If your logo has been designed by a graphic designer (like us!) you will probably have been supplied with a whole host of files in weird formats that may not make much sense. But there is a reason behind the madness, and knowing how to supply your logo in the correct format for different applications will ensure that it always appears exactly as it should.

First things first:

Make sure your logo is in vector format. That means a file ending in .eps, .ai or .pdf (sometimes). What's a vector you ask? Think of vector files as dot-to-dot combined with paint by numbers... essentially points joined by curves. Unlike a pixel based file (jpeg, tiff, png, psd, gif etc), which is resolution dependent, a vector file is scalable. This means we can resize your logo design to any size – whether you're printing a business card or a billboard.

logo design outlines pearson practice

Next make sure the fonts are outlined.

There are millions of fonts and typefaces out there, so to ensure your logo comes out exactly as it is intended, ask the graphic designer to supply you with an outlined file. Outlining the fonts converts them to vector based shapes – which means that the logo file doesn't require the original fonts in order to reproduce correctly. I'm often amazed that even large corporations break this simple rule.

Clear some space around

It's a good idea to make sure nothing interferes with your logo design, and that the graphic designer who is working with it will know how much space to leave around it. This can be easily done by asking your logo designer to set the artboard of your vector file to the amount of clear space you would like around your logo. Here's an example of a logo design we did for Pearson Practice showing how the clear space works.
logo design clear space

Make sure your colour settings are right

When you intend to print your logo it's very important to make sure that your logo is set up in the correct colour space. For printing purposes, logos should normally be specified either in Pantone colours or in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). The advantage of Pantone colours is that they help to achieve exact, pure colours which may be hard to match in CMYK. As an example, the aqua green colour in these business cards would be almost impossible to replicate in CMYK. Having said this, there will be situations when a logo has to be supplied to a third party (for example to be used in a magazine) and it's not possible to specify that the logo prints in Pantone colours. In which case, a CMYK version of the logo should be supplied. For online and web use, logos should be in RGB.

A final rule of thumb

If in doubt ask your designer! A good graphic designer will understand not only how to design a great logo, but how to setup and supply a logo for all uses.
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