Graphic design and illustration are two different creative fields of work. While graphic design focuses on communicating concepts and resolving issues through visual compositions like color, form, typography, and so on. Illustration is less about communicating to a specific audience and more about personal creative exposition. Not all artists can jump from one creative field to another, however, some are multi-talented and able to dip their pens in multiple fields.

It is possible for a graphic designer to be an illustrator. Fortunately, there is overlap between these two fields. This tends to be the case mostly with those that are creatively or artistically ambidextrous.

It’s even possible to learn while working in one of these fields because graphic designers and illustrators at times work side-by-side to accomplish a single task. Quite a few creatives will switch fields amid their career depending on what is most profitable. Keep reading to discover a few factors in accomplishing the leap from one industry to the other.

How Can a Graphic Designer Become an Illustrator?

There are creative fields that are closely related enough that there is not only overlap but the possibility for an artist to go from one field to the other. This transition may not be seamless and may require a learning curve of some kind, but it can be done in the case of graphic design and illustration.

When transitioning from graphic design to illustration there are a few factors to consider and some helpful tools that will help make the move a bit easier.

1. Kind of Illustration
2. Focus on Style
3. Finances
4. Continued Learning

In considering these factors, you will be better equipped to not only decide if a career change is in your near future but how to take the first steps to make that dream become a reality.

1. Kind of Illustration

Even within one creative field, there are many kinds of work under the umbrella of that field. When considering moving from graphic design to illustration, it is important to figure out what field of illustration you are wanting to delve into. Here are some examples of the extensive list of jobs you can do using illustration:

• Courtroom Illustrator
• Film Storyboarding
• Comic Book Illustrator
• Fashion Illustrator
• Medical Illustrator

Narrowing the list of potential professions may prove difficult and may require dabbling in a few of these industries to know what suits you best or what you are most passionate about. Once you know what job in illustration you are interested in you can move to the next factor, honing in on your style of illustration.

2. Focus on Style

Style is multi-layered when it comes to illustration. You want to think about the medium you’re going to use, techniques, and your personal brand. There is traditional illustration and modern illustration, this is the place where you might want to start your decision-making.

Once you know if you want to go traditional or modern you can move to technique or medium. There are quite a few ways in which you can illustrate.

• Pencil Illustration
• Wood etching
• Watercolor Illustration
• Charcoal Illustration
• Acrylic Illustration
• Pen & Ink Illustration

After deciding what medium or mediums you would like to use, then it’s a matter of branding your specific style of this medium. What is going to separate you from other illustrators who use this same medium or work in the same industry? As a graphic designer you are working within the confines of guides of style or brand identities but as an illustrator, you will have complete control of your style of illustration, which will be the very thing that potential clients will contact you about.

3. Finances

One of the biggest pieces of advice for any career change is to check your finances before transitioning. This may require that you stick to your current field for a little while longer while simultaneously storing up funds for some rainy days you may experience at the beginning of your new career.

When it comes to a switch from graphic design to illustration this advice should most definitely be heeded. Illustration is not as lucrative of a career as graphic design, perhaps because the demand for graphic design is greater, especially in this internet-driven culture. Therefore, there may be a lag in between paychecks that would require you to dip into your savings to fill the gap.

In an ideal world, you would want to save at least six months’ worth of the current salary you are making. However long it takes for you to save this amount, it is worth the peace of mind you will be getting in exchange for your time and effort.

4. Continued Learning

Though you may have been doodling in your notebook for years before deciding to make the move from graphic design to illustration, there is always room to improve your skills or learn new skills. This could be done in a few different ways.

It could look like taking a few classes on the weekends to tighten up some of the weaker spots of your illustration or learn a different technique you might be interested in. It could also look like utilizing new tools and software or websites that will assist you in creating your illustrations and getting them out into the world, like Placeit.net.

Conclusion

Whenever you decide to make the transition from graphic designer to illustrator and however you make it, the most important thing to do is to follow your passion. Figuring out what job you want, what technique you want to use, saving for the move, and where you want to display your work are secondary to first saying yes to a new career path.

The level of difficulty is not only predicated on your level of talent and experience in illustration but your dedication to learn and grow in the field. The ever-evolving nature of art will surely see you through my phases of your style to the one that will have clients knocking down your door. The first step is just to simply say yes.

GIMP, short for GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a freeware photo editing and manipulation program which also supports free-form drawing, transcoding between different file formats, and specialized graphical tasks. It is commonly compared to Adobe Photoshop as it can do just about everything.

For the most part, Photoshop is best for those in larger professional settings who need to use a lot of the advanced features and have enough training to get past its steep learning curve. GIMP has its advantages over Adobe’s prized program though, so keep reading to find out what they are.

What are the Advantages of Using GIMP?

GIMP is the biggest competitor for Photoshop. Just about everything the photo editing juggernaut can do, so can GIMP. There are quite a few reasons why hobbyists and amateurs prefer GIMP over its paid counterpart, and not all of them are grounded in money.

1. Free Means Free Forever

GIMP is freeware with no hidden fees, trials, or subscriptions. There is no premium version with better features and no paywalls whatsoever. It is completely free, and that includes any and all updates. It is free and will always be free if the development team has their way.

2. It is More User Friendly

While Photoshop tends to be more widely accepted in professional circles due to some of the more advanced features and the attractive Creative Cloud that can be used on multiple devices with the proper plan, GIMP is more for the amateur, novice, and hobbyist. Therefore, it is a lot more user friendly with a nicer interface, customizable tabs and keys, and less junk to bog down the program with. More and more user-friendly graphic design tools are surfacing, including internet based tools that don’t require downloading software at all, like Placeit.net.

3. Open Source Architecture Makes It So Anyone Can Help Develop

GIMP is an open source software on top of being freeware. This means that anyone can make their own patches, assets, or developments without fearing repercussions from the original company. This also means that people are encouraged to make their own tutorials and share them whenever possible. Photoshop has a whole brand it has to uphold and a mega corporation behind it who are trying to turn a profit with the program. It’s got how it’s going to run and Adobe really doesn’t want that to change.

4. It Can Still Open and Edit PSD Files

One issue so many things face in programs that have their own file types is that they try to make it so only that program can open it. GIMP has its own XCF file type, but that doesn’t mean it can’t also open Photoshop’s PSD files. Not only that, but it can edit them too.

5. Tiny File Size in Comparison

Since Photoshop is made for professionals and backed by a massive company, it takes a lot of space and resources on the computer in order to have it run properly. GIMP on the other hand is comparatively tiny. It makes for an excellent option for computers without a lot of processing power or large amounts of storage space.

6. There is a Portable Version

GIMP has a really fun option to be even smaller than it already is. So small that it can be installed on a USB drive and then plugged into any device that accepts them to be able to use the program straight from there. No installing it fifty times and putting in key words and passcodes, just take the USB and go.

7. Superior Automated Batch Processing

Since a good chunk of GIMP is about photo editing, one really attractive function is for automated batch processing. This is something that the program destroys its competitor Photoshop. It has much greater and more efficient batch processing capabilities that nothing else really compares to.

8. Customizable User Interface

Since Photoshop is part of a whole brand of software, it has one set way that it wants to be. There’s very little opportunity for customization. It really is a solid what you see is what you get while being on an extremely steep learning curve.

GIMP on the other hand has widgets and windows that can be adjusted easily to suit the user’s needs and preferences. There’s customizable keybinding which is a godsend, and making custom assets is far easier than in similar programs.

9. Linux is Supported

Photoshop might think it has the photo editing software in the bag, but it excludes an entire operating system. It only appears on Windows and Mac computers, whereas GIMP also has Linux support. GIMP also is small enough to not need a special version for every device out there and can also be simply used with a USB drive making it technically more compatible of the two.

10. Amazing Support, Both Official and Unofficial

The support staff behind GIMP are top notch, ready and willing to help with whatever they can. There’s also such a massive community of users out there that it does not take much to find someone who knows what is going on. With it being open source, there’s ton of resources people have made including modifications to help make things easier.

Photoshop is notorious for poor customer service and frustrating its userbase. Their modules are lengthy and difficult to understand which doesn’t help matters when that’s all support wants to use for assistance.

Conclusion

GIMP is an amazing freeware program that is nearly identical to Adobe Photoshop, with some exceptions. First and foremost, it’s free and open source, making it much easier to get ahold of without dunking a small fortune into it or subscribing to another service. It has a much smoother learning curve, heavy customization, and a lot of support for files coming in or exporting to services such as Placeit.net for mockups. If nothing else, it’s a good introduction into heavier image manipulation software without worrying about wasted funds.

If you’re looking for a drawing tablet, you’ve probably stumbled across the iconic Wacom brand. With tablets that can hit almost $250, they’re one of the most expensive brands out there. Still, people continue to buy them for their art. Why are these small tablets so expensive? 

There are a few reasons Wacom tablets are so expensive, despite the rise of lower-priced competition. It’s critical to understand the price if you’re thinking about buying a Wacom tablet for yourself. Let’s dive right in.

1. Wacom Has Little Competition

One of the main reasons Wacom is so expensive is because they have little competition in the digital art world. There aren’t many companies that make drawing tablets, and most that do haven’t been around as long. Wacom tablets have a monopoly, so they can charge what they want.

A few of the Wacom competitors that exist on the market include:

• Huion
• XP-Pen
• Gaomon
• Apple

These are the biggest competitors that exist in the drawing tablet market.

Still, none of these companies come close to what Wacom has built over the years. They offer tablets of the utmost quality to users, which is getting hard to find in a fast market. You can’t beat what comes with investing in a Wacom tablet. 

If your focus is saving money, one of these competitors might be a better choice for you. However, if you want the best of the best, Wacom tablets are at the top of their game.

2. Wacom’s Products Are Well-Known

Wacom is a company that has long produced quality products. Through high praise, recommendations, and a multitude of customers, their products have become well-known throughout the art world. For this reason, they can up the price without worrying that they will lose customers as a result.

A well-known product has a group of people that will stand behind it at all costs. People who love Apple will pay thousands for their products. Lovers of video game systems will offer their funds for a new system. It’s the same with Wacom. They’ve worthily established themselves over time, and they have a solid fanbase of loyal customers.

3. Wacom Has Ideal Driver Support

Wacom tablets have excellent driver support which is difficult to find in the drawing tablet world. Most Wacom tablets have produced at least eleven years of continuous driver support. Each year, they work to support their upgraded products more than the previous years. This move makes their tablets more expensive.

A few of the reasons you need good driver support include:

• Linking everything together for ease of access
• Permitting your tablet to work properly when you go on to draw

Solid driver support will make a difference for your art.

It’s impressive that Wacom drawing tablets have driver support that lasts more than ten years. It’s a sign that the company works to keep its technology up-to-date and ready to collaborate with the artist behind the pen. Wacom works diligently to produce excellent products rather than creating for the sake of making the most money.

4. Wacom Has Excellent Technology

It’s an indisputable fact that Wacom tablets have excellent technology for artists to have fun with while they create. They have up to 2048 pressure sensitivity, far higher than most will ever need but convenient nonetheless. They also have items like tilt sensitivity and multitouch for those who get more advanced models of the tablet.

Some other technologies that exist inside the Wacom drawing tablet include:

• Various ink data technologies
• Advanced pen sensors
• Pen-on-paper feel when working on the tablet

These are some of the integral items Wacom has developed to fit inside their drawing tablets.

The price is high because of the technology packed inside each tablet. Wacom has worked hard over the years to develop a product that holds a similar feel to drawing and writing on actual paper. The final product puts that on display and permits artists to take advantage of the technology for their work.

5. Wacom Makes Quality Tablets

Finally, Wacom tablets are expensive because Wacom makes quality products. Many customers have said that their Wacom tablets have lasted them more than ten years, and are still in full functionality. They’re an authentic business that has grown its marketplace and earned consumer trust.

Some of their best drawing tablets that Wacom offers include:

• Wacom Intuos
• Wacom Intuos Pro
• Wacom Intuos Pro Paper
• Wacom One (with digital screen)

These are some of the best choices out there if you want a Wacom drawing tablet for your life.

If you look at the reviews for these tablets, you can see the many happy customers who have invested in this product. Wacom drawing tablets are one of the few pieces of technology left that will last for years and years. If you’re an artist and you need something that will stick around, the expense of the Wacom tablet is more than worth it.

You can feel confident that the work you create with a Wacom tablet is top-notch. The price is worth it for everything you get packed inside one tiny tablet.

Conclusion

Art is expensive, and one of the most expensive items you can buy for your work is the Wacom tablet. Even though they are high-priced, Wacom tablets have reasons behind this choice. They have little competition, make quality tablets, and have driver support that stretched beyond what most of the modern competition offers.

We hope this information was helpful! It can be shocking to see the tag, but there is a rationale here. If you’re thinking about a Wacom tablet, it’s a worthy investment. The price comes with beneficial features that will help push your art career forward in the best ways. A Wacom tablet will stick by your side throughout your career and beyond.

The days of manually creating mockups using Photoshop are behind us. Now, there are a number of online mockup generator websites that do all the hard work for us. With that said, it can be hard to tell which mockup generator website is the best depending on what features you are looking for. How many templates they have, how much it cost to use, and how easy it is to learn, are a few of the questions we will be answering in this article.

Read on for thorough reviews of the best mockup generator websites and reasons you might want to pick them for your projects. By the end of this article, you should be able to tell which tool is right for your needs.

Why Use A Mockup Generator Website

There are quite a few reasons why you would consider using a mockup generator website to display your designs.

Mockup generators are powerful tools that help you bring your products and designs to life by inserting them into an image that shows what they would look like when being used in real life. Mockups take the guesswork out and help you and others visualize your product in a realistic setting.

You can use pricey and complex design tools, such as Adobe Photoshop, to make your mockups yourself from scratch. Another option is to use any number of free or paid mockup generator websites.

Benefits of Using a Mockup Generator

Here are the main reasons why someone would decide to take the route of using an online mockup generator instead of designing their own mockups:

• Design Testing: A mockup gives you a glimpse into what your product will look like in real life. To speed up your design process, quickly try out your designs using a mockup generator website that does most of the work for you.
• Save Time: The best part about a generator website is probably how much time it can save you in your mockup creation process. In general, creating the same mockup on your own will take more time than the few steps it would take on a mockup generator website.
• It’s Simple and Easy: Don’t have a design degree or extensive knowledge of design tools like Photoshop? This is where mockup generator websites save the day. It can be as simple as clicking a few buttons to create your very own mockups.
• Large Library: When showcasing your products, it’s probably in your best interest to match your brand and create quality images. Mockup generator websites typically have a large library of quality images to choose from, so there is something for every need.
• Affordable: Mockup generators are generally very affordable, and the benefits you get from them are often well worth paying the price.  You can easily decide how many designs to pay for or even consider annual subscriptions to the platforms.

These are the primary reasons why people without design skills, and even some design professionals, chose to use online mockup generators. Some of the generator tools are better than others in certain areas. The area that is of most importance to you can help you decide which tool to use, so we will make sure to walk you through each platform’s qualities.

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1. PlaceIt

PlaceIt is an online mockup generator that turns creating, displaying, and branding your designs into a super easy task. With an impressive library of templates that is constantly being updated and added to, you will most likely always find something to meet your exact needs.

Templates for Customization

There are over 90,000+ templates in the Placeit library, and they depict numerous different situations. You can customize your final images by:

• Adding Text and Graphics
• Changing Font
• Adjusting Colors
• Change the Layout
• Change the Background

Large Library of Ready-to-Use Mockups

Within their large library, PlaceIt has several categories of mockups that you can pick from. Here are some of the most popular ones:

• Activewear
• Android Devices
• App Store Screenshots
• App Videos
• Apparel
• Stationary
• Banners
• Books
• Business Cards
• Face Masks
• Facebook Ads
• Tote Bags
• Hats
• Home Décor
• Hoodies
• iMacs, iPads, and iPhones
• Beanies
• Mugs and Travel Mugs
• Musicians
• Onesies
• Packaging
• Phone Cases

Large Selection of Designs

Another one of PlaceIt’s great qualities is its large library of designs. You can also use PlaceIt to create designs for

• Pinterest Pins
• Album and Book Covers
• Flyers
• Instagram Posts and Stories
• T-Shirt Designs
• YouTube Templates

And many other designs that you might need as an individual or as a small business.

Video Templates

PlaceIt also boasts a decently sized collection of quality video templates that can help you create professional-looking advertisements and videos to show off your products and brands. Having this video mockup generator really makes a subscription to PlaceIt worth it when you think you’ll need both image and video for your product design mockups.

How Much PlaceIt Costs

With PlaceIt, you have a couple of different options when it comes to payment. This is definitely something the platform does well because there is a payment option for most budgets and needs.

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

	What It Costs	Who It’s For
Free Trial	The free trial is a no-cost trial run when you first sign up for the platform.	This is a great way for you to get a feel for PlaceIt’s offerings prior to making any real commitments
Subscription	With the PlaceIt subscription, you pay one yearly fee for unlimited access to absolutely everything the tool has to offer. Pay Monthly: $14.95 per month Pay Annually: $89.69 per year	If you’re going to be making a lot of mockups, this is perfect for you.
Individual Purchases	You can also pay per mockup, and the price varies based on which file you download.   Mockups: $7.95 Video Mockups: $9.95 Design Templates: 42.95 Logos: $39.95	If you don’t want to, you don’t have to pay for an unlimited subscription to use Placeit, this is the way to go. Once you purchase a mockup via a single purchase fee or through your subscription, you are free to use that image for any purpose, commercial included.

PlaceIt Has Excellent Pricing And The Most Templates

PlaceIt has the 15% discount which makes it’s pricing hard to beat. It’s a great mockup generator website because of its extensive library and ability to make quick and easy mockups in a variety of formats. There is a learning curve, but it is truly minimal, and you won’t need much time to learn how to plug your customizations into each template.

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2. SmartMockups

SmartMockups is another popular online mockup generator tool. Introducing itself as “the fastest web-based mockup tool,” SmartMockups makes creating eye-catching product mockups quick and easy.

This tool has a decent collection of templates to choose from. The categories are simply displayed right on the homepage of the website, so you can be on your way to customizing a template you love in just a few clicks. They also continuously add to their collection of mockup templates, which is just over 1,400 templates.

Types of Mockups Available

The following categories of mockups generators that SmartMockups offers:

• Technology: This includes different computer types, TVs, watches, e-readers, phones, bundles of multiple technologies, and more.
• Print: Here, you will find anything from business cards and greeting cards to frames, outdoor signs, and phone cases.
• Packaging: Cosmetics, food, beverages, supplements, bags, and boxes
• Apparel: There is a wide range of apparel mockups to choose from, including face masks, accessories, hoodies, and t-shirts.
• Home & Living: Mugs, pillows, candles, and other household items.
• Social Media: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other formats for other websites.

Customizing mockups to meet your needs is easy with SmartMockups because of its advanced editing tools that are extremely user friendly. You can make designs that are unique to you, making results that match your brands and visions without having to spend too much time.

Time-Saving Features

Some features on SmartMockups that help speed up the creation process are:

• Exports and Sharing are made easy with SmartMockups because you can download high-quality images in many different formats.
• Third-party integrations with Marvel, Canva, Dropbox, and others to simplify your work across platforms.
• Using Smart Mockups Anywhere is simple because the program works on desktops, smartphones, and tablets.
• Many Upload Options, including uploading your own image, using a URL, or transferring from a third-party account integration, allow you to easily pull the images you need for your project.
• Customization and personalization are easy to achieve with this mockup generator because you can change colors, crops, image resolution, background color or transparency, and more.
• Gif Support for use in mockups is available.

How Much SmartMockups Costs

This tool has one of the best mockup generator website subscription offers. With many different levels to choose from, you can certainly find a plan that works best for your budget and your goals.

Subscription Level	What You Get	Price
Free	With this level, you can have one user account, you get 200 free mockups, and you have access to the most basic features.	$0 per month
Premium	This plan is perfect for individuals who will need many mockups. You get one user account, have access to all mockups, and can use advanced features like multiple upload options, unlimited exports, and integrations.	$9 per month
Pro	The pro plan is best for someone who creates mockups professionally all the time. At this level, you have one user account but more customization, access to video mockups and the premium templates, and the ability to make custom mockups.	$19 per month
Team	The team subscription is best for larger teams of marketing and creative professionals (up to 5 user accounts) who need access to the best mockups and customization tools. Share ideas between team members and have access to all of the best features that SmartMockups has to offer.	$69 per month

SmartMockup’s Is Easy But There Are Less Templates

SmartMockups can save you hours of time and a good deal of money. With a decently large library that continues to grow, advanced customization tools, and unlimited quality exports, the subscription plans offered with SmartMockups are an excellent value.

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3. Mockups Jar

Mockups Jar is a high-quality mockup generator that might be right for you if you need a mockup made quickly and want to have it done for free. It’s true, Mockups Jar is a mockup generator website that offers its services for free. You can click a free template, upload your image, and download the final product right away.

With that being considered, it is important to note that Mockups Jar’s template library is considerably smaller than other mockup generator websites.

And even then, some of the fancier mockup templates in the relatively small library do actually require you to make a paid account with the platform. All plans do allow you to cancel at any time that you would like to stop using the tool for mockups.

This is how much the paid subscriptions cost and a brief description of the features you get with each level:

Subscription Level	What You Get	Price
Espresso	This level is for professionals who need to create regular mockups. You get unlimited downloads, watermark removed, multiple format support, hidden ads, and the ability to capture full web page screenshots from Url or Figma.	€ 15 per year (about $18)
Mockups Generator API	With this level, you get API quick introduction, full documentation, and NPM package. You get 1,000 downloads and can contact Mockups Jar for extra features.	100 tasks free, then: € 45 ($55) per month for 1000 tasks/month € 99 ($120) per month for 10000 tasks/month € 249 ($302)per year for unlimited

Mockups Jar has the same categories as many other online mockup generator tools. Even though the library is smaller, with just over 800 templates available, they are likely to have something to meet your needs within their categories.

Template Library

If you need a quick design, the smaller template library can make the process of narrowing down your results even more simple than other platforms.

The categories on their site are listed as:

• Transparent Backgrounds
• iPhones and Androids
• MacBook
• Frames, which holds images of paper, wall frames, polaroid photos, and others
• Browsers
• Packaging, which includes things like business cards, tote bags, bottles, and boxes
• Apparel: sweatshirts, shirts, polos, and more
• Tablets
• Books

Despite an overall smaller number of templates, the category variety is still wide enough to find something you can use.

Use Mockups Jar for Very Quick, Cheap Mockup Designs

Mockups Jar might be your best bet for generating the quickest and easiest product mockups. The template library is somewhat smaller than other mockup generator tools, but the images are straightforward and easy to sort through. Simply pick an image, upload, and export the final product.

The Drawbacks of Mockups Jar

Downsides to this simple and straightforward process include:

• Limited customizations. This means that your final mockup images might not be as unique to you and your brand. They might not look as curated as another mockup generator platform could potentially make them.
• Fewer images to choose from. This makes the searching process quick and easy, but they might not have the exact situation or setup that you wish to place your product in.
• Fewer editing options for uploaded images. Your images must more or less be exactly how you want them in the mockup. You are able to drag the position and crop, but you can’t change much more about your design.

If you need a mockup generated here and there, MockUps Jar is a great option. Even with their newer pro subscription option, this is one of the most affordable generators out there.

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4. Magic Mockups

Magic Mockups is another one of the best mockup generators that can help you create quality mockups in a matter of minutes.

What makes Magic Mockups stand out the most is that it is completely free! However, the website is not very reliable.

Users can quickly place their photos and designs into one of the offered templates and download the mockup. The whole process just takes 3-4 clicks to complete.

Downsides to Using Magic Mockups Free Generator Tool

As with all free programs, the use of Magic Mockups comes with a few downsides. When deciding which tool to go with, you will have to weigh the benefits that Magic Mockup has to offer with the cons that come with using this free tool.

There are definitely reasons you would choose this program. However, there are also some things to consider about the mockups you will create with this platform:

• Limited selection. With just over 25 mockup templates available, the choices you have when creating mockups with Magic Mockups is nothing compared to other programs like PlaceIt, which have over 38,000 premade templates to choose from. Magic Mockups only offers technology mockup templates.
• Little to no customization. There is essentially no customization with this free mockup generator website. The photos that you upload will fit into the image as is. There is no option for changing colors or even cropping.
• No frills. With this free tool, you will miss out on many of the advanced settings and integrations offered by paid mockup generators. There are no third-party integrations or business tools.

Reasons To Use the Magic Mockups Generator

The final images created with Magic Mockup are still quality and can be of great use to those without design skills or who do not want to spend much time creating quality mockups. Here are some of the main reasons you would want to use Magic Mockup for your product mockups:

• Downloaded File Types: Final images can be downloaded in a variety of resolutions- from 960 px to greater than 5,000 px. They all come in JPEG format.
• Upload Options: You can upload images to the templates by uploading from your computer files or by capturing a URL.
• Time: With Magic Mockups, simplicity comes the benefit of needing to take no time at all to make the mockups. Without having customizations or a large library to sort through, you can have your finished quality mockup in less than a minute.
• Saving Money: Get a quality technology mockup without spending a dime. If you need to upgrade to a more intense generator in the future, you can, but you can try this free tool first to see if mockups are something that you need.

Magic Mockups Is the Cheapest Mockup Generator But The Website Is Not Reliable

If you quickly need a mockup made, and technology is the category you are looking for, choosing Magic Mockups is a great idea.

If you have no design or photoshop skills and no need for fancy customizations, in a matter of seconds, you can upload and create simple, realistic-looking technology mockups for absolutely no fee.

The mockups can be used for your personal use, or they can be used commercially, making this free tool a really smart choice for anyone needing a quick mockup.

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5. Media Modifier

Another tool for creating mockups online that offers a free plan is called Media Modifier. This mockup generator has a medium-sized library of templates with just under 3,000 templates to choose from. They have many categories for you to search through, so you are likely to find something that meets your needs:

• Technology: Choose from iPhones and iPads, Macbooks, and Androids
• Logo: Find logo mockups
• Print: The print category has books, business cards, greeting cards, and magazine mockup options.
• Products: Coffee mugs, bottles, vans, and many more to look through
• Apparel: T-Shirts
• Image Effects: signs and billboards, frames, canvases, and other unique images

How Much Does Media Modifier Cost

Media Modifier is another extremely affordable mockup generator website that is worth checking out. There are two payment options depending on your needs. With both plans, you get:

• Unlimited Downloads
• Monthly New Mockups
• The ability to switch plans at any time
• High-resolution images downloaded

The difference between the two plans is outlined in the chart below. For quick, occasional mockups, you might consider just sticking with the free plan. The Pro plan offers a few more advanced features that might be important to you if you are going to be creating mockups consistently.

Free Plan	Pro Plan
$0	$9 per month
Images have a watermark	No watermark on images
No commercial license	The fees cover royalties, so you can use your mockups on your website and social media and also sell them to your clients without an issue.

The Pro plan also comes with a money-back guarantee and priority support. If Media Modifier has the tools and categories that meet your needs and you need to use your mockups for commercial purposes, upgrading to the Pro plan could be a wonderful choice.

The Pros to Using Media Modifier

Media Modifier’s website claims that their tool was built with speed and simplicity in mind. They really meet this goal with their quick and easy professional looking mockup generator. Benefits to this generator include:

• Simplicity. In just a few clicks, you can have your designs and products placed in realistic-looking environments.
• Good enough selection. The variety and quantity of mockup template options that you get with Media Modifier are right in the middle when compared to other tools that create mockups. There is still a lot to choose from, but it is easy enough to sort through when you know what type of scene you are looking to place your design in.
• Customization.  Several options are available. All on the online editor, you can personalize by canvas size, font, and colors. You can even add free stock images directly into your designs.
• Use Any Device. If you have an internet connection and a browser, you can make quick, professional designs from anywhere.
• Kept Up To Date: Media Modifier is always adding new templates and working to bring out new features. They place a big commitment on product support and help you create with the templates you need the most.

While it can easily be said that Media Modifier is good for simple, free non-commercial mockups, it is also easy to claim that upgrading to a pro plan is very worthwhile. At only $9 per month, Media Modifier is one of the most affordable tools.

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Finding the Best Mockup Generator Website

Having the right tool can make or break your experience with creating mockups. From using the top mockup generators out there, it’s become clear that the overall experience depends on a few crucial factors:

1. How many templates do they have?
2. How much does it cost?
3. How easy is it to use?

With those things in mind, there seems to be a clear winner: Placeit.

Placeit has over 90,000+ templates, whereas the next best mockup generator only has 3,000. Placeit is only $14.95 per month, and they offer an additional 15% off discount. And lastly, Placeit is beginner friendly, easy to use, and has other tools included for free like logo templates, video templates, social media templates, and more.

Hopefully, this review of the best tools for creating mockups online can help you narrow down the choices and get started making beautiful mockups for your products in no time!

Choosing a font for your logo is an important decision. Logos don’t just communicate words. They communicate identity. So, if you’re going to find the best font for your logo, you have to have a clear understanding of the feel of your brand or business and how different fonts can resonate with your brand’s identity.

In this article, we will be looking at a wide variety of fonts to give you a range of possibilities to consider. If you’ve ventured into the font world before, you know it can be dizzying to choose just one. It’s a process. So, sit back, take your time, and consider these selections.

What is the Best Font to Use For a Logo?

Helvetica

Helvetica is a popular font that has been around since the late 1950s. This family of fonts is used by a variety of corporations, from Panasonic to Mac and Jeep to American Airlines. It is a simple font that communicates neutrality and calm resolve.

Proxima Nova

Designed and published by Mark Simonson in 2005, Proxima Nova is a redrafting of Proxima Sans. Its geometric but approachable lines have come to be associated with such brands as Spotify and Bosh, and the font family has 48 full-featured OpenType fonts.

Times New Roman

This is a classic font that has come to represent reliability and tradition because of its wide use in printed materials from newspapers to books. Although it was developed in 1929 for the New York Times, it remains a widely used seraph font.

Futura

Also from the late 1920s is the sans seraph font, Futura, which is recognizable for its unique geometry. The Futura family is used by such brands as Bed, Bath & Beyond, Calvin Klein, and Domino’s Pizza.

TT Norms Pro

TT Norms Pro is a popular font available in 216 languages. Published in 2017 this classically proportioned font can function well for small or large text.

Garamond

In 1531, French publisher Claude Garamond began developing the punch cuts that would set the standard for clear and graceful printing for the next several hundred years. These days many different people have created variations of this type face. One of the most common ones, Adobe Garamond, was designed by Robert Slimbach and can be found in the Harry Potter series as well as books by Dr. Suess.

FF DIN

Found on signs, packages, and billboards, FF DIN has a techy look to it but is no less popular for that. It was developed starting in 1995 by Albert-Jan Pool and has since become a staple for web and magazine publishing.

Avenir Next

Avenir is a French word that means future, and Avenir Next does bear some resemblance to Futura. But, as Arek Dvornechuck points out, “Avenir is not purely geometric. The font has vertical strokes that are thicker than the horizontals, an ‘o’ that is not a perfect circle and shortened ascenders.”

Avenir Next was published by Linotype and can be found when you look at the buttons on an LG phone.

Myriad Pro

Myriad Pro was published in 1992 as a font for Adobe and was later picked up by Apple. It has come to have many variations and is used broadly on the web.

Rockwell

Rockwell is a slab serif, which means that it is a blocky, dramatic typeface that is often used as a display font, such as a title for a book or an advertisement. Sometimes this type of font can feel archaic, but Rockwell has many variations that have made it adaptable to the web.

Baskerville

Here’s another serif font. It comes from the transitional period when fonts were taking a break from the old-style fonts that had dominated printing for centuries. It’s characterized by wider serifs and greater contrast in the thick and thin strokes. Baskerville’s weight and readability made it ideal for books.

Nexa

Nexa has become another popular font for the web including use in motion graphics because of its legibility. The family includes 16 fonts and weights, and Nexa works well for headlines, t-shirts, and posters.

Cera Pro

This highly geometrical font has a beautiful italic effect due to its perfect 10-degree slope. Jacob Runge has made this simple and readable font ideal for corporate display in print and on the screen. It also supports 150 languages.

Akzidenz-Grotesk

Simple and modern with the technical-looking edge of FF DIN and the reliability of Times New Roman, Akzidenz-Grotesk is a durable font that was originally used for tickets and forms. It has since graced everything from Clifford the Big Red Dog books to the covers of jazz albums.

Mont

Mont is a balanced font that is available in the hairline to black weights and is another one that works good for motion graphics. Supported in more than 130 languages, designers Mirela Belova and Svet Simov made this font striking even in its thin forms, and it works well for simple, head-turning declarations.

Intro

Intro family is quite large, containing 72 different font styles. Intro has a modern look that many graphic design companies use. It is essentially a sans font, but contains the occasional serif which gives it a playful feel.

Gilroy

Here’s another font well suited to graphic design for the web, signage, corporate and editorial. This modern san serif has 20 weights ranging from light to extra bold. Gracing everything from toilet paper to playbills Gilroy has an in-the-moment feel.

Bodoni

This font was developed with bold contrasts between thick and thin in mind and has been used to great effect in some of the legendary logos of our time including Vogue and Calvin Klein. Bodoni also graced the cover of Patti Smith’s album Radio Ethiopia.

Khula

Khula is a contemporary Google font from the Devanagari family and was designed by Erin McLaughlin. When spacing is added between the letters, it causes them to stand out without being bolded or italicized. It was designed to complement Open Sans and comes with five weights.

Flix

The rounded characters in this font give it a graphic element that doesn’t require a lot of symbolic embellishment. Produced by Fontastica, this all-caps font has a single weight but comes either bold or outline.

Choplin

German designer Rene Beider created this slab serif to be modern and durable. New and old inspiration give this font a bold character. It’s related to the Campton family of fonts, but the serifs are sharper and sturdier which make this a good companion to an assertive brand.

Teko

Here’s another contemporary font that takes a simple and clear stand on a layout, making it eye-catching and readable. This Open Source font from Indian Type Foundry has five font styles and is square in proportion. The lighter weights are ideal for headlines but fit well with one to two word, logotype statements.

Randrake

This is a modern script logo that elevates the style from get-well cards to chic displays, making it a good companion to brands that have a fashion focus. Randrake is produced by Micromove and fits in with both print and digital mediums.

Yeseva One

Dedicated to his wife, designer Jovanny Lemonad named this font after the phrase, “Yes Eva,” and wrote that Yeseva One was “a sign of complete agreement between a man and a woman.” The “feminine essence” comes through in this stately, contrastive font.

Cormorant

This thinly styled font with sturdy serifs, has the flair of age without the stodgy side effects. Inspired by Gamarond, Cormorant would fit well with a brand where knowledge and experience are musts. Designer Christian Thalmann handled every last aspect of the font’s conception and design.

Mike Sans

Mike Sans is an unshakeable font in bold, square characters. Available in 8 different weights, the faint curves of the edges give the font an air of approachability. Nevertheless, Mike Sans has the unmistakable look of a no-nonsense brand.

FF Avance

Developed by Evert Bloemsma, FF Avance flaunts an edgy feel with upper and lower serifs pointing in opposite directions. Bloemsma said, “The overall image of text could be more pleasant because serifs can bring more differentiation of forms, a wider spectrum of forms.

An expression of dynamic movement, a stream of thoughts. Reading is moving.” High energy brands might feel at home in this font.

Alegreya Sans SC

Originally intended by designer Juan Pablo del Perol for longer texts, specifically literature, this delicate font becomes pronounced when bolded or italicized. A brand that takes artistic values into business may want to consider this font for a logo.

Quentin Pro

This modern font has a bold, eye-catching look that is at home on movie posters. Perhaps this is why one site considers Quentin Pro to be an ideal logo font for a startup venture.

Nunito Sans

Nunito Sans began life as a display font from creator Vernon Adams and was expanded on by Jacques Le Bailly to include different weights, making it more versatile. But it retains its point of origin, and its high x-height and short descenders make the font feel open and ideal for a brand that is expanding its vision.

Cutive Mono

Here’s another one from designer Vernon Adams. Cutive Mono is an open source font that borrows inspiration from the typewriter typefaces of IBM’s “Executive” and “Smith-Premiere” models. This gives the font a classic look of reliability.

Didot

A common font in the fashion world and used on Michael Jackson’s album “Invincible,” Didot comes from a family of French printers and publishers in the late 1700s. One of their versions of the typeface was used for the George Armani logo.

Expletus Sans

Some of the fonts we have looked at can be used for display or for text, but Expletus Sans is not versatile. It is explicitly for display and one glance at it tells you why. Where letters have intersecting lines, in Expletus there are gaps, giving the font a highly stylized feel that is nonetheless striking on a white background.

Moon

Like the celestial body for which it is named, Moon is stark with rounded edges and it graces, not surprisingly, a 2018 moon phase calendar. This free font designed by Jack Harvatt, is versatile enough to go with a variety of fonts.

Walk On

Walk On is a highly contrastive font that may bring to mind other fashion fonts that we have looked at. It’s not surprising then that Hanson Chan originally developed Walk On for the fashion brand Wang and Lynch. This dramatic font is now free.

Boogaloo

Developed by John Vargas Beltran, Boogaloo was inspired by Latin American culture and musical genres, as well as fonts on LPs from the 60s. Boogaloo references a happy, carefree nostalgia.

Natasya

Natasya is a script font almost reflective of graffiti the way some of its curves nearly come to a point. As such it may be suitable for a hip, up and coming brand that wants to attract a modern, edgier clientele.

Neue Swift

This font comes to you from Dutch designer Gerard Unger and was originally released in 1985 with updates in 1995 and 2009. Available in six weights, Neue Swift features prominent serifs that make the font easy to read and ideal to use if your logo has multiple words.

Catamaran

Catamaran is the brainchild of Pria Ravichandran from India. Its Unicode compliance signals that this font was designed specifically for our digital era. It is made of 9 weights and has a solid, stable look that might go well with a construction company brand.

Herona

Herona was designed with e-sports and video game design in mind, so if your brand is tech focused with a fun edge, try out this font for your logo.

Gafata STD

The principal designer Lautaro Hourcade originally designed this font for smaller sizes in medium to long text blocks. But it’s quirky look makes it a good choice for logos if your brand is striking out in new territory and you want to communicate the difference quickly.

Kanit

In the Thai language, Kanit means mathematics, so it’s not hard to imagine that this font has a technical and even futuristic look. Coming in a variety of weights, this free font was designed by the Thai type foundry Cadson Demak and is another good option if you have a tech brand.

Blackpast

Speaking of futuristic, Blackpast is a highly stylized display font that recalls posters of science fiction movies. With some lines exaggerated and others missing, this font is perfect for edgy tech brands who want to stand out.

Big Caslon

Big Caslon is the first font of the Caslon family to be available for display in the digital world. Released in 1994 by the Font Bureau, designer Matthew Carter wanted to revive the 17th-century era type faces of William Caslon I. Big Caslon blends sharp serifs with faint geometry to make a big statement.

Sacramento

This semi-connected script font was inspired by the hand-lettered brochures of the 1950s and 60s. It has a nostalgic feel and evokes a formal letter, which, in the digital world, feels causal because of its handwritten appearance.

Leafy

If your brand needs a natural touch, Leafy font is exactly as it sounds. It has a raw, unpolished feel thanks to brushwork by Ieva Mezule. This free font has 95 characters and is a great way to represent individuality.

Glober

The winner of the 2014 Modern Cyrillic gold medal is a sans serif with 18 weights, support of 130 languages, and a great look on the web. Glober’s bold, magazine-style look has great readability and makes an excellent pairing in a logo with supporting text.

Open Sans

Open Sans was developed by Ascender Corp’s type director Steve Matteson and has an upright posture, but a friendly appearance. Matteson optimized this font for web and mobile use, as well as print.

Benford

Benford is a layered font with a decidedly vintage look. Think of a label for old-fashioned cream soda with a picture of a man with a handlebar mustache and you’ve got the idea. If your brand is attracting the vintage crowd, this font could be for you.

Racing Sans One

Racing Sans One is another font that kind of looks like it sounds. The letters are slanted forward as if they’re in a cartoon race for the finish. As described by the creators, Impallari Type, it is a “high contrast sans” that pays tribute to the forgotten genre of contrasted sans dating back to the turn of the twentieth century. With this font, think relic in motion.

Canilari

This font is something of a loner. It doesn’t look quite as stiff as a normal serif font and almost has the rounded feel of many sans serif fonts. Likewise, it hints at old-style fonts on the one hand and new on the other. It’s hard to pin it down, which may work well for brands that have a similarly shifty personality.

Cormorant Garamond

Another free font designed and developed entirely by Christian Thalmann, Cormorant Garamond, was inspired by Claude Garamond but is not dependent on him. The resulting font is stately, clean, and gentle with the sort of grace that calls to mind time-honored, happy traditions.

Fresh Guava

This playful script font was developed by Khurasan and is as fun and spritely as it sounds. Put it to use for your fresh and inspired food brand, and you might just have a winner.

Ribeye

Ribeye is another font that’s quirky and fun. This contrastive serif font has a cartoony feel faintly reminiscent of tattoo lettering but is also very readable. Think playful biker dude, and you might have the right font for your logo.

Ostrich Sans

Ostrich Sans has stretched out the x-height to give it a distinct length coupled with its rounded characters. Appropriately, it is only available in uppercase letters to make the most of its style. If your logo needs to raise its voice to be heard, consider this font as an option.

Rochester

This script font is inspired by Victorian and Art Deco calligraphic forms and has a graceful feel. If you want to strike a formal, elegant tone, this might be the font for your brand.

Cloudsters

Cloudsters is a ligature logo font with a clean and modern feel that can give your logo a stylized touch. Ligatures are characters that combine two letters into one shape. For example, the “f” and “i” will often blur together, so a ligature makes one character out of them.

Pacifico

Pacifico is another script font that looks great with food brands. This 2011 brush script is another Vernon Adams designed font inspired by 1950s surf culture. Originally commissioned by Google, this font was redrawn by Jacques Bailly in 2016.

Modesto

This font finds its inspiration in 19^th and 20th-century hand-painted circus signs. So, Modesto brings the “Dumbo” style font into the digital age. If your brand would benefit from references to fruit crate or cigar box style lettering, this font is one to consider.

Passion One

This is a passionate font for big displays. It is solid and sturdy, and its heavy weight would go well with a body building logo.

Lexlox

Here’s another stylized font from Khurasan. Thick letters crowd against or on top of each other in a way that speaks of luxury.

Gruppo

Squat and spread out, Gruppo is Vernon Adams style-conscious font with thin letters made for displays where a “less-is-more” aesthetic speaks to the heart of the logo.

Abril Fatface

Abril Fatface comes in 18 styles and is part of the larger Abril family designed by the TypeTogether foundry. 19th-century advertising posters from Britain and France provided the inspiration for Fatface’s heavy, dramatic characters. If your brand is making previously custom-made items broadly available, this font might be a good one to consider.

Playfair Display

A traditional design of transitional font genre, Playfair Display can be found in headlines of journals and fashion magazines where its stately presence creates an expectation of elegance. It is influenced by the designs of John Baskerville and works with Georgia as a body text.

Lequire

Here is another modern font with heavy stylization, including gaps in lines, lines that are missing altogether, and little diamonds in the middle of “o’s” and “c’s.” It has a techy feel that once again calls to mind science fiction posters from the early eighties. Campy technology brands might do well with this.

Life Savers

Speaking of campy, Life Savers is a fun font that reaches back, once again, to the days of hand lettering artists in the 1950s. This font playfully calls that time to mind, and maybe even a few specific Life Savers ads. If your brand needs a nostalgic and silly font, Life Savers is for you.

Rufina

Our final font is Rufnia, a font that takes its inspiration from stencil design but arranges the breaks differently so that the letters look less stenciled than loosely assembled like you would a model before gluing it together. This font works well for brands with artistic endeavors, like an art gallery.

Conclusion

As we come to the end of our list, you should have more than enough fonts to play with and consider as you design the right logo for the personality of your brand.

A big shoutout to FontSquirrel and Indentifont for helping with the font example images.

A logo is the symbolic representation of a company. It aims to communicate not only the company name but also the mission, purpose, strengths, and feeling the company hopes to provide to its customers.

This list gives you the best examples of logos with more than one message. Some are hard to decipher at first, but you will wonder how you missed it once you see them. These 41 logos all have hidden messages, and some may blow your mind.

Logos You Thought You Knew

While some companies choose to have direct, straightforward logos – such as UPS – many companies opt for a combination of words and pictures that convey more than one meaning. Designers work hard to embed the secondary meanings within the logo, so you might not notice them at first (or even second or third) glance.

Logos use white space, playful fonts, symbolism, and more to “hide” their multiple messages. You have probably seen most or all of these logos hundreds, potentially thousands, of times in your life. But, have you seen all of their hidden messages? Read on and learn how these messages have been hiding from you for all this time.

Unintentional Hidden Messages

The hidden messages in these first two logos are unique in that inquisitive fans discovered them. Still, when asked directly, the designers for these iconic logos claim the hidden meaning was unintentional. These are two of the most recognizable logos in the world, so it is a wonder that the messages were hidden even to the designers themselves.

Wendy’s

This hidden message is one for all the true Enigmatologists out there. Hidden within the ruffles of Wendy’s collar, investigative fans have found the word “mom.” The logo was famously designed after the daughter of the owner of the fast-food chain, so sneaking “mom” into the logo continues the family theme of the logo.

However, after speculation and theories began to spread online, the company came out and said the hidden message was unintentional. What do you think?

Apple

Apple is known for being at the forefront of user-friendly design and changed the trajectory of computer usage for the rest of the time. So, it is almost unbelievable that the designer of the iconic bitten apple logo says he had no specific message in mind when designing the logo.

This hasn’t stopped fans from creating their own meanings behind the logo. The most popular being that the bitten apple is symbolic of the bite Eve took from the fruit growing on the Tree of Knowledge in the biblical story of Genesis. Thus, the Apple logo represents knowledge and the sacrifices made to gain that knowledge.

Message Hidden in White Space or Negative Space

Similar to the Magic Picture books that may have caused you to nearly go cross-eyed as a kid, many logos use white or negative space to hide meanings. To see the hidden messages in these logos, it is all about perspective. Once you adjust your eyes and focus on the negative space, you will never be able to unsee the hidden message again.

FedEx

FedEx is one of the most popular hidden message logos, probably because you might not expect a shipping company to have a hidden meaning in their logo. Hidden in the negative space between the letters of “E” and “x” in the Ex portion of the logo, there is an arrow pointing to the right hidden.

The exact meaning of the hidden arrow has not been divulged, but if you consider the mission of FedEx, you can assume it has something to do with moving your package with precision or advancing it forward.

NBC

As the oldest major broadcast network in the United States, you have likely seen the NBC logo thousands of times in your life. But, you may not have noticed the array of colors coalesce around white space that is meant to represent a peacock.

If you are thinking, what do a broadcasting company and a peacock have to do with each other? NBC says the peacock is meant to show how proud they are of the shows and programs they broadcast. Now that NBC has named its new streaming service, Peacock, the connection to the logo is even stronger.

Toblerone

The iconic airport treat has an animal hidden in the negative space of the logo’s prominent mountain. Do you know what animal? If you answered, Bear, congratulations! You know your chocolate.

Why a bear? The company was founded in Bern, Switzerland, also known as the City of Bears.

Pittsburg Zoo and PPG Aquarium

Continuing with our animal theme, zoo logos tend to prominently feature animals, as you might expect. The Pittsburg Zoo and PPG Aquarium logo designers wanted to be a little different. They chose to hide their animals in the negative space of their logo, on either side of a central tree.

If you focus your eyes on the negative space, you can make out a gorilla on one side and a lion on the other. The logo mimics what it might be like finding these animals in the wild, having to focus and look closely in the trees or savanna to find these well-hidden animals.

Hope for African Children Initiative

You may not have seen this logo before, but its interesting use of negative space makes it worthy of this list. This logo represents both the people they aim to help, children and families, and the geographical location they serve, Africa. This logo is a beautiful piece of art, which is also reflective of the beautiful work they hope to accomplish.

Hershey’s Kisses

Did you know there are actually THREE Hershey’s Kisses in this logo? Two of them are fairly obvious to anyone glancing at the logo, but the third is cleverly hidden using negative space. Do you know where?

If you answered between the letters K and I in the word “kiss,” then you know your kisses.

The Bronx Zoo

Another zoo on the list, but this time it is not the animals that are hidden. Using the negative space around the animals featured in the logo, the Bronx Zoo logo features the iconic New York City skyline. By rendering the zoo’s location in the logo, you are reminded that it is truly amazing to be able to see these wild animals in the heart of a major city.

Nintendo GameCube

At first glance, the GameCube logo looks like a drawn version of the game console itself. That would make sense for a logo, so you may have never taken the time to look a little deeper. Hidden within the negative space of the geometrical shape are the letters G and C, representing GameCube.

This may not be the most creative use of negative space, putting the name of the console on the representative image of the console, but once you see it, you will have a hard time NOT seeing the letters again.

Formula One

At first glance, the logo looks like the letter F sitting at the starting line of a race, which seems pretty perfect for a racing logo. When you look at the space between that letter and the “starting line,” you will see in the negative space the number 1.

Once you see the 1, the red “starting line” looks like it could represent the speed at which the letter F and number 1 are moving—another perfect meaning for some of the world’s fastest races.

Washington Capitals

If you are not a big hockey fan, you may think that this team’s mascot is the eagles. Instead, the eagle is meant to represent the team’s home city, Washington, D.C. The name of the team is hidden in the white space underneath the bird’s head. Look closely, and you will see the silhouette of the Capitol building. The Washington Capitals are represented in multiple ways in this single logo.

Disguised in the Font

Many logo designers develop unique fonts to represent the company. Fonts can communicate that a company is serious, fun, innovative, and many other emotional or descriptive adjectives. Designers also use fonts to creatively hide messages or secondary pictures in their logos. These next logos are great examples of creative font use to disguise hidden messages.

Milwaukee Brewers (1978 – 1993)

Hats off to the designer of this logo. Using block letter fonts, the lowercase letters m and b are stacked and angled on top of each other to form what, at first glance, looks like a baseball glove. If you are not a big sports fan, the Milwaukee Brewers are a Major League Baseball team.

The font is so perfectly chosen that you may not even notice the letters until taking a second or third look at the logo.

Tostitos

Tostitos are known for being the center of the party. Everyone congregates around the bowls of chips and dip, and the logo depicts this common scene. Hidden in the middle of the company name, Tostitos uses a font with flare to depict the two lowercase ts as people holding chips and use a fancy dot on top of the lowercase i to represent a bowl of salsa.

Sun Microsystems

At first glance, this logo looks like it might be a squiggly line block representative of a microchip that powers Sun Microsystems. When you look closer, those squiggly lines reveal themselves to be a curved font that spells out the word “sun” over and over. Any way you look at the logo, you can read the word “sun.”

Jack in the Box

This hidden message is especially secretive as the connection between the fish symbol that is created with the letters o and x fused together in the word “box,” and the fast-food company is not immediately obvious.

They sell more hamburgers than they do fish burgers. It is thought that originally the owners planned on making their fish sandwiches their focus. It seems customers had different preferences on the menu options.

Gillette

Gillette chose a font with sharp lines to mimic the sharpness of their razor blades. To further accentuate the sharpness, the tips of the letters g and I are slashed as if done by one of their sharp razor blades.

Hyundai

The smooth edges of the Hyundai font seem to mimic the smooth designs of their cars, but there is another image hidden in the letters. The company says that the shape of the capital letter H of their logo is meant to symbolize two people shaking hands and making a deal, like a customer and a car salesman when a Hyundai car is purchased.

Toyota

Toyota’s logo uses a rounded font to embed each letter of their company name within the logo itself. At first glance, the logo looks like an oval with smaller ovals swirling within it. But when you look closely, you can make out each letter in Toyota within the ovals. This logo designer must have loved puzzles and codes. 

Ray-Ban

Ray-Ban is known for its famous sunglasses, so you might be disappointed when you first see the logo and think it is only a cursive-like spelling of their company name. If you tilt your head to the left, you will see the B in “Ban” is shaped to resemble their famous shades.

My Fonts

Of course, a font company has to do something creative with the font in their logo! My Fonts uses a connected, cursive-style font to hide the second meaning in their logo. The outlined shape of the word “My” resembles a human hand. The hand then looks like it is selecting or picking up the word “Font.” Just like any customer can select any font of their choice from My Fonts.

Pinterest

A giant letter P as the logo of a company named Pinterest seems fairly obvious and straightforward. The swirly font harks to arts and crafts, which is a central hobby that connects people on the tech company’s platform.

Looking a little closer at the outline of the letter, you can see that it resembles a push pin. A pushpin is the kind of pin that would be used to stick pictures and papers to a classic corkboard, which is what the platform is providing for its users—a virtual corkboard to pin up any great idea you find surfing the internet. Pretty perfect logo, right? 

Symbolism

Symbolism is a classic technique used by artists and writers alike to infuse double meanings into their works. In these logos, symbolism is used to convey key features, history, missions, and slogans. Most use pictures, but some use simple colors or shapes to add symbolic hidden messages to their logo.

Subway

You have probably noticed the two arrows pointing in either direction in the Subway logo, but do you know what the arrows symbolize? If you have ever ordered a sub from subway, you know the sandwich chain is famous for its layout that allows a customer to start at the top of the counter and work their way down, requesting ingredients for their order as they move along.

The arrows represent this assembly-line feature that is found in all of their restaurants across the country.

Audi

The Audi logo is four linked circles, and no, the symbolic meaning has nothing to do with the Olympics. Each circle represents one of the original companies of the 1932 Auto-Union Consortium—DKW, Horch, Wanderer, and Audi. The Audi logo pays homage to this founding group of car manufacturers.

Google

Every time you open your internet browser, you likely encounter the Google logo. At this point, you would recognize those four colors anywhere. A lot of thought went into selecting those colors.

The company selected primary colors—red, yellow, and blue—with a single secondary color—green. The secondary color was included to symbolize the company’s ideology that Google does the unexpected.

Adidas

The three stripes on top of the word Adidas in the company’s logo represent more than you may think. Resembling a mountain, these stripes represent the challenges that the company and its customers must try to overcome. The logo suggests that the Adidas product you purchase will help you climb your metaphorical mountain and achieve your goals.

Amazon

These days, you can find anything and everything you need on Amazon. So, the idea that the company sells everything from A to Z fits the iconic logo connecting the two letters. However, Amazon did not start as a mega-warehouse. Originally, the company focused on selling books, and the connected letters A and z represented bookends.

The smiling line connecting the letters is intended to symbolize Amazon’s central idea that the customer should always leave happy.

Cisco

Cisco develops and sells various types of technological equipment and offers other services and products. The lines atop their logo represent a digital signal that can meet the needs of all their customers. However, the overall shape of those lines offers a secondary meaning.

The company is headquartered in San Jose, California, and got its start in San Francisco. To pay homage to their home city, the shape of the signal lines make an outline of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Quicksilver

Quiksilver’s logo can be found on the bottoms of skateboards and plastered on the sides of skateparks all across the country. The logo is based on the 19th-century print depicting a giant wave in front of a mountain. As an extreme sports company, customers of Quicksilver often find themselves riding waves, both the water and pavement variety.

Roxy

As a female-oriented company, the heart logo was intended to draw female customers to Roxy’s extreme sports apparel merchandise. The logo is more than just a heart, however. It is also a duplicate logo of the parent company, Quiksilver. If you look closely, you will see that the heart consists of two Quiksilver logos turned on their sides.

Dell

The Dell logo looks fairly straightforward. It is the name of the company with the letter E tilted at an angle. You may have thought the tilt was intended to break up the block of the name or to accentuate the Electronic focus of the company.

The tilt is a little more meaningful than that. The founder of the company wanted the work done in Dell to turn the world on its ear. So, the logo designer turned the letter E to mirror this mission statement.

Wikipedia

The Wikipedia logo is an example of pure symbolism. Without an explanation, you may not even be aware of what the logo means in the first place. Sure, you recognize it, but what is with all the puzzle pieces and various symbols shaped like a globe?

The logo represents the global community of individuals piecing together various encyclopedic posts in an attempt to capture and define all the parts that make up the world. However, that goal is so lofty, it will forever remain unfinished. Thus, the company’s logo is an unfinished puzzle of the globe.

BMW

Many people believe that the BMW logo symbolizes the company’s aviation history as it looks like propeller blades. However, the symbolism in the BMW logo has to do with the colors used. The blue and white represent the Bavarian flag, where the company began. BMW stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH, which means Bavarian Engine Works Company in English.

Meaning in the Numbers

Numbers depicted within logos is a common strategy used to imbue logos with hidden meanings. Often logos also include a series of symbols that are always found in a certain number or count. These specific counts generally hold a secondary meaning that is special to the company. These next logos use numbers or specific symbol counts to depict hidden messages.

Baskin Robbins

In conjunction with playful fonts, the Baskin Robbins logo offers the most famous use of numbers to represent a secondary logo meaning. As extra credit, the numbers themselves are hidden within the logo.

Using the rounded side of the capital letter B and the straight line of the capital letter R, Baskin Robbins highlights the number 31, which is the number of ice cream flavors they offer.

Paramount

The stars arching over the Paramount logo are not just aesthetically pleasing; they are also meaningful. When the logo was designed, Paramount 24 actors contracted under their company. These actors would go on to “star” in the movies and films produced by the company.

At some point in the 1970s, Paramount dropped two of the stars from its logo, though the reason is unknown. Perhaps, they wanted to dissociate themselves from two of the founding stars for whatever reason. 

Domino’s

If you have not played the game before, you may not even realize that the two squares with dots on top of the Domino’s logo are a domino game piece. Traditionally, the pieces have dots representing any set of numbers from one to six. So, why were the three dots chosen in this logo?

Originally, the founders of Domino’s thought they would add a dot for each new store that they opened. Little did they know their company would outgrow the potential number of dots a single domino piece can hold. Instead, they stuck with the three dots representing their three original locations.

Hidden Faces

Your brain is wired to find faces, so the hidden messages in these logos may not be very hidden to you. These logos take the idea of putting a face on a brand literally.

Chik-fil-a

The strange spelling of this company may be enough to stop you from seeing the hidden face in Chik-fil-a’s logo. The shapes and swirls making up the capital letter C in the logo create the face of this food chain’s best-seller, chicken.

LG

The face in LG’s logo is pretty apparent, but what you might not notice is of what the features of the face are comprised. The nose is the capital letter L, and the shape of the face and winking eye is the capital letter G. 

Goodwill

Because your brain is so wired to see faces, the faces in Goodwill’s logo are likely to jump out at you. What you might not see at first is that it is the use of a well-designed block font that makes the lowercase letter g look like the face. The purpose of this company is to make people’s lives a little better and hopefully put smiles on their faces. This meaning shines through in their logo.

Beats by Dre

The lowercase letter b jumps out, and the logo looks like a simplistic representation of the company name. When you look again, you may notice that the circle encapsulating the b represents a human head, and the b is placed exactly where the company’s headphones would cradle that person’s ear. Pretty sleek, huh?

London Symphony Orchestra

One more because this logo is cool once you see it. At first, you might think the logo is just the abbreviation, LSO, written in a rounded cursive font. The three letters create the outline of the hands and head of an orchestra conductor leading the symphony.

Ready to create your own hidden message logo? Here are some of our favorite logo templates to start with.