[one_half_last]Many logos, even those produced by professional designers, are let down by their poor design considerations and mechanical reproducibility.
Is your logo legible?
Print it out on an A4 sheet of paper. Tape it to a wall. Stand on the other side of the room. Can you read it? Can you read it when it is shrunk to 1cm in width on your computer screen?
Does it look like something else at a distance? Or when it is small? Do you have a specially tweaked version of your logo for ultra-small applications?
Do you have a special version that lets you reproduce your logo effectively on busy or textured backgrounds?
What does it look like when faxed? Or when screen-printed on a t-shirt? Or as an icon on a computer screen? Is there a one-colour version of your logo?
Is your logo printable?
Logos with complex colour graduations, patterns or photos may not reproduce properly or legibly on different printing processes.
Pantone colours are bright and vivid. But the more of them you use, the more expensive your printing will be.
Always get your logo set in CMYK colours. RGB colours are only good for on-screen use and may print weirdly. If your logo uses Pantone colours, you still need a CMYK version so it works in standard four-colour printing runs.
Do you have the right file formats for the best output across different media?
JPEG and GIF bitmap files are good only for on-screen use; like Powerpoint and the web. These are in low resolution – typically 72dpi (dots per inch).
High resolution (300dpi or even higher) CYMK TIFF bitmap files are good for inserting into Word for in-house printing or faxing. They should not be anti-aliased to avoid fuzziness.
EPS, AI (Adobe Illustrator) and other vector art format files are best for professional printing, including large billboards. These are the most flexible formats as they can be converted to bitmaps, of any resolution, on demand.
Is your name the most prominent part of your logo?
Most businesses don’t have Nike’s marketing budget to really push a mark (the tick symbol) into the minds of customers. Often, a mark is superfluous. It is incredibly difficult to communicate unambiguously via a graphic alone.
