Clients increasingly arrive with a logo they generated themselves and a simple ask: make this a “real” file. It sounds like a 20-minute trace. It usually isn’t. This walkthrough pulls together the approach several designers have written up on handling these jobs, plus general vector cleanup and brand delivery practice. It’s synthesized from published sources, not a process we’ve run on a client project ourselves.

  1. Decide whether to take it, then scope it as a rebuild. Turning these down is a legitimate choice, especially if your contract promises original work. If you take it, Amp’d Designs’ advice is to charge accordingly: it may not cost as much as custom design, but it’s a real recreation project, not a cleanup. Spell out what’s included (redrawn vector mark, rebuilt type, color specs, variations, file set) so the client understands why it costs more than they expected.

  2. Stress-test the concept first. Before any vector work, look at the image in black and white. If the idea still reads with no color, it’s worth refining. Then zoom in to 400% or more. AI images tend to hide near-misses at normal size: circles that aren’t quite round, corners that aren’t quite square, a “symmetric” icon that’s slightly off on one side, and text that’s lettering-shaped rather than actual letters.

  3. Use auto-trace as a reference, not a deliverable. This is where sources split. One camp says to redraw by hand from the start. Another treats an AI vectorizer (Recraft, Vectorizer.AI) or Illustrator’s Image Trace as a reasonable first pass, followed by a full human cleanup, and saves the full manual approach for production work like embroidery, vinyl, engraving, and large-format print. A practical middle ground: run a trace to get proportions on a locked layer, then draw clean shapes on top of it. In Illustrator, Image Trace’s Black and White Logo preset with Ignore White turned on gives a usable guide.

  4. Rebuild the geometry with real primitives. Replace near-circles with actual ellipses, near-squares with rectangles, and organic curves with as few anchor points as will hold the shape. A useful red flag from one write-up: a simple shape with more than about eight anchors is usually a guess, not a drawing. For a mark that’s meant to be symmetric, draw one half, reflect a copy, and join them, rather than trusting the generator’s version of symmetry.

  5. Retype the wordmark, never trace it. AI lettering is almost always distorted, even when it looks right at a glance. Identify the closest licensed typeface (or a better choice for the brand), set it fresh, and then tune kerning, baseline, and weight so it holds up at small sizes. If the lettering is meant to be custom, start from a real font and modify it, which keeps the letterforms consistent with each other.

  6. Consolidate and specify color. Generators produce gradients and near-duplicate shades. Pick a small, deliberate set, and define each color for screen and print. Then build the versions a brand actually needs: full color, one color, black, white, and reversed.

  7. Build the lockups and the file set. The more detailed guides go well beyond the single image the client sent: horizontal, stacked, and icon-only lockups, plus a favicon and social avatar sizes. Export vector masters (SVG, PDF, and EPS or AI) and raster PNGs. Test the icon-only version at favicon size before you call it done; small details that looked charming at 1,000 pixels often vanish there.

  8. Have the ownership conversation in writing. Tell the client plainly that a logo that started as an AI image may have limited copyright protection, and that trademark questions belong with an attorney. One designer’s write-up recommends contract language where the client warrants they have the rights to what they hand you, and where your liability for their supplied material is limited. A basic visual search for lookalike marks is a sensible courtesy, but it’s not a trademark clearance.

Why it matters for designers

These requests aren’t going away, and they’re a real line of work if you scope them honestly. The trap is quoting a trace and delivering a trace: the file opens, the client is happy, and then the embroidery vendor or sign maker sends it back because the curves are a mess of tiny segments. Rebuilding properly is what turns an image into a brand asset.

It’s also a chance to add the parts the generator never thought about. An AI image is one picture. A logo is a system of versions that works on a business card, a website header, and a shirt. That system is the part clients actually need from you.

What to watch out for

Don’t promise ownership you can’t deliver. Even after a full redraw, how much protection the client gets is a legal question, not a design one. The sources we read are designers’ views, not legal advice, and the details depend on jurisdiction.

Be careful with online vectorizers and client files. Check the service’s terms before uploading anything confidential, or keep the trace inside desktop software.

Watch for lookalikes. Image generators can echo existing marks, sometimes closely. If something about the logo feels familiar, raise it with the client before you invest hours in it.

Watch the scope as it grows. “Just clean it up” can turn into “actually, can you redesign the icon too.” That’s fine, but it’s a different job. Agree on it before you start drawing.

The sidebar covers the rights, data, and accessibility questions in more detail.