Branding is more than just one logo variation. Brand identity is a system that represents you, your missions and values. Having a strong branding creates a cohesive experience for your audience and help your business became profitable.
Having just one logo – usually called main logo or primary logo, isn’t enough. I talk more about it in the blog post Why Branding Is More than Just a Logo. Today, I wanted to go more in-depth why you need logo variations for your blog and business and explain all the terms you can see on my services page and all around my website so what is a main logo/primary logo, alternative logos and submarks. Let’s dive in, shall we?
HOW MANY DIFFERENT LOGO VARIATIONS DOES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS?
The answer to this question is – it depends. Some businesses might need for example their logos in black and white. Some might need icon/symbol. What I always create for my brand & website design clients (and what I recommend to every blog & business) is having several version of your main logo, in other words, alternative logos and submarks. I usually create 2-4 alternative logos and 3-6 submarks for my clients.
WHAT IS AN ALTERNATIVE/ALTERNATE LOGO?
The alternative logo is simply a shorter version of your main logo. Alternative logos are the variations of your main logo and it can be for example logo without the tagline, a stacked version, icon, badge and so on.
Examples of alternative logos:
WHAT IS SUBMARK?
Submark (similar to the alternative logo) is a simplified version of your main logo, to use it as social media profiles picture, favicon, footer logo, on business stationery or other graphics. Submarks are usually in geometric shapes like circles, rectangles, triangles, squares etc. Sometimes it’s a symbol that represents your brand in a minimal way.
Examples of submarks:
WHY YOU NEED LOGO VARIATIONS FOR YOUR BLOG & BUSINESS?
1. BRANDING
As I’ve mentioned numerous times on my blog, branding is more than just a logo. You need more than one logo to build one-of-the-kind, cohesive and streamlined brand. Your brand design is a system, so each of the design elements works together and separately.
2. VERSATILITY
The logo variations are essential for the situation where your main logo is simply too long and won’t fit. As I said, submarks and alternative logos are great for social media profile pictures, digital graphics like blog post graphics, Instagram posts images, favicon, watermark, footer logo and so on.
3. GROWTH
Once your business grows, so is your recognition. If you have alternative logos and submarks, you can switch your main logo to one of the logo variations. What I mean is that your submark or alternative logo might become your primary logo, once your business name, colours and so on are recognizable.
Having the main logo variations, so alternative logos and submarks is an important step in building a strong visual identity. My goal is to provide my clients with a cohesive and streamlined brand from start to finish, therefore I only offer all-inclusive brand design package and brand and web design package. To learn more about the packages, click the image below.
How many logo variations do you have for your blog & business?
This Post Has 4 Comments
Nice post and totally agree. As a freelancer I’m working with more and more businesses to deepen their brand logos and visuals.
Thank you so much, Leah! Yeah, branding is more than just one logo so I’m happy to hear that you’re educating your clients about it 😉
Helpful post! I have my main logo and a Twitter banner, but I wish I had other variants for other uses.
Thank you so much, Claire! I highly recommend creating more than one logo variation for your business 😉