“Here you go, I’ll send the logo over in a Microsoft Word Document!” As a designer, I hear these words far too often and my fellow creative artists will we agree with me when I say it makes us all cringe just a little bit. Let me tell you why.
A well-designed logo is the corner stone of your business. It’s a staple of who you are, what your business stands for, and it’s brand recognition you want associated with your company.
A good logo is
- Simple
- Recognizable
- Scalable
Simple
Think logos such as Nike, Target, or Apple. When you break down the fundamentals of their logo concept and execution, it’s quite effortless. A simple logo communicates a clear message; brand recognition and readability. Nike’s logo was originally created for just $35 and is recognizable worldwide.
Recognizable
Possibly one of the strongest, most identifiable logo internationally, may be the Golden Arches of McDonalds. Our children are more likely to recognize the McDonalds Golden Arches before they can distinguish their own name. The logo is essentially 2 rounded arches fused together.
Color
Often times, a logo will be seen in more then one color. For example, it should work in black and white, as well as color. It should be readable in any format. Your letterhead may be faxed, copies will be made, so you want to make sure your logo is readable in various color formats.
Scalable
A logo should work at any size. Whether you want to place it on a business card, or a billboard, the logo should be scalable in a vector format.
File Formats
You’ll want your logo to be in a vector format. Without getting into too much detail in our beginning article, vector graphics use geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and polygons, which are all based upon mathematical equations to represent images in computer graphics. Since they are mathematical equations, this allows us to have the scalability of a logo that is .5 inches or 15 feet. A raster graphic is a representation of an image as a collection of pixels, mostly used to represent photographic images.
Possible Vector Format
- .AI (Adobe Illustrator)
- .EPS (Encapsulated PostScript)
Your graphic designer should provide you with these original files and potentially a .JPEG for your personal use. Most computers will not be able to open these file format unless you have specialized graphic software.
We prefer receiving logos in vector format. We “can” work with your rastered logo images, but if at all possible, we’d prefer them in vector format.