Volume 4 Article 1
Do you want your brand to be recognized and remembered? Even when you have a great logo in place, it’s important to be in control of your branding. Consistency helps your brand to be recognized and remembered.
My recent experience inspired this article and brought to mind the importance of letting your brand guidelines be known to those involved in your marketing projects. It reaffirms that providing brand guidelines are an important part of the brand identity creation. It is especially relevant to create a version of your logo on both a light and a dark background.
Mary Jane University was interested in acquiring a dark grey tablecloth to feature the corporate logo. Artwork was provided to a vendor and they created a few quick mock ups showing the color of cloths available since a version of the logo for use on a dark background had not yet been created.
The vendor took the initiative to change the colors on the logo for readability. Although it was a kind thing for the vendor to attempt, the brand identity was lost in each design. Our client called asking for help and we created a version of the logo to be used on dark backgrounds. In the end, a simple white table runner was designed to lay over the gray cloth. It was beautiful and adhered to the overall brand image.
Designers can create and provide you with a “Logo Color and Usage Guide” to share with all vendors working with you. Shown here, is the logo guide for the Keystone Canna Remedies. When the brand logo was placed on a black background, the blue and green did not stand out sufficiently and the gray lettering faded into the black. The best option in this case was to adjust the colors slightly so it would work on a black background.
It’s also important to have your designer create both vertical and horizontal versions of your logo. The Forbidden Leaf Co. came to us for help because their logo was not reading well on their website. Hence, the corporate logo had been designed primarily for usage on product labels. It is a very tall format. When reduced to the small banner area on the company website, it was not easy TO read or recognized. We suggested a simple adjustment to their logo that made a large difference in their readability and recognition. As you can see from the images here the updated logo fits the space better They now have a horizontal version of their logo which improves readability and recognition.
