solo:techno

Your logo is your brand. You want it to be easily recognized and associated with your company or organization the second that it is seen. Companies spend thousands of dollars having a logo designed and then publish design books that specify how the logo is to be used. These books obsess about the exact Pantone/hexadecimal color to be used, how closely it can be placed to text and images, how small it can be reduced, etc. Altering a logo is a very bad thing and any reputable designer won’t do it.

The Problem

I recently did a project where the client wanted their newly designed logo incorporated into a Wordpress theme. The logo was typical of what everyone seems to be doing these days: “web 2.0 style” logo reflecting off of a surface with lots of transparency and gradations. This image style works best if it is placed against a white or very, very light background. In this case the client’s theme background header was black. That was the first challenge.

The image of the logo with which I had been supplied was very large, roughly 900 x 500 pixels and it looked fine at that size. However, to fit in the new header design it had to be reduced to about 140 pixels. And that’s when it self-destructed. You simply can’t hold hairlines, fine gradations and transparencies when they are reduced too much. The resolution of monitors and printing equipment is just not fine enough. My client gave me permission to alter the logo and I was able to maintain it’s integrity by using Photoshop. But I was lucky, there are cases when no matter what you try a logo design will not look good when reduced.

The Solution

Logos are hard to design correctly, that’s why I shy away from them. A good logo designer is going to come up with a design that looks the same whether it is enlarged or reduced, displayed on a computer screen or printed on various media. A good logo design will start at a couple thousand dollars and go up from there depending on the reputation of the designer. However these days anyone who has a copy of Illustrator/Photoshop that can pump out a few designs that their friends think are cool bills themselves as a logo designer. Then they open an account on Elance and start bidding on projects for outrageously low prices.

The moral of the story is this: There’s more to a logo than low price and flashiness. Consider the following when commissioning a new logo design:

• Does the logo still look the same when reduced? Do any lines vanish? Do gradations maintain their integrity or look blotty?
• Conversely, does the logo look good when enlarged? Some logos do not look good when enlarged. You may not think this matters but what if you sponsored a company event and wanted some large banners to hang that included your logo?
• Does the logo look good in black and white? Your logo cannot always be printed in color. Consider photocopies, faxes, laserjet printers, training manuals or even t-shirts. Some colors do not translate well to black and white. For example, the color red turns black, and light blue cannot be seen by photocopiers and vanishes.
• Does the logo look good reversed (white on black background)? There may times when your logo may need to be placed on a dark background as in my client’s case above.

Keep those points in mind when you spec out the requirements for your new logo design and not only will you have a recognizable brand but you will make life easier for designers that have to work with your logo in the future.