% off any plan with this coupon.

A twitch offline banner can help bolster your viewers confidence that you are a reliable source of content. It can also imbue your project with a greater degree of professionalism. Fortunately, Placeit provides you with just the tools you need to make a banner that will keep your twitch viewers coming back for more. But how exactly do you create a twitch offline banner, anyway?

You only need a basic knowledge of Placeit and the tools it provides to create an effective Twitch Offline Banner. A working knowledge of templates, fonts, graphics, and the copyright law surrounding digital images is necessary for consistent results.

If you’d like to get started making your own unique Twitch offline banner without all the hassle of overly complicated programs, you’re just the person this is for. We’ve made it easy for you by laying out step by step instructions that will fill you in on how to make any basic twitch offline banner you want. From there, it’s up to you and your creativity to see your original vision come to life!

How to Use Templates in Placeit

Placeit offers hundreds of individual Twitch offline banner templates you can choose from, to kick start your offline Twitch banner.The templates combine compelling color schemes and preset fonts to jump start your project.

Even though these are great for getting you started, different templates are better or worse depending on what you’re trying to do. That’s why we’ve listed a few questions below that will help you determine exactly which template is best for you.

Do You Have the Right Template for a Twitch Offline Banner?

With Placeit, you can do more than just create a Twitch Offline Banner. You can also make Twitch Panels and standard banners, as well as a slew of designs for other purposes and services.

With so many options, you’ll firstly want to make sure that you’ve picked a template specifically for Twitch Offline Banners. The size of Twitch Panels and standard banners are sometimes different from that which an offline banner calls for.

To find the templates you need, to use the search bar on the left side of the screen and look up the term “Twitch Offline Banner.” This will provide you with a selection more curated towards your specific needs. Of course, when it comes time to make some Twitch panels, you can do the same with that term and any other.

What is Your Target Audience?

A lot of your design choices should revolve around what kind of audience you’re trying to captivate. Twitch isn’t just a video game streaming site anymore. There are popular streamers that discuss everything from Super Mario Brothers to human psychology and current events.

Depending on what audience you’re trying to attract, different color schemes and styles are preferable. For example, if you’re aiming at an older demographic, a template with bright, cartoonish colors might not be the right pick.

What Grabs Your Eyes First?

If something has an effect on you, chances are it will have an effect on others as well. If there is a template that immediately grabs your eye, you should consider using it.

Keep in mind, however, that the reason why it grabs your eye is just as important a detail like the fact that it grabs your eye in the first place. If it grabs your eye because it’s bright and flashy, but you’re already using a logo (hopefully designed in Placeit) with cooler colors, it might not be the best choice.  

How to Use Basic Design Features in Placeit

Over the course of this “How To,” we’ll discuss some very specific functions of Placeit design. However, before we do that, there are a few fundamentals we should get out of the way first. Below you’ll find the most basic design features on Placeit that don’t necessarily belong to one particular category. Learning these before you do anything else can save you a lot of time and energy.

How to Reset Your Template

When you first start working from a Placeit template, all of the images and text they have provided should be in places that are visually appealing. If, in the process of trying to be creative, you find that you liked the original layout more, you can reset everything to how it was on the template.

How to Resize or Crop The Border of Your Design

If you place a border or an image in your design and it’s too big, you can crop or resize it. To do this, you just need to double click on the image file on the right side of your screen.

This should open up the border or image into a window of its own with nothing but your image and checkmarks, which represent the rest of your design. At the bottom of the window, you’ll find the “Crop” and “Resize” buttons.

Once you’ve properly resized your image, you just click on the gray x at the top of the window and close out the crop and resize menu. Just make sure you click the x on the window in Placeit and not the x of your browser, as you’ll close out everything if you do that.

How to Toggle Layers in Your Twitch Offline Banner on Placeit

Sometimes you want to hide some of your text or images so that you can adjust what is behind it. Fortunately, it’s easy peazy.

To hide a layer of text or graphics, simply look next to the text box or the image box (text left side of the screen, image right) for an icon of an eye. Click on the eye, and that should hide the layer for you.

To restore the text or graphic back to your overall design, simply click the eye icon again.

Adding a Logo or Graphic to Your Placeit Offline Twitch Banner

As we stated before, Placeit allows you to make even more things than Twitch Offline Banners. You can use it to create streaming (or any business really) logos that will make your brand more recognizable to consumers.

To place your logo in your Twitch Offline Banner, follow these four easy steps. Please note that you can skip the first two steps if your logo is already uploaded to Placeit.

1. If your logo isn’t already in Placeit, click the “Upload Logo” button. On the left side of your screen, toward the bottom, you should see a small blue rectangle with the words “Upload Logo” on it.
2. Select the logo you want to upload from your files.
3. Click on the button that says “Add Another Graphic.” This should be another blue rectangular button, only this one is on the right side of the screen, between the icon and background color dropdown menus. 
4. Select your logo and place it where you think it will look best. That’s it. Your logo should be all set. However, please note that it’s a good idea to add this after you have your background.

The awesome thing is that you can use this same process to add any images to your Twitch Offline Banner. That means that if you want an image separate from your logo to appear on the banner, you just need to click that “Add Another Graphic Button.”

How to Effectively Use Placeit Fonts

While the font you use in your Offline Twitch Banner might not sound like it’s the biggest deal, it can actually make a world of difference. Having the font you use match the rest of your design will give your work a more professional feel. Therefore, you should keep each of the following rules of thumb when you think about what lettering will make your banner pop.

Please note that most of this advice applies to other types of projects you might make as well, such as Twitch Panels or your main banner.

Picking the Right Font For Your Placeit Project

One of the ways that Placeit saves you money, is by making good use of open source google fonts. Fortunately, the templates that Placeit provides, have been carefully crafted to match a default font to the style you’re using.

Though the default font of your template will usually do just fine, sometimes you want to express a little creativity and further distinguish your work from other projects. If you do want further customizability, follow these easy steps to add, change and adjust the size of your font:

• Click on the “Add Text” button. You should see this button on the right side of the screen. It will appear as a blue rectangle with the words “Add Text” written in the middle of it.
• Write out what you want the words to say in the text box. A small rectangular box with the word text above it should pop up right above the “Add Text” button. Please note there will also be a dropdown menu that appears right between the text box you can write in and the “Add Text” button.
• Select any font you want from the dropdown menu between the text box and the “Add Text” button. The default font it gives you is usually dictated by the template you’ve chosen.
• To change the color of your font, select the small dropdown menu right next to the font dropdown menu. You can’t miss this one; it’s a small square drop down box with a black square in it. For reference it looks almost exactly like the color dropdown menu in Microsoft Word.
• To adjust the size of your text, click on it in the image and use the manual resize tool. Essentially, on the actual text of your design, a box should pop up around it with points on all of the corners and sides for resizing. To keep all of your proportions the same, you should resize it with any of the four corner points, as the ones on the sides will elongate your text horizontally or vertically, depending on which side you chose.

Please note that you can turn off any unwanted text you’ve created any time by simply unchecking the box next to the font dropdown menu for that particular text. So if you were going in one direction at the beginning of your project but transitioned to another as your vision became clearer, it’s no hassle at all to get rid of what you don’t need and keep what you do.

Find the Right Place for Your Text

To move your text around, simply click on it and move it to where you’d like it to go. If you want to move a certain image or text to the front of the design, just right click it and select to move it to the front.

Just a little tip: Even if you don’t use the placement that your template gave to your font, pay attention to where it is. Templates are designed specifically to be visually pleasing. They put text where they believe it will be most appealing to the average person. Keeping in mind where the professionals place things can help make you into an expert yourself. 

How to Download Your Design

Once your image is completed, you’ll want to download it so that you can put it on your Twitch page. That’s why Placeit makes downloading your unique designs quick, easy and painless.

Follow these two simple steps, and congratulations. Now you’ve got the perfect offline banner to upload to your Twitch account today:

• Select the download button. You’ll find this in the top right of the screen, just beneath the tool bar. It should be a purple rectangular button that says the word “Download” on it, in white lettering.  
• Wait while it processes your design. When you click the download button, a small window will pop up that says “processing your design.” This allows Placeit to take all fonts, backgrounds, and graphics you used to create your banner, and make them into a singular image.
• Check for an email from Placeit that contains your design. When your design has been processed, the finalized image will be sent to your email for easy access later.
• Save the design from your email on your computer. Now your banner is ready to go on your Twitch page and anywhere else you’d like to use it!

What About Using Copyrighted Material in Your Design?

If an image is copyrighted, you need to get permission to use it. If you do not, you could end up having a copyright strike against your Twitch Account. Too many of these, and they will suspend you.

Important: One of the main benefits of using Placeit.net to create your Twitch Banner is that everything you find on Placeit.net is commercially usable, and copyright free. See the usage rights for confirmation.

How Do You Create a Twitch Offline Banner in Placeit?

To create a Twitch offline banner on Placeit, you’ll need both a clear vision of what audience you want to appeal to, as well as a grasp of the fundamental tools the service provides. These fundamentals include; the use of templates, graphics, fonts, and what copyright laws to pay attention to. 

Learning the tools is easy if you follow the steps we’ve laid out, however finding the right look for your audience can be a more difficult task. Just trust your instincts and think about what kinds of color schemes, fonts, and graphics that tend to draw your attention. Especially, look for the kind you’d like to see on a similar twitch channel to yours. Basically, go with your gut, use Placeit, and your Twitch offline banner will look great!

Pro Tip: Placeit also offers an additional 15% off any plan with this coupon.

If you need an avatar, you can make a Placeit Avatar quickly and easily. Avatars are used by gamers to portray their personas. People use avatars on social networking sites to identify who they are without using actual photos of themselves. Businesses use avatars to give customers a graphic image of their product or service.

Placeit has a library of avatar templates that you can use as they are, make a few minor changes, or modify the templates extensively to make them uniquely yours. Pick your avatar template, make as many changes as you want until you are completely satisfied with the look. Whatever your purpose, Placeit can give you the look you want.

How to Use the Placeit Avatar Maker

Placeit has made creating your avatar an easy task. They have done most of the work for you but have also given you a variety of options to make the avatar just what you want. You will need to create an account at Placeit.net.

You can start with a free account, but at some point, you will need to purchase the avatar you create or subscribe to Placeit for an unlimited supply of avatars and more.

Pro Tip: Placeit also offers an additional 15% off any plan with this coupon.

Placeit has made their landing page easy to use, so you do not have to worry about figuring out a complicated user interface. However, it is still helpful to follow a guide since the avatar maker is not directly on the home screen.

When you log in to placeit.net, Placeit gives you five main dropdown options. None of these options take you directly to the avatar creator. You will need to move your cursor over “logos” and select “avatars.”

• Create an account at Placeit.net
• Find and select “logos”
• Choose “avatars”

Begin Customizing Your Avatar

At the “Customize Your Own Avatar” page, type in your avatar name. This avatar name can be your name or a different name. You can change it later if you want to. You will not have to start over to change your name.

One of Placeit’s strengths is the ability to make almost any change to any component on the avatar. Placeit uses the term “industry” to identify the business type the logo will be used for.

When you select “avatar” from the long list of types of logos available on Placeit, the industry avatars will be preselected for you. Type in whatever you want your player name to be, and Placeit will populate your name into every avatar template. This makes it easier for you so that you do not have to retype the player name each time.

Pick your Avatar Template

You have 150+ Avatar templates available to you on Placeit. If that is not enough to choose from, you have a lot more options. For instance, if you want an avatar that is more gaming-oriented, try going to the “gaming” dropdown at the top of the page and select “logos.” This will give you an unbelievable 4,000+ templates to choose from.

With over 4,000 templates, there is surely something for you. Many of these are logos more suitable for business branding. They work better for a company brochure than for an avatar. But some of them would work just fine for an avatar. They even have choices for your pets!

Some careers with Placeit avatar templates include:

• Doctor
• Baker
• Contractor
• Mechanic

Do not worry about the wording on the template or the colors on the image. That can all be changed. What you are looking for at this point is the image. When you find the image that you like, you can modify it to make it really you.

A template is just a jumping-off point, so you will be able to change all kinds of things about the avatar to make them suit your specific needs for your personal avatar or your brand’s avatar.

What If You Do Not See an Avatar Template for You?

What happens if, out of the thousands of choices, you still cannot find the avatar that is the true you? That is okay with Placeit. You can ask for more, and you shall receive. When you click the “request” button that is found at the bottom of every page of logos, you will find a current list of requests for either content or features.

If your idea of a new avatar is not already listed, you can submit your own request to Placeit! This is great for people who may work in niche fields. With so many people able to submit requests for their careers to be featured as Placeit avatar templates, the already astounding number of choices is sure to grow even more inclusive.

Basics for Modifying the Avatar

The templates are similar in structure, but there is no such thing as a standard, run-of-the-mill template. Various templates have different components, but they can all be modified in a similar way.

When you pick your template, Placeit takes you to the work page. There will be three columns no matter which template you choose.

Center Column

The avatar itself will be in the center of the page. Placeit calls this the “logo.”

• Static avatars
• Movable avatars

On some templates, the avatar is static. You cannot highlight anything on the avatar, and you can only use the options in the work areas in the other columns to modify the text or the avatar itself.

On other templates, you can move your cursor over the avatar to see the various components that make up the entire image. Click on a component to see if you can move, rotate, or resize it.

Left Column

The left and right columns of the work page are your work areas. They contain the information that modifies the components of your avatar. The left column contains the text of your avatar and perhaps an additional component or two, depending on how many text boxes there are in your avatar.

Right Column

The right column contains the non-text components. Some templates have so many options, they fill more than the screen, so you have to check below the screen. Others have no options for specific components, so the right column will be empty.

Each component of the avatar will have a separate section in the right or left column of the work area. These components are the keys to making your avatar just what you want.

Some templates have a reset button at the top right of the template screen. Click reset if you want or need to delete all of your changes and go back to the original template.

If you are interrupted while working on your avatar, you can save it as a favorite or as a draft (in the upper right-hand corner of the page) and come back to it as often as you want.

Modify the Text in Your Avatar Template

Almost every template has text. While the text is the easiest part of the template to modify, it also has the greatest variety of options. The text is always the first component in Placeit’s workspace columns. The content of the text boxes will always be at the top of the left side of the page.

• Play around with the text.
• It is easy to change.
• It can be changed even after you are done with the rest of your editing.

Each line of text is usually separate from the rest of the text, so you can change each line independently. On some templates, you can click the text in the template in the center column to highlight the text boxes. This will show you whether the lines of text are in one or more text boxes.

• You cannot have two different text fonts or colors in one box
• All the text in a single text box has to be the same
• Text lines are short, usually with a limit of 20 characters
• Dramatic, eye-catching text is what you want
• Your name should be just one or two words
• Description text should be two or perhaps three words
• In those templates that are static, you can still see whether the text boxes are independent
• In the work area in the left column, each text box will be a separate work area component

You can add and delete text boxes on many of the templates. Placeit also allows you to temporarily remove a text box without actually deleting it. This is helpful for seeing what your avatar would look like without a particular text box or two. Click the eye icon in the workspace. Click the eye again, and the text is back in place.

Choosing Fonts and Colors When Modifying Text

You can pick your font if Placeit’s choice is not quite right for you. There are hundreds to choose from. The experts tell us that there should be no more than two or possibly three font styles in a logo of any kind. An avatar has so little text that you should stick with just one or possibly two fonts.

But, hey, it’s your avatar! While using only one or two fonts is the best way to keep your text boxes looking neat and tidy, you are in control of your own avatar. Use as many as you are comfortable with.

You can pick more than just your font; you can also choose your font’s color. There are about 180 to choose from. This is sounding similar: hundreds to choose from, thousands to choose from. But Placeit gives you so many options that you can take a standard template and make it completely your own.

Modify your Face

Most of the avatar templates have faces. There are so many templates that it is impossible to explain all the options in one article. You can peruse those on the Placeit website. But there are some common features.

Some templates give you the option to modify the face by changing the skin color and hair color. Others let you change your hairstyle. Still, others allow you to add components to the face – helmets, goggles, mustache, and more.

Some templates even let you change your facial features to invoke an emotion. They allow you to change the eyes and mouth so you can be happy, sad, or angry. The work area will identify what areas of the image you have control over.

Modify the Colors

The rest of your template is as easy to modify as the text and face. Each template has a background color option. Choose from the 180 available colors to change the background for your avatar. Black and dark blue are the most common, but you can use whatever color you like.

Some templates have a main color or an accent color. These will change different areas of the avatar in different templates. There is no way in most of these templates to figure out what is considered main or what is the accent, so you have to actually change the color to see what happens.

Different templates have different components. Placeit apparently does not have standardized definitions for the terms they use for some of these components. Some terms make good sense, and others are pretty generic.

Personalize your Avatar

On some templates, you will have a number of graphics as part of the template that you can choose to add to your avatar. These fit the theme of the template. You are able to customize the graphics in the following ways:

• Resize them
• Rotate them
• Crop them to fit

On other avatars, however, you have an opportunity to pick a logo. Since they use the term “logo” for the image or the avatar itself, adding another logo is a little confusing. This logo is a photo or image of any kind. When you select the logo, it will be placed on the avatar screen. You can then move, rotate, and crop this logo.

This is useful if you want to make an avatar that actually looks like you! Use a photo, or better, cartoonify a photo of yourself. And, like everything else in Placeit, you can come back later to resize, replace, or even remove it. This will only work on a handful of templates because this image is always on top of the rest of the template, not behind.

Animate your Avatar

You can create an animated avatar in Placeit. Under the logos dropdown, go to the “animated logos” page. This page can also be found under the “gaming” dropdown on the Placeit home page. These are actually gaming logos, but you could use one as your avatar on most web pages.

There are currently 665 animated templates to choose from. You have the same options to change the text and colors and sometimes to add additional graphics as in the other templates.

In addition to animating your avatar, you can add a song to some of the animated avatars. There are several hundred to choose from in several dozen music styles. There is a musical component in the work area of the template. Open the directory, pick a style from the list on the left, choose one of the songs, and play it to hear the selection.

Download your Avatar

When you finish your avatar, you have several choices:

• Buy your avatar.
• Subscribe to Placeit
• Save your avatar as a draft
• Save your avatar as a favorite
• Share your avatar

Paid Options

The “download” button on the upper right of the work page allows you to purchase and download your avatar for a one-time price of $39.95. If you are looking for just one avatar, this is the best option.

You can subscribe to Placeit for $14.95 a month or $89.69 per year. This gives you the ability to create and download unlimited avatars. More than that, you can create mockups, designs, and videos. Placeit is far more than just an avatar creation program. It offers a wide variety of advertising or branding types of documents. 

Pro Tip: Placeit also offers an additional 15% off any plan with this coupon.

Free Options

You can save your avatar as a draft. You will do this if you are working on your template but are not yet finished. This will not cost you anything. You are saving your avatar on the Placeit website for later revision or purchase. You can identify your avatar as a favorite. If you create numerous avatars, you can find your favorites more quickly.

You can also share your avatar. When you click the share button, you can copy the URL of your avatar. Placeit then gives you links to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Linkedin Share. The “Share your Avatar” option gives others a link to your avatar’s URL, so they can see your avatar. But that is all they can do. They cannot copy it or download it.

Please understand that those with whom you are sharing your avatar are going to the Placeit website. You still do not have ownership of your avatar, even though others can see it. To use your avatar for any reason, at some point, you are going to have to purchase it.

For small business owners, social media influencers, or anyone interested in personal branding, Placeit offers users a variety of marketing templates that can be accessed by desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone.

Does Placeit have a smartphone app? While Placeit does not currently have an app for smartphones, both iPhone and Android users can still easily access Placeit on their phone by going to www.placeit.net on their smartphone’s internet browser.

Placeit is an excellent resource for individuals and small businesses without a dedicated Marketing team, limited design experience, or who are on a tight budget. In addition to a selection of free templates, Placeit also gives users unlimited access to over 90,000+ templates, on a “pay-as-you-go” basis, monthly subscription, or yearly subscription, all of which are accessible by smartphone. For those unfamiliar with Placeit, read on to learn what it is, how it works, and how to use Placeit on the go.

How to Use Placeit On a Smartphone

While Placeit does not currently have an app for smartphones, all of the Placeit templates can be accessed on both iPhone and Android by simply opening a web browser and typing www.placeit.net in the search bar. Using a smartphone, users will have full access to all of the templates for:

• Videos, such as Instagram and timeline style social media posts
• Mockups
• Logos
• Designs
• And more

As a reminder, Placeit can be used by both iPhone and Android users.

What Exactly is Placeit?

To put it simply, Placeit is a template generator. The Placeit webpage has over 50,000 different templates that are grouped by type. The templates are divided into several different categories, including:

• Mockups
• Design
• Logos
• Videos
• Gaming

Within these categories, users can search for the specific kind of template they want.

For example, in the Design category, templates are further divided into subcategories, such as:

• Album Covers
• Banner Ads
• Book Covers
• Instagram Posts
• Business Cards

Each subcategory has a variety of template designs that users can pick from to create their design. Users can select a template, design it to meet their business needs, and then save it for their own personal use.

Who Can Benefit from Placeit?

Placeit provides over 90,000+ templates for custom use. Nearly anyone can benefit from Placeit services. For example:

• Small Business Owners
• Charities
• Schools
• Parents and Teachers
• Social Media Influencers
• Fundraising Groups

Whether a client has a one-time need for a book cover or a business card template; or is a small business requiring consistent support, Placeit fills a void for those who may not have the technical skill, the financial backing, or the resources to create these materials independently.

Placeit has been used to provide materials for a variety of different uses. For example:

• Fundraising – creating flyers, giveaways
• Advertising local events – creating mailers and advertisements
• Clubs and sports teams – announcing schedules, selling merchandise
• Student-run campus groups – advertising for participation
• Instagram and Facebook influencers – creating videos and promo items
• Small businesses – product mock-ups, business cards, flyers

There are plenty of applications where Placeit templates come in handy.

How Does Placeit Work Exactly?

Placeit is very simple to use. Users require little to no experience in photoshop, video production, or computer graphics to successfully create a template on Placeit.net

Step 1 – Choose the required template, for example, “Business Cards,” which is found under the Design Category.

Step 2 – Point and Click to select a color palette. All color selections are instantly applied so users can get a sense of the design and style.

Step 3 – Select a font type and input the pertinent information in the supplied text boxes. Users can upload pictures and logos to complete the business card template.

Step 4 – Click download. Free templates will immediately download and can be saved. Paid templates require payment upfront before downloading.

Users can choose to pay a 1-time fee for their template, a monthly fee of approximately $14.95, or a yearly fee of approximately $89.69 for unlimited use of Placeit’s catalog of templates.

Pro Tip: Placeit also offers an additional 15% off any plan with this coupon.

What is a Mockup?

A mockup is basically a picture of a promotional item, such as a coffee mug, t-shirt, or cellular phone case with the user’s logo, business card, or other template design pictured on the item. The mockup is created as the first step in pre-production.

Mockups allow a client or business to see what their product will like before it actually goes into production. They are also used by the manufacturer to create the mold or print necessary to make the desired item.

Placeit has a variety of mockup templates that include:

• T-shirts and sweatshirts
• Coffee Mugs
• Android and iPhone cases and grips
• Hats
• Tote bags
• Travel mugs and much more

The templates are easy to use and allow clients to see what their merchandise will look like before it goes into production.

How to Create a Mockup on Placeit

Using an internet browser on a smartphone or computer, simply access the desired mockup category, whether it’s a shirt, mug, or phone case, and click on the selected template.

Step 1 – Upload the desired image onto the template. If using an iPhone for example, be sure that the image has been saved in the “photos” app, as this is the iPhone default location when selecting an image file. Placeit will give users the option to upload from their devices or select an image from downloads.

Step 2 – Select the desired color palette by clicking on the color menu. Simply click on the desired color. There will be up to four fields per color palette depending on the specific template

Step 3 – Add any desired text in the specified text box.

Step 4 – Download the template.

Once downloaded, the template can be used as an advertisement on a webpage or catalog or sent to a manufacturer for production.

Placeit’s Pros

• Easy to use
• Thousands of templates to choose from
• Includes a decent selection of free templates
• No technical skill or design experience is necessary to use Placeit successfully

Placeit’s Cons

• Most templates are rather simplistic and may not meet all requirements
• Users must select from available fonts; you cannot upload customized fonts.
• Single-use purchases can be pricey
• While Placeit creates high-resolution mock-ups, they are not a print on demand service. Users will have to contract with a separate company to create physical products

The Bottom Line on Placeit

Placeit is a great solution for small businesses or social media influencers who need to create quick content and templates while on the go. Placeit can be accessed via a browser on a desktop or laptop computer but is also fully optimized for use on a smartphone as well.

Don’t forget the 15% coupon if you’d like a full-access plan!

Canva is one of the most popular online design tools available, but it is far from the only one. Bloggers and creators of all kinds utilize these kinds of tools each day for running businesses or simply creating beautiful graphics.

The reasons to want an alternative to Canva are numerous. Whether it is for a different pricing plan, larger selection, different interface, or something else, there are tools available for everyone. Here is a list of 13 of the best ones.

1. Placeit.net

Placeit is my #1 recommended alternative to Canva.

Placeit.net is the strongest contender for entirely replacing Canva as a one-stop tool for all design needs. Placeit.net includes access to:

• Design templates
• Logo creation
• Mockups
• Video creation
• T-shirt designs

And more. Almost any design need a business or hobbyist may have can be met on the website. Plus, additional templates are added every day, so the library is one of the largest on the web.

Everything created on Placeit integrates with each other, making it perfect for setting up branding. You could easily create a logo on the site, import it to a t-shirt design, and then place that design on a t-shirt mockup to sell. Taking that same logo and applying it to social media posts to advertise the shirt is also an easy task.

With the number of options available here, it is almost a guarantee that you will find a template matching what you need. Searching on the site is also effortless, thanks to well-organized categories.

Most things on the site are split into four categories:

• Mockups are meant for marketing images and material. They are basic images of t-shirts, cups, mugs, phones, and other everyday objects. A design is applied to the mockup to make it easier to sell online.
• Designs cover everything from t-shirts to flyers, social media posts, and business cards. Everything a business needs to run can be found here.
• Logos are a unique feature to Placeit, allowing a business to quickly find a template and customize it to what they want.
• Videos are animated designs usually used for social media posts that allow for extra variety. Things like Instagram stories and Facebook banners are common.

Plans and Pricing

Placeit.net includes plenty of free templates to get used to the website. Or monthly plans are available for $14.95 that grant unlimited access to everything. Placeit also offers 15% off any plan for new users.

2. Stencil

Stencil focuses its capabilities on marketing and social media images. Traditional graphic design capabilities that Canva and some other alternatives on this list have have been cut out. While this may seem like a bad thing, it is beneficial for people only looking for specific posts.

By reducing what they offer, Stencil makes it extremely easy to do a few things. Some of their best categories include:

• Email templates
• Social media posts
• Stock photos
• Logo creation and storage

They are a robust tool for anyone looking to run a business online, but do not cover everything. Finer control over creations tends to get lost in the weeds. However, they excel at allowing for brands to exist online cohesively. Fonts, logos, and templates can easily be applied across mediums. Stencil markets itself as a tool for creating social media graphics.

Plans and Pricing

Stencil offers various payment plans, including a free plan that allows for ten images per month.Like almost every other option on this list, they limit access to icons and other features, but it is a great way to get your feet wet and try it out.

If you like the tool, they have paid options, including a $9 per month “Pro” plan and a $12 per month “Unlimited” plan. The Pro plan still limits the number of images that can be saved but unlocks the rest of the site. The Unlimited plan unlocks the entire website and allows you to save as many images as you want.

3. Crello

Crello’s main interesting feature is the ability to create animation and video content for easy sharing. It contains similar templates to others on this list, focusing on modern businesses with minimalist aesthetics. While it seems more than capable for traditional Canva uses, the animations are pretty unique.

Throwing in animations or video content on social media is a great way to draw new attention and spice things up. Outside of Placeit.net, few other tools on this list support animations.

On Crello, they list several animated design categories. These include:

• Square Video Posts
• Facebook Video Covers
• Full HD Videos
• Instagram Story Videos
• Facebook Story Videos
• Animated Logos
• TikTok Videos

Having a variety of animated templates this large is a great boon for anyone looking to supplement another tool on this list. Otherwise, their traditional templates are also expansive.

Plans and Pricing

Crello also supports a Started and Pro plan. The Starter plan supports five unique downloads per month and grants access to over 30,000 templates. Animated options are not locked behind the Pro paywall, which is a nice perk.

Upgrading to the Pro plan for $10 per month grants unlimited downloads, team collaboration options, and background customization. You can also choose to upgrade for $8 per month if you pay yearly.

4. Fotor

Fotor supports collage and design creation like Canva but expands to include extensive photo editing options as well. This is an excellent feature for hobbyists who do not want to spring for an expensive program such as Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop.

Instead, Fotor lets image editing happen quickly in the browser. Adjustments, effects, frames, and more are all available. For most people who are not professional photographers, this tool covers more than enough to function well. Plus, it is easy to try out on their free basic plan.

Their design and collage creation tools are also robust, but clearly not the focus of the program. Fotor’s number of designs, preloaded images, and templates is significantly lower than most other tools on this list.

Fotor is unlikely to fully replace Canva for a business or person who uses it extensively, but it is a great supplement.

Plans and Pricing

Upgrading to Fotor’s Pro or Pro+ plans removes ads, increases the number of templates available, and unlocks more advanced editing tools. The Pro+ plan includes priority email support and stock photos updated frequently.

The Pro plan costs $8.99 per month, while the Pro+ plan costs $19.99 per month. Most small businesses will work best with the Pro plan.

5. Piktochart

Piktochart is another specialty tool like Fotor mentioned earlier in the list. It does not heavily support Instagram posts or general marketing materials. Piktochart focuses on infographics, presentations, and reports.

This is a bit of a niche area, but if your business commonly uses any of these, Piktochart is one of the best tools on the market. Some of their most famous clients include:

• Disney
• Kraft Heinz
• Typeform
• Booking.com

With influential names trusting the tool, you can be sure that it will serve you well. Piktochart fully supports great utilities like brand customization, sheet linking, and templates to make the process as easy as possible.

For infographics, there is almost nothing better out there. However, it is essential to note that this will never be a total replacement for Canva or placeit.net. The tool does not support any sort of graphic design images. It is highly specialized.

Plans and Pricing

Their free plan allows for up to five saved visuals at a time and includes access to their entire template and image library, making it one of the better available ones. However, all exports do include their watermark. Paying is necessary to remove that.

Their Pro plan is more expensive than others on this list at $29 per month. This is likely due to how specialized the tool is. The Pro plan upgrades the personal storage limit, allows for unlimited visuals, additional customization, and no watermark. Anyone looking to use the tool seriously will want to upgrade to this level.

They also include a Teams level for companies to take advantage of. For $99 per month, five team members get access to everything at the Pro level. Secure sign-ins and sharing tools are also included.

6. DesignBold

DesignBold is another tool that niches down a bit from Canva’s typical offerings. Rather than trying to expand and beat out the competition with more templates, DesignBold has invested in their stock photo options.

That’s not to say that the company has not invested in good templates; they have over 20,000 available. Their great selection of images is one of the best of any of these tools. Social media posts and traditional graphic design creations benefit significantly from this.

The tool is straightforward to use thanks to an intuitive UI and beautiful templates. Some of their popular categories include:

• Business cards
• Flyers
• Social Media Posts (such as Instagram)

Plans and Pricing

Their various plans are organized well, especially for people looking just to try out the tool. Their free option allows for five design downloads per month and 2GB of personal storage on the site. This is nice for revisiting designs and comparing them.

Text effects and many of their templates are also available in the Free plan. Upgrading to their Pro plan costs $10 per month or $8 per month if paid yearly. This expands their offerings to an extra 4,000+ premium layouts, social media tool integration, and additional customization options.

7. Pixelied

Pixelied is another tool that covers everything that Canva does. Rather than niching down at all, it simply aims to offer a different experience from Canva. This is an excellent option to explore for anyone getting sick of Canva’s offerings or simply looking for a change of pace.

As with almost every other design tool on this list, Pixelied utilizes thousands of different templates to make designing different images and social media posts easy. It also includes stock photos and icons that cover a variety of looks.

Their design and workspace are some of the easiest to navigate. It is a great and good-looking option for people looking to break into these kinds of design tools or experiment with what is available. A nice tutorial that explains all of the different options also walks users through it for their first time.

Plans and Pricing

Pixelied’s free plan is one of the best out there for people looking for the basics. The free plan operates by simply limiting the number of templates and stock photos available to users. However, unlike other tools, an unlimited number of designs can be downloaded. This is great for businesses tight on cash or the average person looking to throw in some creativity.

Their Pro plan is a worthy upgrade for anyone who falls in love with the tool. For $9.95 per month, access to all templates, stock photos, and icons is included. This price also includes team members and brand assets for quickly switching between clients if you are a freelance designer.

8. Pixlr

Pixlr is actually divided into two separate tools that both serve as good Canva alternatives. Pixlr E is an online photo editor featuring advanced features for aspiring photographers. Pixlr X is a quick graphic design tool that covers the same things as Canva and includes social media posts, flyers, and more.

Pixlr E

Pixlr E is similar to Fotor mentioned earlier in this list. It includes a collage tool, a powerful online image editor, and plenty of nice features. Notably, it supports layers in the photo editor. This is useful for an Adobe Photoshop alternative or those looking to customize their designs more.

Tools like healing brushes, adjustments, crops, and text are all supported. Of what is on this list, it is one of the more powerful customization tools. With all of that said, it could be overwhelming for beginners. A small amount of design knowledge will be beneficial for anyone looking to use Pixlr E.

Pixlr X

On the other side of the same tool, Pixlr X is an easy-to-use tool for beginners or non-designers. The number of options available is limited to the bare essentials, and they have recently added templates to it. While still not the easiest on the list to use, getting used to the tool should not take much time.

Plans and Pricing

Pixlr’s pricing plans are pretty simple. Access to both tools is included regardless of what you choose, and switching between the two is simple. The free plan includes essential editing tools and features ads for support. The number of stickers and overlays included is also limited.

The paid Premium plan costs $8 per month, or only $4.90 if bought yearly. A 30-day free trial is also available for anyone on the fence. It includes access to absolutely everything on the site, including:

• Expanded editing tools
• An AI-powered background cut out tool
• Additional overlays and stickers
• Templates
• Tutorials
• No ads

9. Tyle

Tyle excels at creating video content utilizing easy and good-looking templates. Many video tools online can become convoluted to use, but Tyle handles it all exceptionally well.

Creating a video in Tyle is only a three-step process:

1. Choose a template
2. Upload media and text
3. Edit layers

Realistically, this can even be cut down to two steps if you are pleased with the initial template you choose. Throwing in video for social media posts or brands is a great way to mix things up and increase engagement.

Tyle also supports slideshows for photographs and collages if you do not have any video clips to use. An extensive library of stock footage is available. This is a helpful feature for anyone who often creates inspirational quotes or text-based images. Including a moving background for compelling areas will help focus attention.

Plans and Pricing

Tyle is a more expensive option than other tools on this list, mainly because it does not support static images. The Free plan allows for slideshows up to 20 slides long and supports most editing features and some templates. The upgraded Monthly plan costs $31 per month and expands support. It includes all of the website’s templates and stock libraries, URL sharing, and custom color palettes and sizes.

This is a highly-specific Canva replacement that only a few people will get use out of. However, if you are interested in producing video content, it is a great option. 

10. Snappa

Snappa, much like Canva and other tools on this list like Placeit.net, aims to be a one-stop design tool for everyone. Regardless of your knowledge of design or other disciplines, it should be possible to use this tool effectively.

Snappa functions using pre-built templates and image dimensions. There’s no need to look up how large an Instagram post should be or what size icon should be used for a YouTube channel; Snappa covers it all.

Their customization tools are fairly limited but serve perfectly fine for total beginners or those too busy to expand into design. Logos, vectors, and images can all be found directly in the tool to make things easier.

The style of their templates tends to be more modern and lighter, so it is worth taking a look through their library before deciding on them. While it is all top quality, they have a smaller library than some other offerings on this list.

Plans and Pricing

Snappa offers monthly or yearly plans, with the yearly plans being a better deal. They also have a Free Starter tier for trying out the tool. It allows one user and access to a variety of their templates. Users at this tier can download three images per month.

They also have a Pro tier that unlocks their photos and graphics for more customization. It costs $15 per month. This tier includes social media tool integrations, custom fonts, and unlimited downloads. For anyone looking to use this tool to run a business for themselves, this is the best one.

Snappa is somewhat unique for having a Team tier, where up to 5 users are supported for a lowered price of $30 per month. It includes all features of the Pro tier while integrating team collaboration tools.

11. RelayThat

RelayThat occupies a somewhat unique role among these tools, allowing for branded visuals to easily be customized and saved. While that is a normal function, it includes some specific features that make supporting multiple businesses or websites at once easy. It can be thought of as a complete marketing replacement rather than a Canva solution.

RelayThat allows users to upload brand assets and apply them to multiple templates. This is fantastic for setting up a business’s entire online presence quickly while also being able to edit it later. Thanks to the drag-and-drop functioning and smart AI, it is easy to update as necessary.

The tool allows for previous designs to be uploaded and organized using brand guidelines, or you can create it all entirely through the website. By saving specific settings like brand colors, logos, variants, and images, the time required to create an online brand can be easily cut in half.

RelayThat also expands and includes additional brand management features. Things such as:

• Headline generators
• Curated libraries
• Asset unification
• Stock images

Are all included for easy access to monitor your entire business. RelayThat is likely overkill for any individual creator, but business owners looking for a new tool may be served very well by this.

Plans and Pricing

For the expanded features and included assets outside of image creation, the price of RelayThat is higher than some others on this list. They do not have a free plan, but include plenty of video examples for getting a feel for the tool. Their Pro plan costs $25 per month and supports up to 2 users. It grants access to everything mentioned above and allows for unlimited downloads. However, it only supports up to 20 projects at a time.

Projects in RelayThat are different brands or projects rather than images. This makes 20 more than enough for most users. However, if you need more, their Enterprise plan is also available by contacting the company.

12. Easil

Easil includes a varied and extensive array of image editing capabilities, making it one of the more powerful tools included on this list. It still relies on many templates to get started, but users can realistically create unique and custom images using this tool.

While this customizability is greatly useful for many people, Easil can be overwhelming for total beginners. This is also a tool that creates images meant to share in a team. Branded templates both for internal and external use are easy to create here.

Team sharing tools are built directly into Easil for easy brand management. Once again, it is a tool better suited for small businesses than hobbyists.

It includes a wide variety of templates that tend to be more unique than some of the other smaller options, making standing out easier. They also include a large library of exclusive royalty-free images. This is especially great, as it basically guarantees that your posts will look exclusive and unique from other businesses using these tools.

Plans and Pricing

Easil’s pricing is simple. Their free plan includes a number of design elements and over 1 million stock images that can quickly be dropped into designs. It also supports uploading your own images and a nice organization system online. Downloading your designs gets tricky using the free plan, however.

The Easil Plus plan is available for $7.50 per month and expands the free plan’s features. All of their templates become usable, expanding the library to over 10,000. Team workflows, resizing, and additional customization tools just begin to scratch the surface of what the plan includes.

13. Visme

Visme is one of the few alternatives on the list that can whole-cloth replace Canva. Rather than specialize or niche down on one category that Canva does, Visme aims to beat Canva with size and availability. Even their website wants users to go to them for everything.

Everything that Canva can do, Visme can also. Infographics, social media posts, videos, documents – templates are here for everything. While their library is still smaller than Canva’s, it is undoubtedly expansive enough to cover almost any business’s needs.

Editing and customization have been simplified even further, making this an ideal option for users who want to finish up their social media and branding needs in a few minutes a week.

The inclusion of video options is relatively rare as well, increasing the value of Visme. Overall, it is a powerful alternative. With that said, there are some important notes about the service.

Plans and Pricing

Visme’s free plan offers less than Canva’s does, and their paid plans can be more expensive. The free plan supports up to 5 projects at a time, downloadable in a JPG format. The number of templates is, as expected, limited, as is access to various widgets and charts. While it is a respectable free plan, you may find yourself wanting more before paying.

The cheapest paid plan for Visme is the Standard plan, which costs $15 per month, billed yearly. Up to 15 projects are supported here, and storage expands to 250 MB. Visme branding on projects is removed, and additional download options are available.

From there, plans go up in price, project support, and storage. The Business plan costs $29 per month, billed annually. It is, as you might expect, built for larger businesses. Beyond that, Enterprise plans are available for custom pricing by contacting Visme.

Conclusion

Placeit is my #1 recommended alternative to Canva because it offers the most features, templates, commercial usage rights, and ability to copyright/trademark your design, at the lowest cost.

There are plenty of design tools online that can replace Canva. Many of these alternatives opt to focus down on a specific part of Canva rather than replacing it entirely. Some others, such as Placeit, manage to include everything that is part of Canva and more.

Nowadays, online design tools providing templates for business logos, gaming logos, t-shirt designs, and other items have never been more popular. But within a sea of online services providing similar design tools, it can be challenging to know which one is most worth your money. If you’re wondering if Placeit is right for you, you’ve come to the right place.

Today, we’re going to be taking a look at one of the most popular online design services, Placeit.net. Placeit provides a mockup service through which business owners and entrepreneurs can make logos, designs, videos, mockups, and much more for their brand. We’re going to analyze the services they offer and their products’ quality to help you decide whether Placeit is the right choice for you and your graphic design needs.

What Is Placeit?

Placeit is an online graphic design tool with the largest overall collection of mockups, designs, logos, videos, and other templates for graphic design and marketing purposes. It was the first ‘mockup generator‘ website on the internet, starting in 2012, and holds the highest number of templates to choose from.

Although Placeit originally got it’s fame from it’s mockup generator tool, it has since expanded to design templates, video templates, and most notably logo templates.

Mockups, or images virtually showcasing your graphic designs on physical products, are a considerable part of building and promoting a brand or business—especially today. Nowadays, where online marketing and targeted ads are becoming even more prolific, services like Placeit allow business owners (even those without any background in design) to create high-quality mockups that previously were only able to be made by skilled designers.

What Services Does Placeit Offer?

Placeit offers graphic design templates in 4 main categories (and a newly added 5th). The categories are:

1. Mockups
2. Designs
3. Logos
4. Videos
5. Gaming

Luckily, you don’t have to pick just one. Placeit allows users, both free and paid (more on that later), to access unlimited downloads from all categories.

Now let’s take a deeper look into each category.

Mockups

Mockups are Placeit’s bread-and-butter. They are the clear leader in the industry if you are looking for a mockup generator tool. Not only are they the most technologically advanced mockup generator, but they have the largest library of templates, the best prices, and the best image licensing.

Some of the categories you can filter your mockup template search by include:

• Art prints
• Bandanas
• Books
• Coffee cups
• Sweatshirts
• Food packaging
• Magazines
• Posters
• Tote bags
• Wine glasses
• So much more!

There are tons of other options to filter through to find the mockup design that’s perfect for your brand.

Designs

Placeit also offers design templates. They’ve taken their mockup technology and expanded it to graphic design templates as well. These templates are where you’ll find everything from social media post templates, to t-shirt design templates.

They have an incredible number of design templates for customers to use, but they keep it easy for you to find the right template by using search features and filters. Some examples of types of design templates they have include:

• Facebook ads
• Greeting cards
• Instagram highlight covers
• Mug design
• Phone case template
• T-shirt design
• Twitch banner maker
• YouTube banner maker
• Again, so much more!

This short list is only a small glimpse of the thousands of types of design templates you can make through Placeit.

Logos

This is where I get the most excited. If you want to create a Logo, you’ve come to the right place. Placeit has developed one of the most incredible logo makers on the web today. It’s quick, easy to use, impressively capable, and has some of the most unique templates.

The usual logo maker tools have very generic looking templates. This is where Placeit really starts to separate itself from the pack. The logo templates you’ll find on Placeit are unlike anything I’ve seen on any other logo makers. They are fresh, new, original designs, with styles that have traditionally been to hard to build into a logo maker template.

Placeit absolutely shines in this category for it’s advanced logo maker technology and impressive templates.

Videos

However, the list doesn’t end here: Placeit also has video making templates. This can be used to make promotional content, ads, intros for videos, product demos, Instagram videos, and more.

You can use their templates as-is or add your own media such as music, images, text, and videos to the content. Placeit’s customizability clearly doesn’t end with static media.

Videos are an increasingly important part of marketing in the new social media-based world. Placeit offers these video templates so that even inexperienced video makers can make their brand look high-quality, trendy, and as appealing as possible; this is extremely attractive to customers, as video-making can be an involved and time-consuming process.

Placeit’s Pricing

Placeit does have pay-per-item pricing if you only need one template (however, it’s costly to go this route.) They rely mostly on their subscription service with two options for consumers to choose from that allow you to reap the benefits of all the services they provide.

Both options give you full access to all of their templates, and unlimited downloads. The real difference between the two options is the discount you get for purchasing a longer-term subscription.

• Monthly Subscription: If you’re interested in using their services for a short period, Placeit offers a monthly subscription option that costs $14.95 per month (taxes not included).
• Annual Subscription: If you’re interested in using their services for the long term, Placeit offers an annual subscription option that costs $89.69 per year (taxes not included).

Pro Tip: Placeit also offers an additional 15% off any plan with this coupon.

While the monthly subscription costs $14.95 per month, the annual subscription option comes to $7.47 per month, which is a 50% discount compared to the monthly subscription option. Each plan provides customers with the ability to use all of their templates for mockups, designs, logos, and video creation purposes with unlimited downloads, and full commercial usage rights included.

Pros and Cons of Placeit

While the annual subscription option that Placeit has offers a 50% discount to the monthly subscription option, $89.69 per year is nothing to sneeze at. In this section, we’re going to take a look at the pros and cons of Placeit to help you decide if subscribing to Placeit is the right move for you and your designing needs.

Pros of Placeit

Placeit is definitely a business with a lot of pros to boast about—as evidenced by the high-ranking customer reviews you can find about their company all over the internet. Here’s what I think makes Placeit an excellent service that certain entrepreneurs and businesses can benefit from:

Quick and Easy

Placeit’s tools and interface are short, sweet, and to the point. If you need to make a mockup, design, video, or logo, but you’re on a time crunch, Placeit has got you covered.

They have a streamlined creation system that allows you to filter through their incredibly large number of template options to find exactly what you need for your brand. It’s mostly meant to be used by people with no design experience, which means everything is simple to use.

You could make a mockup in minutes if you needed to, which is something that used to be impossible and require Photoshop; this makes Placeit extremely attractive for those who need mockups but do not have the skill set, or time, to create them by hand on Photoshop.

Likewise, because their technology and template library is top notch, you can create professional looking designs, logos, and videos, in a cinch as well.

Customizability

While Placeit offers set templates for you to choose from, there’s plenty of things you can do to customize your templates along the way, which means you don’t have to have the same finished product as someone else—it can still be entirely yours.

You can choose from various color schemes, add your own media (like photos and videos), insert new text, mess with the different fonts they have available, and more; this means you can use the templates as a guideline and tweak the results to uniquely match your specific needs.

Number of Available Template Options

One of Placeit’s most apparent benefits is the sheer number of available templates to choose from. Believe it or not, Placeit actually has the highest number of mockups to pick from on the internet; there’s over 39,000+ mockup templates alone.

Beyond mockups, Placeit boasts another 90,000+ templates spread between it’s design templates, video templates, and logo templates.

This means that you’re sure to find what you’re looking for on their website, and there’s sure to be more than just one template that suits you and your brand’s vibe. It also helps you filter the results by industry or type of design to narrow down the search.

Quality of Products

All of Placeit’s logos, mockups, and designs are high-quality. Not only are they high-quality, but they provide different energies for different industries. Templates for Instagram ads and videos feature trendy, eye-catching templates for promotion. Templates for Twitch or gaming industries feature techy/sci-fi vibes to match the demographics you’d be trying to reach.

This goes for every other industry on the site; you can not only get high-quality templates from their service but ones that match the specific feel you’re looking for as well.

Cons of Placeit

Clearly, Placeit has a lot of pros to offer. But what are the cons you should consider before deciding if Placeit is right for you?

While the ease of use, customizability, number of templates, and quality of products from Placeit are certainly pros, there are indeed a few cons you should consider before pressing that subscribe button.

Subscription Cost

You saw this one coming, didn’t you?

While Placeit’s annual subscription only comes out to $6.35 a month with the discount, it’s still a considerable amount to invest. And if you don’t want to commit to a full year-long subscription, you’ll have to pay double the monthly price at $12.70 per month for a month-to-month plan.

Most businesses are turning to subscription-based services, and adding another one onto the monthly bill is certainly a consideration.

Pro Tip: If you have a business setup, and are using Placeit for business use, your Placeit subscription qualifies as a business expense. This could save you another 30% (or more) off your cost!

High-Cost of Pay-Per-Item Option

One thing that’s not so great about Placeit is their pay-per-item system. While they do offer a pay-per-item option, which means you wouldn’t have to commit for a certain period—it comes at a hefty cost.

Depending on the templates you want to use, paying for a single item on Placeit can be up to $39.99 per item. Of course, this is an attempt to motivate you to fully subscribe instead, but some people simply need a single logo, and this acts as a deterrent.

We see this as a flaw that Placeit should work on, and customers should consider.

Pro Tip: If using the pay-per-item option, check the price of the template you want to download first. If you find the template is over $12.70, recommend signing up for a single month of the unlimited subscription for only $12.70 instead. This will give you unlimited downloads of all templates for a full month, for the same price.

You Cannot Upload Custom Fonts

While Placeit certainly offers a high degree of customizability, the inability to upload fonts that don’t exist on the website can be frustrating.

Of course, when creating something for your brand or business, you want it to be absolutely perfect. Many design tools allow customers to upload their own custom fonts to their template if they don’t have the exact font you need, but Placeit does not currently have this as an option for their customers.

The Website Interface is English-Language Only

One huge flaw that Placeit should absolutely focus on fixing is its lack of language accessibility.

Placeit’s interface operates entirely in English with no options for other language translations. This makes Placeit virtually inaccessible to populations with little to no English proficiency, which is an obstacle for many people (not just globally, but even within the United States.)

Note: Placeit supports major languages in the actual template editor itself, but you can only navigate the main website in English.

The Bottom Line: Is Placeit Worth it?

After reviewing all aspects of Placeit, is Placeit worth it?

Yes, subscribing to Placeit is definitely worth it for the amount of templates and commercial usage rights alone.

That said, Placeit may not be the right choice for you if:

• You’re looking for a cheaper or free service.
• You don’t speak English proficiently.
• You’re looking to utilize custom fonts.
• You want to pay-per-item, not per month/year.

In Summary

Placeit has lots of pros and cons and depending on your priorities, it could be worth the buy. If you’re a person with minimal design skills, value template options and easy of use, and have the money to pay for a subscription, Placeit may have everything you’re looking for.

However, if you really need to be able to upload custom fonts (assuming they don’t offer yours), don’t have the money to pay for a subscription or are looking to pay-per-item, or don’t have a high English proficiency, you may not find Placeit to be the right fit for you.

Consider your priorities to decide what’s right for you. Good luck!

Ps. Don’t forget about the additional 15% off if you sign up 😀