A logo is a sensitive symbol of our causes and businesses/organisations. Most of the time they communicate our character in the market, so they are subjective.
In this article, I would like to share one important consideration for anyone planing to make a logo by themselves or order one from professional graphics designers. The critical part of the logo today is ease of use on numerous devices and technologies.
Some years ago that flexibility wasn’t much of a requirement because logos could be mostly shipped on print media.
Technology growth is quickly changing that. In that a logo should now be produced in various versions characterized by dimension and color.
Therefore a new logo or even a old but revised one should at least have three basic versions:- the standard version, alternative version and mobile version.
The standard version
This version is what you are likely to get if you design a logo for yourself or even from a professional designer who doesn’t care much about the other versions.
Pros
It is in full color.
It is big enough(dimension) which makes it good for any print.
Cons
It may not work well on small devices like mobile phones, tablets and websites.
The alternative version
As much as it’s important, this version is usually ignored by many logo owners. It is also called the negative or grey scale logo.
Pros
It comes at a dimension of the standard logo though in monochrome.
Being monochrome it can be used in most of the partners’ media especially the mobile, web applications and websites.
Cons
Since it’s monochrome, it can’t be used anywhere if your logo originally comes in more than one color.
Mobile version
The mobile version is a small logo in terms of dimension(width and height) made in both full color and monochrome. It is an important logo for mobile applications and websites. If the standard logo is complex i.e has many symbols which may not be visible shrink mode, effort should be taken to remove some of those symbols in this version.
Pros
It will fit and represent the brand on the widely used devices today.
It is good to be used as an icon, for a mobile application and website fav icon.
Cons
It is not good for print media.
Bonus: It is good discipline to always have the original editable versions of the logo and any graphic for your brand. Without them flexibility is not paramount as you stand a high chance of color and dimension inconsistency in the future publications.