Studio & Tools · Design · on the bench
Logo Lab
Reproducible marks and exports that say what they depend on. The SVG does not outline the type, though its catalogue line says it does.
Scorecard · 15 of 20 checks met
How the checks workAll four: marks are computed locally; the faces come from Google Fonts, named in type.js.
Missed C4: the catalogue says the SVG's type is outlined; the code keeps it as live text.
Missed P3: determinism was checked against itself; no outside reference exists for a seed.
Missed F3 and F4: the faces load from Google Fonts.
Missed R3: twenty-four faces against thousands of fonts and templates.
01What it is
Logo Lab, which lives at labs.llc/dina/, is a mark-making instrument. A seeded geometry engine draws marks in eight modes; a logotype is set in any of twenty-four display faces on a twenty-rung size ladder in four finishes; and the two lock up on an artboard whose ground can be white, black or genuinely transparent. Results export as PNG or SVG.
It is for founders, hobbyists and designers who want to explore marks and wordmarks quickly, and to keep a reproducible record of what they liked: the seed.
02How it works
It runs in the browser. assets/js/engine.js is a pure module: parameters go in, one scene comes out, and two renderers, canvas and SVG, draw that same scene, so the export matches the screen (engine.js:1-25). The eight modes are geometric, script, angular, hybrid, lockup, monogram, tessel and oneline (engine.js:56).
Type comes from Google Fonts in one stylesheet request that asks for exactly the weights each family ships (type.js:104-165). Thirteen faces that ship a single weight are marked single and never requested at 700, so the browser is never left to fake a bold. PNG export uses canvas.toBlob; the SVG is written as a string, and its description records mode, symmetry, carve, grid and ground (engine.js:972-980).
03The test
On 27 September 2026 we loaded engine.js into JavaScriptCore, built an SVG with the defaults and seed 4242 twice, then with seed 4243, and counted the faces table in type.js.
| UTC | What we did | What came back |
|---|---|---|
| 20:00:15Z | Page and scripts on the local copy | HTTP 200, 76,814 bytes; engine.js 55,363 bytes; type.js 37,395 bytes. |
| 20:03:13Z | Seed 4242, built twice | A 3,650-byte SVG, byte-identical on the second run. |
| 20:03:13Z | Seed 4243 | A different SVG of 3,250 bytes. The file's description: mark engine v5 · mode=geometric symmetry=cyclic/4 carve=0 grid=off ground=white. |
| 20:03:30Z | Faces in type.js | 24 families, 13 flagged single-weight. |
04The comparison
Adobe Express logo maker
fetched 2026-09-27What it is
A template-based logo maker with Adobe Fonts and Firefly AI tools, on a free plan and a premium one.
What it does better
Thousands of templates and fonts against Logo Lab's twenty-four faces; PDF and JPG downloads with transparent-background options; generation from a brand name, an industry and a style; a wider design suite around the logo.
Where Logo Lab goes further
Logo Lab's marks are generated geometry rather than templates, eight modes with symmetry and carve, reproducible by seed as our run showed (engine.js:56). Every export states what the vector depends on (type.js:510-511; engine.js:959-971), and one spec drives a twenty-rung size ladder (type.js:1-96).
Brandmark
fetched 2026-09-27What it is
An AI logo generator working from a brand name and keywords, sold with a branding package for a one-off payment.
What it does better
A full package around the logo (brand guide, social profile icons, business-card designs and animated versions) and PDF export alongside SVG and PNG.
Where Logo Lab goes further
Logo Lab is free in the browser with the whole engine exposed: every parameter is a control and is written into the exported SVG's description (engine.js:972-980; app.js:1440). A transparent artboard is a first-class ground, and the PNG export needs no fonts at all (engine.js:38-42).
05Where it falls short
- The SVG does not outline the type. The logotype stays an SVG text element naming its font, and the export's own note says the file needs that family installed or linked to render as drawn (
type.js:510-511). The labs.llc catalogue line promises an SVG with the type outlined; the code does not do it. - Twenty-four fixed faces from Google Fonts. You cannot bring your own, and a network that blocks Google Fonts loses them.
- No brand kit, business-card or social templates, and no EPS or PDF export, which Brandmark and Adobe Express offer.
- The monogram mask in an SVG uses the reader's system interface font, also a live reference rather than an outline (
engine.js:965-969).
06The ruling
Logo Lab treats a logo as something you should be able to make again, and our headless run bore that out: same seed, same bytes. It is unusually candid about the small dishonesties type tools tend to commit. It will not request a bold that a face does not have, and every export lists what it still relies on.
That candour is also how we found its biggest gap. Because the type is not outlined, a logotype opened on a machine without the font will not look as designed, and the catalogue says otherwise. Until the outlining or the sentence is fixed, export PNG for anything you send.
On the docket: 15 of 20 checks met. Reproducible marks and candid exports; the SVG does not outline the type its catalogue line says it does.