Recraft
The AI that draws logos, icons and vector illustrations from a sentence.
By Thiago Lourenço Martins
A design studio that draws what you describe
Recraft is an AI tool that generates images, icons, illustrations and logos from a text prompt — and unlike a typical image generator, the artwork can come out in vector format, the same file type designers use in Illustrator, without turning pixelated when you scale it up. It's like asking a freelance illustrator to draw exactly the scene you described, already in your brand's colors and style.
Testing 5 logo styles by hand eats up the whole afternoon
A freelance designer gets a logo request at 5pm, due today. Sketching style variations by hand — testing colors, typography and composition vector by vector — is the kind of task that eats up the whole afternoon before there's even a version to show the client.
is the number of free credits Recraft renews every day. Each generation or edit uses 1 to 2 credits — enough to test several versions of a logo or illustration before deciding whether it's worth subscribing to a paid plan.
How different professionals use Recraft
Gets a logo brief and already has a visual direction to show the client within minutes: picks a vector style (like Geometric Logo), writes the prompt and exports as SVG to refine in Illustrator.
Needs product mockups for the online store. Uploads the product photo and applies the design to a ready-made mockup, no need to hire a product photographer.
Builds a custom style from brand references and generates icons and illustrations with the same visual identity across the week's posts.
From text to an exported vector file
- Go to recraft.ai and create your account
Click "Start now free" and sign in with email, Google, Discord or Apple — no password. If you choose email, you'll get an access code right away.
- Create a new project
You'll land on the Projects view. Click "Create new project" to open a blank canvas.
think of the canvas as a blank drawing board - Describe the image in the prompt panel
At the bottom of the canvas, write what you want to generate and click the arrow (generate) button. Within a few seconds the image appears on the canvas.
- Pick a vector style (for logos and icons)
Click the "Style" button in the prompt panel, search for "logo" or "icon" and pick something like Geometric Logo or Vector Icon.
the Curated tab splits styles by category: Vector logo, Vector icon, Illustration... - Adjust model, ratio and count
Still in the prompt panel: Model sets the generation engine, Ratio sets the image's aspect ratio, and Count generates up to 2 images at once on the free plan.
- Export in the right format
Select the image and click "Export" in the top-right corner (or right-click → "Export as..."). For vector art, choose SVG or PDF; to use it straight in a post, PNG or JPG.
A ready-made prompt for the box
minimalist logo for a neighborhood coffee shop called "Grão & Ofício", geometric logo style, terracotta and olive-green palette, transparent background, vector art
You'll get a vector logo with the stylized name inside the image, ready to export as SVG and use at any size — from a business card to a storefront sign.
Tips & real limitations
Do this
- For a logo, search for "logo" in the style search and pick a dedicated vector style (Geometric Logo, Sharp Drawn Logo, Playful Typographic) — the result comes out much cleaner than with a generic style.
- Build your own style from reference images in the Style Library — it keeps the same visual identity across several pieces in the same project, even on the free plan.
- For vector art, export as SVG or PDF (not PNG) — the file scales to any size without losing sharpness, from a small icon to a large banner.
Watch out for
- Relying on the free plan for client work: images generated for free are public in Recraft's community gallery and aren't cleared for commercial use.
- Expecting a "clean" vector straight out of the AI: generated vector files often come out with excessive anchor points — it's almost always worth opening them in an editor to simplify the path before delivering to a client.
- Generating at volume on the free plan: free only allows 3 uploaded images per day and up to 2 images per generation — to produce more than that, you need a paid plan.
A Portuguese-language tutorial to go further
* Independent suggestion, chosen for content quality. We have no relationship or sponsorship with this channel. The video is in Portuguese.
Generate your first vector now
Create your free Recraft account and generate an icon or logo for a project of your own — it doesn't have to be client work. Pick a style from the Vector logo or Vector icon category and write a prompt describing the scene.
You'll know it worked if you can export the result as SVG and open the file in another program (or straight in the browser) without seeing any jagged edges, at any screen size.
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