How to make use of logo variations

Before we start I want to make it clear we aren’t saying replace your current logo. Here is an example of what we do with our logo and a great reference to what we will be talking about..

So make what we mean is make a few simpler variations of your logo. If your logo is just words have a version that is maybe the first letter of word or words in your logo (For example for us it would be EG in font we use). Or if you have an icon as the logo simplify the icon or takeaway the wording (again the example for us would be use one of the trees in our icon)

But Danny you silly sausage, what’s the point of these? I won’t know when to use what!

Well thank you for asking me Steve (the person I planted in the audience). I hear you loud and clear, it’s completely up to you if you want to do this but it’s great for helping you make quick and effective design decisions or options.

  1. Use your simplified brand marks to create repetitive patterns either on their own or with icons to do with your products. This is good for packaging, when colour just isn’t enough and artwork for social.
  2. Watermarking images of your products, ideas or content. Put a transparent logo variant over the image. This is good for proposals, social media posts and anywhere you may worry people will lift your imagery for their own use (stock photography sites do this).
  3. Not spoiling clear and impactful design. Less will always be more, I don’t usually have such strong feelings about advice but this one is true. This is good for when something is so clear and impactful you want a small small logo but your full logo may not be easy to see at a smaller size.
  4. Adapt these into themes to include your brand when. For example we have recently used our tree icon and decorated it with Christmas decorations, the full logo would have been too much. This is good for events, announcements, reactive content and social issues.

There are a lot of examples I could list but the main point I want to put forward is that these variants are great for decision making for your artwork. The pace of which trends come and go is bordering inhuman, with so many other aspects of your job why not have these logo variants to help?

If you found this useful, a waste of time or have further questions please let me know as we want to help people as best we can. My email is danny@emeraldgrove.studio thank you for reading.