How to create brand guidelines for logos
Learn the basics of how to define your logo — and stay consistent
Look, there’s no easy formula of how to create the most powerful brand in the world. In the end, it’s all about being recognized, remembered, and to create an active, positive connection between your audience and your brand.
With this sweet little guide of mine, I hope that you’ll be able to:
✓ Understand the importance of a strong logo
✓ Get a better understanding of the necessity of logo variations
✓ Know how to document your logos, ensuring brand consistency
There are, or at least should be, some rules when creating logos — crazy important rules. Let’s start with the very basics; your logotype and its different variations, how to document them, and how they should apply to their surroundings.
So, which logo variations should you have, and how should they apply?
1.The master logo — the stronghold of your brand.
This is your face on the market, keep it intact – don’t forget to moisturize.
This is arguably the most important representation of your brand identity. The master logo should in no way be distorted or changed; it’s of vital importance to your brand consistency that this piece of design remains the same at all time.
Recommended approach:
✓ Create something that visually represents your brand identity
✓ Always keep the newest version logo available in your online Style Guide
2. The reduced logo — your right hand in branding.
Wherever the master logo don’t fit, this one sit.
The reduced logo is an extension of your master logo, used when the master logo cannot properly be applied without being compromised, such as in tight spaces or in corners of documents.
Recommended approach:
✓ Always have your logo consist of symbolic elements, as well as text, simplifying the creation and extraction of your reduced logo
✓ Only use the reduced logo when absolutely needed — you’re not Nike
3. Clearspace, positioning, and minimum size.
By defining this — you help strengthening the use of your logo.
Believe you me, dear readers. There’s nothing worse than using a logo outside of its comfort zones. Kittens have been crying and people have lost their jobs after misusing a logo. Create a generous white space around your master logo, and define the distance according to something easily tracked — such as the Frontify drops. It’s beautiful, natural, and consistent.
To make sure the logo is always clear and legible, there is a minimum size requirement, this should always be available in your Style Guide.
Recommended approach:
✓ Use an element from within the logo to estimate the clearspace needed
✓ Try it out: Create a white paper with different size logos and clearspaces
4.Color variations.
Because, reality check; black and white logos aren’t always great.
Even if you’re determined only to use white backgrounds — with a family of polar bears having a snowball fight — you might find yourself in a situation where you need to use other color variations of your logo. By predefining them, you’ll save yourself the trouble of reinventing them to fit every case. The best and easiest way is to create color variations that go along with your brand colors.
Recommended approach:
✓ If you have brand colors, simply use them as your color variations
✓ You can also create a new, beautiful color palette, that works with your brand color (if you only have one); create logo variations out of them.
5.Create a list of “do, for the love of God, not’s”
Sounds ridiculous, but I’ve seen a lot of twisted logos.
When you’ve compiled a list of things NOT to do — you generally limit people to use your logo the correct way. You can even add colleagues’ names to them as you update your don’t-library, putting some extra shame on people who’s been disrespecting your brand. That’ll teach them.
Recommended approach:
✓ Use the master logo as provided
✓ Do not use it in any other way
To easily document your own logo’s in the cloud, try our brand management software for free, it’s really cool.
There you have it. Hope this helped you start documenting your logo. If you have any questions, or just want to know what the weather is like here in Switzerland, be sure to drop us a hello@frontify.com.
