Logo Maker

Logo Maker ($2.99) is a neat little app that allows you to design personal logos in just a few quick, easy steps. Users can create a logo from scratch or choose a template and personalize it. The final logo is then exported to the photo album and/or placed on a realistic-looking background. If you wanted to avoid spending the $2.99,  you could probably produce a decent logo by fiddling with Pages, PhotoShop, or any free drawing app, but that would take more skill, creativity, and work.  Logo making is the only thing that Logo Maker can do, which means it does it very well (think laser printer vs. all-in-one fax/copier/scanner/printer).

In my fourth grade tech integration class, we used Logo Maker as part of a lesson on personal branding, which was connected to our election unit.  After a discussion about the various ways presidential candidates create an easily recognized public image, we compared the candidates' logos and analyzed their font, image, and layout. We spoke about other famous brands, such as Nike and Target, whose logos "speak for themselves." Finally, the students were encouraged to think about how they would brand themselves, and we used the Logo Maker iPad app to create personalized logos that could then be placed on stickers, stationary, blogs, and other published work. On a practical note, the students also used (the full name version of) their logos as their iPad wallpaper, which makes the devices that much easier to identify.