The New GVSU Logo: A Before-and-After Design Audit

Direct answer

This article is a before-and-after design audit of the new Grand Valley State University logo. Because no official logo artwork, specification sheet, or source files are supplied with this request, the audit can only describe the design comparison in general terms. Specific vector details such as exact path counts, anchor placement, redraw tolerances, and which software version produced a file cannot be verified from a filename, preview image, or written description alone.

Before / After · demo work

Redraws you can scrub through

Drag the handle, tap anywhere on the picture or use the arrow keys. Every pair is a fictional demo brand drawn in code for this site, not a client project.

Demo Fernhill Bakery is a fictional brand. Before: clip-art, four fonts, outlines everywhere. After: one geometric mark, one serif and a calm palette.

Logo Lab

Seven honest tools for checking a logo

Try a logo in mockups, pull its palette, test contrast, export sizes and favicons or sketch a quick idea. Every tool works on your device.

Runs in your browser: files are not uploaded or stored
No AI redraws and no automatic vectorization
Real exports: PNG, WebP, SVG, ICO, palettes and HTML

Find a tool

Mockup PreviewCard, sign and screen scenes
Palette ExtractorHEX, RGB, HSL and exports
Contrast CheckerWCAG AA and AAA
Resize & ConvertPNG ↔ WebP, size sets as ZIP
Favicon GeneratorPNG 16–512, ICO and HTML
Shape & Text EditorLayers, undo, SVG and PNG

Mockup Preview

Place a PNG or SVG logo on a business card, a hanging sign or a screen, on a light or dark background, and export the preview.

Does: shows your file as it is on drawn scenes and exports a PNG preview.
Doesn’t: redraw, clean up or vectorize the logo, or print anything.

Choose file
Settings
Result
Export

1. Choose a file

Choose a PNG or SVG logo (up to 5 MB)

Choosing a file only opens it in this browser tab. Nothing is uploaded or sent to a server.

2. Settings

Logo size

3. Result

Drag with a mouse or finger. With the keyboard: arrows move, Shift moves faster, + and − resize.

4. Export

1600 × 1000 px PNG of the current scene.

Palette Extractor

Find the dominant colors of an image and copy them as HEX, RGB or HSL.

Does: counts the pixels of your image and groups similar colors.
Doesn’t: name brand colors, guess Pantone values or judge which palette is “right”.

Choose file
Settings
Result
Export

1. Choose a file

Choose a PNG, SVG, JPEG or WebP image (up to 10 MB)

The image is read in this browser tab only and never uploaded.

2. Settings

Number of colors

3. Result

Text color Background

4. Export

Contrast Checker

Type or pick two colors to get the WCAG 2 contrast ratio with AA and AAA marks.

Does: applies the WCAG relative-luminance formula to two solid colors.
Doesn’t: check gradients, images or thin strokes inside a logo.

Text color Pick text color

Background Pick background color

Contrast ratio —

AA normal text —
AA large text —
AAA normal text —
AAA large text —

Normal text: the quick brown fox redraws the logo.

Large text 24 px

Resize & Convert

Extends the site’s image tools: convert PNG ↔ WebP and export a whole set of sizes as one ZIP, keeping proportions.

Does: rescales pixels with the browser canvas and re-encodes them as PNG or WebP.
Doesn’t: add detail when enlarging or turn a raster image into vectors.

Choose file
Settings
Result
Export

1. Choose a file

Choose a PNG, WebP, JPEG or SVG image (up to 10 MB)

Conversion happens in this browser tab. Nothing is uploaded.

3. Result

4. Export

Favicon Generator

Turn a square-ish PNG or SVG into PNG icons from 16 to 512 px, an apple-touch-icon, a favicon.ico and the HTML to link them.

Does: scales your image into the standard icon sizes and packs 16, 32 and 48 px into one ICO.
Doesn’t: simplify a detailed logo for tiny sizes: check the 16 px preview yourself.

Choose file
Settings
Result
Export

1. Choose a file

Choose a PNG or SVG (up to 5 MB)

Icons are drawn in this browser tab. Nothing is uploaded.

2. Settings

Solid backgroundBackground color Padding

3. Result

HTML for your <head>

4. Export

Shape & Text Editor

Sketch a simple mark with text, rectangles, circles, lines and polygons, then export SVG or PNG.

Does: edit basic shapes and text in layers, with undo, alignment and grid snapping.
Doesn’t: trace an uploaded logo or replace a full vector editor.

Selected layer Fill Stroke Text Font Size

Snap to 10 px grid

Layers

How files are handled

Logo Lab opens the files you choose only inside your browser tab. Images are not uploaded, sent to a server or stored by this site, and no AI service is called. Closing or reloading the page discards them.

Limits keep the page responsive: up to 5 MB for logos and 10 MB for other images, up to 4096 px per side. SVG files are treated as untrusted: scripts, event handlers, embedded pages and external references are removed, and the result is only shown as an image.

Embedding in articles: put a paragraph containing only [lab:palette], [lab:contrast], [lab:before-after] or [lab:editor] into an article and the matching tool appears in its place.