A logo is an important component of the brand identity of your business. As such, it has value when used on your website – but how should it be used and is it vital to have a logo incorporated?
Our experience with choosing to use logos on websites here at Dentons Digital is that “some clients do, some clients don’t”. If you don’t have a logo for your business site, are you missing an important element?
Basically, if you come to us for web design and development and you have an existing logo, we’ll use it as part of the all-important site branding, together with the brand/business name and core message. If you don’t have a logo but want one, we can incorporate logo design into your package, or you can go logo-free.
A logo is not a requirement for website design. Our designers work with you to form a picture of the style, images, colours and fonts that best reflect the ethos of your business. This is certainly sufficient to convey your brand message. If you have a logo that sums all that up in a visual image, so much the better; we can use the logo itself and the elements of the logo design and message throughout your website to reinforce your company’s identity.
If you think your business/brand would benefit from a logo, here are some things to consider before you plunge into what could be a confusing process:
THE PURPOSE OF A LOGO
For any business, large or small, a professionally designed corporate logo becomes the face of the company. It’s a known fact that people remember imagery far more easily than they do to words alone. A logo can be used across all your company’s marketing, advertising and communication materials and will become a visual representation of the unique identity of your business.
LOGO DESIGN
If you’re starting out – a small business – you aren’t likely to want to invest a fortune in professional logo design, so you may be tempted to do it yourself. That’s fine, as long as you are prepared to pay some serious attention to what you are doing. If you think you can just slap the name of your business inside a coloured block or circle and be done with it you’re not likely to have created a memorable logo with enduring and meaningful appeal!
That’s not the way the Nike “tick”, the MacDonald’s arches or the bitten “Apple” came into being.
There are three basic logo styles – a distinctive text logo (like Coca Cola), a graphic symbol (think of the Playboy bunny), or a combination of the two (such as the BMW logo). Your choice is personal – no one is better than the other. It’s best to keep it simple, however.
If you’re using text, or adding a tag-line, you’ll need to choose a font. Consider the style that best suits your product or service – script for elegance, bold sans-serif for a statement of trustworthiness, for example. You can always cheat a little and emulate your competitors – as long as you don’t copy them outright!
A graphic or image should represent the service, product, company name, or message you are offering. Avoid using free vectors or clipart you find online because someone else may have done so before you, and you risk being a copycat! In fact, you must ensure your logo is original and unique and can’t be held to be trademarked or copyrighted by some other company.
Colours are important, too, and it is wise to seek out some information about standard print and online colours, and how different colour palettes work on the web and in print. Experiment and be certain of your choice before you make a final decision. It’s also useful to make sure your logo will work in grayscale too, especially if you are likely to be using it frequently in print material. Remember that if you are likely to be printing your logo often, the more colours you have the more expensive the print costs will be.
LOGO POSITIONING ON WEBSITES
When our designers use your logo on your website, it will usually be included in the header, and most commonly on the top left area of every page.
The reason for this is that users have come to expect the logo to transport them “home” when clicked on, and traditionally they look for the logo in the top left corner when they wish to navigate to the homepage.
Centering the logo on the page has become more common in web design for responsive websites in recent years on the assumption that it is more obvious in the middle of the header when viewed on small screens. Studies have shown this is not necessarily the case, and a centered logo – and even more so one put on the right hand side of the page – diminishes the all-important user experience of a website.
Repeating the logo does help reinforce the brand, however, so the logo can be used also in a sidebar or page footer – preferably always linked to the home-page – giving it maximum exposure as the user scrolls down.
Dentons Digital designers keep up to date with the latest trends in UX and logo utilisation on websites, and look forward to discussing with you how your website can portray your brand identity.
