How to Create a Well-balanced Vertical Logo
Steps at a glance
Some time ago, while working on branding for one of our clients, we had a little discussion about various options for building a logo. Since the horizontal version was first built, it was necessary to determine the proportions for the vertical. For the vertical version, it was necessary to change the proportions between the logotype and the symbol, but not everyone agreed on what exactly these proportions should be.
This may seem like a private matter, but it is not. Logo and branding designers are constantly confronted with this. Flipping through Dribbble, Behance and other resources where designers show their work, I often notice one common mistake in the logo. It is a mistake to make the logo mark in the vertical version of the logo the same size as in the horizontal one. Yes, I know that sometimes it works, but this is more of an exception than a rule.
The designer most often creates at first a horizontal, let’s say the main version, and then simply places a symbol on top of the logotype to make the vertical version. Why do we need different logo versions and is it possible to get by with only one option? Let’s try to figure this out.
Logos yesterday and today
Technological advances have greatly changed the design industry over the past few decades. Before the era of digital technology, logos and other corporate identities were used only on physical objects, and changing them was neither easy nor cheap. But this situation is a thing of the past.
Today we see an identity on websites and services, applications on a mobile phone and tablet, on social networks, all kinds of instant messengers and more. On one hand, it opened up enormous opportunities for designers, and on the other hand, it also imposed certain requirements. Thus, we inevitably come to such a concept as a “responsive logo”. In this article, we will not dwell on responsive logos as much, but only touch on its individual points, so to speak, to understand where it came from.
The main types of logo
The most common type of the logo consists of a symbol and text. More correctly sounds like logomark and logotype. The full version of the logo (logomark and logotype) is mainly used as the basic one, while the logomark, a brand identifier, is more often used as an avatar for social networks, instant messengers, etc.
Sometimes the logomark can work as the main version of the logo, where the text part is additional or, let’s say, secondary. Examples include brands such as Starbucks, Apple, Shell, McDonald’s or applications and services such as Snapchat, Evernote, Dropbox, Spark, Whatsapp, and others.
Also, and vice versa, there are companies that do not use a symbol or sign. Companies such as Coca-cola, Jeep, Virgin, Netflix, Kellogg’s use only the logotype.
Horizontal and vertical versions of the logo
If we discard special cases, then the logo is usually developed in horizontal and vertical versions because of their different application purposes.
The horizontal version is mainly used on the website, letterhead, for creating business cards, advertising on billboards, advertising and sponsorship products.
The vertical version is used for square and vertical layout formats. For example, for printing typographic products, t-shirts, mugs, advertising banners, for instant messengers, social networks, signboards.
Instructions or principles?
Now let’s get back to the problem said at the beginning. Why does the vertical version of the logo with the same proportions as the horizontal one look uncertain or even bad? Why does the logomark in the vertical version most often have to be one and a half or two times bigger, and sometimes even three? You may ask where I got all this from and on the basis of what I draw such a conclusion.
Of course, there does not exist and cannot be clear rules spelled out by someone of what sizes, shapes and proportions should designers strictly adhere to when developing a logo. Everything is very personal and hardly anyone will argue with this. However, there are principles of design and composition, guided by which we can separate the wheat from the tares.
Therefore, based on the analysis of good and bad examples of logo design, I intend to derive certain principles and rules, guided by which it is more likely to get a good result.
The bad news
You’ve probably often heard the phrase: “I have good new and bad, which do you want to hear?” Since you can’t answer, I will start with the bad, to finish all the same on a good note.
The bad news is that even large brands with big design budgets make serious mistakes. One of these examples I recently found on Google. This is the Google Marketing Platform logo. I must say that the symbol itself is quite good, but the construction of the logo could be improved.
Perhaps most people may not notice anything terrible here, but this article is intended mainly for designers who should be able to distinguish good from bad.
What distinguishes an amateur from a professional? An amateur understands that something is bad or lacking, but does not understand why. A professional, on the contrary, sees a problem and understands why it arose and how to solve it.
So, what is wrong with this logo. Here Google makes several severe errors at once.
Firstly, it uses a too long title in one line, which is not perceived as a logo, but simply as a piece of text.
Secondly, in the vertical version of the logo it leaves a symbol of the same size, which makes the situation with the perception of the logo even worse.
I talk about this quite seriously, because this is the final version, these screenshots are taken from their official brand guidelines. When we at Unfold agency are working on a logo or branding, we make many unsuccessful versions in the process, but they are polished and verified for production (logo system).
Let’s try to fix the situation with the Google Marketing
Platform logo.
Good news
The good news is that there are many designers who do an excellent job. Below I have made a selection from the works of one of the most popular logo designers on Dribbble: Jeroen van Eerden.
As you may have noticed, on some vertical versions the symbol is more than doubled. With a significant increase in the symbol, the vertical version acquired a special harmony and expressiveness. Please note that the vertical version looks good when its proportions seem to tend to a square or fit into it, while the horizontal version tends to a rectangle.
In general, these are good examples of building a logo. However, there are cases in which it would look even better if you make some changes. Let’s do it with Groupmarks as an example
In the original version, the distance between the symbol and the logotype is too small, as they say there is not enough air, it creates the feeling that the symbol on top seems to put pressure on the text. Therefore, we add air and slightly increase the symbol. As a result of small changes, the vertical version has become much more seamless and harmonious.
Thus, we can formulate the first principle, which states:
In the vertical version of the logo, you need to add more air between the symbol and the text than in the horizontal.
The scope of the vertical versions of the logo is usually square in vertical formats, as well as in large spaces. Therefore, in order to make the logo look expressive and “solemn,” one does not need to be afraid to enlarge the symbol.
Therefore, the following principle sounds like this:
The horizontal version of the logo needs to be confined to a rectangle, while the vertical version to a square.
How to build a vertical version of the logo
The vertical version looks confident when it fits into a square, we have already figured that out. The most important question here is how much you need to scale the symbol to get a good balanced result.
In this matter, at least the following three parameters must be considered:
- Logo length
- Logo thickness
- Color activity of the symbol
1. Logo length
The length of the logo is sometimes quite inconvenient for the development of the logo. The longer the logo, the more difficult it is to build a balanced solution. With short logos, the symbol can be made large enough, which will well affect the proportions of the vertical version of the logo (fits into the square). If the logo is long, then the vertical version is much more difficult to build so that it fits into the square because in this case the text will be very small, and not legible.
Below are the successful solutions with different logo lengths.
As you already understood, the shorter the logo, the larger the symbol. This, of course, is not an axiom, but a good rule adhering to which the logo will look confident.
2. Logo thickness
The next parameter that helps us correctly scale the symbol in the vertical version of the logo is the thickness of the logotype.
In the examples below, you can see that the symbol in the vertical version either remains the same size or increases slightly. This is due to the fact that in both cases the logo has a fairly thin font, which provides the necessary visual balance. If the symbol were much larger, then the text would be lost against the background of the symbol.
Unlike the previous two logos, Airbnb’s logo is significantly thicker, so the symbol is almost doubled.
3. Symbol’s color activity
The color activity of the symbol is another parameter affecting the logo proportions. The bottom line is that the brighter and richer the symbol, the less you need to increase it. When bright colors with strong energy are used in a symbol, then in a large size it can attract too much attention.
Let’s look at it with concrete examples.
This is the original logo created by Eddie Lobanovsky. Here you see the perfect balance and proportion between the symbol and the logotype.
Below I did an experiment with three options that show how much the color activity of the symbol affects the process of building the logo lockups.
In the variant on the left, the symbol is the same size as in the horizontal version and, as a result, the symbol was lost and the logo lost its expressiveness. In the variant on the right, the symbol is increased to the entire width of the logo. But this did not work well, because the local spot of the symbol is too bright and it takes too much attention.
Let’s take a look at this point as an example of the logo created by the Ramotion agency.
Let’s compare the original version with two alternatives
However, there is also a situation where the color tone and saturation of a symbol are balanced by the color of the logotype, as is the case with the Walmart logo. In this case, the bright symbol must be made large enough to achieve visual balance.
The same parameter is applicable in cases with monochrome logos. Here we must perceive the symbol as a kind of local spot, which should look expressively in different versions.
In the examples below, we see that thin lines of symbols require an increase in size to achieve at least visual balance.
In conclusion
First, is it always necessary to strictly adhere to the rules described above? Of course not! Rules exist to be broken for those who know why they need to be broken. In the end there is a design vision and intention and it’s impossible to put absolutely everything in a certain canvas and it’s not necessary. These rules are designed to give logo designers a guideline or instruction, guided by which they can avoid common mistakes.
Secondly, this is just a brief overview in which it is impossible to make out all the subtleties and nuances. Most likely, these principles are not complete and they can and should be expanded or clarified. In any case, I am open to discussion. In this article I described what I came to over many years of work in design and I hope this helps you to create outstanding work for your clients.
