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Branding is an important part of any business and can often make the difference between a generic service and another that stands out from the crowd. However, small businesses in particular simply can’t afford to hire expensive designers if they can’t create their own marketing materials. While platforms like Swiftly have already offered quick design tweaks for as low as USD 15 per job, now Tailor is using natural language processing to help business automatically generate stylish and personalized branding that fits their company.

Using the Tailor web app, companies first answer some questions about their organization, such as name, location, business type and brand values. They’re then asked to pick from a number of visual cues they think match their style. Using natural language processing and image matching, the service generates a selection of custom typographic logos for users to choose from. If they don’t like any of the options, they can go back and tweak their descriptions to include more relevant keywords. The basic design package consists of a logo, business card and letterhead design, and Tailor customers pay USD 50 to gain access to the raw design files. Alternatively, they can pay a monthly subscription that enables them to make regular tweaks or additions, as well as store their design files on Tailor’s own cloud service.

While the Tailor designs can end up lacking a certain human creativity — the computer-generated logos can come out looking somewhat generic — they are for the most part slick and modern-looking. The service could certainly help small businesses with limited design nous to give an edge to their branding. Are there other ways to cut the cost of design work for smaller businesses?