An effective logo works across a variety of media and applications. The goal of a company logo is to present a unified image of your company that suits ALL purposes. This means planning ahead and doing it right the first time.
Let’s Think…
Where do companies display their logos? From Business Cards to Billboards, Televisions to T-Shirts, Computers to Car Signs. The applications of your logo can be endless. Different sizes, different media types, different products needed to produce the logo. The key to effective logo design is to make sure it works well on all these different media types. Whether it be when printed, embroidered or displayed on a computer screen. It also needs to work well at the size of a postage stamp and the size of a billboard. Can your logo do all of these things?
You don’t know where your logo will be displayed in 3, 5 or even 10 years. Maybe you get a chance at a huge billboard looking over the M1, a cap sponsorship for a local sports team or even a trade magazine. Will your logo work on these applications as well as it does on your business card? Worst case scenario, you need to change or alter your logo to suit the application. Bad news if you’ve spent a length of time establishing yourself with a particular brand.
From Bad Apple to Good:
Take a look at Apple’s original logo. Before Steve Jobs got his hands on it, this is what Apple was using for their branding. Impossible to embroider, this logo just wouldn’t work on a T-shirt or baseball cap. In addition to that, the lack of contrast in colour means it lacks the impact to really make a visual effect on signage items. Can you imagine this on the back your iPhone? Luckily, times have moved on and Apple has absolutely nailed their current logo. Perfect for all types of media, both large and small.
In addition to various media types, we should also pay attention to the various layout options available. For example, where possible the designer should offer a landscape version and a portrait (also called “stacked”) version of your logo. Likewise, make sure your logo is available in the necessary range of colour combinations: monotone (or black), reversed out, spot or PMS colour, full colour (or CMYK) for printing and RGB for websites. Having this entire set of logos at your dispatch will allow your brand marketing to have unity and have very little (if any) impact on the unity of your brand.