There have been plenty of tools around that replace powerful photo editors but very few that replace tools like Illustrator. Sure you can fake it but what if you want truly unique designs like the one above? Pretty tough.
Gravit is a design tool that resides deep within the cloud and lets you create documents, advertisements, and illustrations within your browser. Created by Alexander Adam, the app is free and lets you build documents, export them, and even edit .svg and .eps files.
Adam has built multiple graphic design editors and has been working with Scalable Vector Graphics since he was fourteen.
He has received 600,000 euro from High-Tech Gründer-Fonds and he put another 300,000 euro of his own into while bootstrapping. The product is live now and he is seeing 80,000 designs made on the cloud-based service every day.
“We have also received support from Wayne State University in Detroit to switch over to Gravit from Adobe Products and are expanding to other universities as well,” he said.
Interestingly, Gravit works on all modern browsers including Safari on iOS. It supports smart and compound shapes and includes effects and filters.
“You can think of this as ‘Github for Designers,'” he said. “By having people share content to the public and collaborating together on Open Design Projects or even with teams on those private works, Gravit is changing the way designers and clients even think of designing.”
The project is the product of a dare.
“The project started as an accident. I went out with friends one day where we discussed the future of web and how every app will one day be on the web. Few friends disagreed and provided an example that Design apps will never be on the web. To prove them wrong, I went in search to find one to support my argument. When I failed to find a pure web based (non-Flash) design tool, I took it upon myself to create one,” said Adam. “A few weeks later, I proved them wrong by creating Gravit.”
If it lets a schlub like me create an ebook cover to my next magnum opus then I’m sold.