Once your logo is approved and hot off the presses (or rather, Adobe Illustrator), it’s understandable that you’d want to post it all over your website, social media accounts, and other materials. But if you need it to meet certain display standards, making adjustments yourself could lead to branding inconsistencies and negate all the work the professional designer you hired has done. Before you make any changes to your online presence, it's important to know the proper ways to display your logo.
Size
Your logo, if designed properly, should have started out as an editable file that can be easily resized for most purposes. Ideally, it should start out from the gate as a flat, black and white design with an equal balance between negative and positive shapes. This makes it incredibly easy for any slight alterations while the main focus is the shape, type and overall recognition of your logo.
Limitations
It's good to adhere to the versatility limitations of your logo so it’s distinguishable, used appropriately, and remains the most consistent item throughout your entire branding. Messing with the logo can confuse the audience looking at it, which can ultimately become detrimental to your brand. You want your logo to be as easy to identify and refer back to as possible, so it's best to stay away from rotating, stretching, or mirroring (or flipping).
When it comes to other adjustments being off-limits, it depends on the degree of change. It's generally unwise to mess with the original color(s), but what about if you have to put it over a background image that would make the logo illegible? As long as the logo is designed well with positive and negative space, adding a contrasting overlay to the logo is a viable solution.
Alterations
In order for your logo to be flexible when working with different sizes or displaying in certain situations, it's beneficial to have some predetermined alterations in place. Initially, you should create a shortened logo that can be displayed and stacked differently in order to fit smaller spaces. Then, once you’ve built up some brand recognition, you can even scale down to just the logo mark itself, eliminating the text displaying your company name.
Application
Now that you have your logo’s measurements, limitations, and structure set up, you can go ahead and get them onto your marketing items. For print, you’ll want to start with a CMYK version of your logo to make sure it reproduces correctly on business cards, postcards, handouts, and other stationary items. For signage or online usage, the logo should be able to look great, even on an ext. Alternatively, for online uses, your logo should size down while preserving high quality; usually, the logo can be found near the top left corner of your webpage for easy identification.
Your logo is the central driving force of your brand and good presentation of it is essential in communicating with your audience. You don’t just want them to remember you; you want to make it as easy for them to recognize and refer back to you as possible. Stick with the guidelines and practice good usage your logo and your viewers are sure to remember your name!
