Companies spend billions annually promoting the face of their brands. Whether that be through celebrity sponsorships, partnership deals, or promoted PR events held daily across the country. But what is the common denominator between mom and pop shops with small budgets, to your international conglomerates which have an almost endless supply of resources? It’s that the first impression almost anyone will get from your company will be your logo. In this article we’ll review the importance of your logo, the basics of what your logo should include, and the files you’re going to want to have on hand for all your marketing efforts going forward.
The Importance of Your Logo
Whether it be on your website, your storefront, your packaging, or every piece of marketing material you produce. The first thing your customer should notice is your logo. It’s the “Hello My Name Is” tag that helps the client begin to understand what your company is, and how you can help them. It’s the touchstone that when your customers see your mark, they know the product is yours and they can set the expectation that your service provides them. It’s one of the most crucial branding elements that a company must decide on before launching into the commercial space. It should include input from professionals who’ve spent their life crafting this art as logo design can be among the most complicated pieces of corporate art to produce, for reasons we’ll review in the next section.
What's In A Logo
Simplicity. First and foremost think simple. Come up with an idea and reduce it down it’s very core element, then you can begin to refine. There are millions of ways to draw an Apple, but one of the most accomplished brands of our time, Apple, uses two simple shapes to convey their brand that’s become recognizable across the planet. Beyond that core tenet, you need to have a visual graphic of some variety, your logomark, and your name set in a type that fits your brand identity, your wordmark. These should work independently of each other, but also in concert with each other. The marks ideally work in as little as one color. That way it will be versatile enough to be used across a wide variety of printing restrictions you’ll run into in the course of your business. The last core requirement is ensuring that it works scaled as large as a billboard, and as small as a thumbnail. You could print the McDonalds logo on the head of a pencil eraser and still recognize it’s famous golden arches. Your logo will be produced in a variety of sizes and preparation for the extreme case uses leads your logo back to it’s essential versatility. So you’ve got it, your simple yet descriptive word and logo marks that scales to any size. What now?
File Types You’ll Need
Whether you’re designing your logo yourself, or you're having someone else assist you. Moving forward with your marketing efforts, there are some core files you’ll want to have on hand. Making these files available in a package for your designers and marketers can help them streamline their work. The types of files you need can be broken down into two main categories, Print and Web, and then into either a raster or vector category. Dots per Inch, or dpi, is a unit of measurement for resolution. The higher the number the higher the resolution. What you need to know when it comes to dpi is that a standard print measure is at 300, and standard web measure is at 72. A breakdown of the files you’ll be sure you want to request from your design are as follows:
Raster
JPEG 300 dpi (At Least 2000px Wide)
PNG 300 dpi (At Least 2000px Wide)
Vector
Illustrator File .AI
EPS File
Web
Raster
JPEG 72 dpi (At least 1500 pixels wide)
PNG 72 dpi (At least 1500 pixels wide)
Once you’ve got these files on hand you are ready to get out there and start promoting! If you need any help creating your logo or building out a creative strategy, reach out to our team of experts at Blue42 Agency at support@goblue42.com.
Blue42.