A logo designed on white needs a small set of versions: full colour, reversed for dark backgrounds, one colour for stitching and vinyl, and a symbol for small squares, all kept as vector and transparent files.

Designed on white

Most small business logos were designed on a white page: on screen in a design program, then printed on letterhead and business cards.

On white they look exactly as intended. The trouble starts everywhere else.

The website gets a dark header and the lettering disappears into it. The logo goes onto a photograph and the detail fights with the picture. The new work shirts are black, and the embroidery comes back as a blur.

None of this means the logo is bad. It means the business only ever received one version of it.

Where it breaks

The third catches most businesses first. Instagram and Twitter show profile pictures as circles, and a wide logo squeezed into one becomes a smudge with its ends cut off.

The white box

The usual workaround is to put the logo on a white rectangle wherever the background is dark.

It works, in the sense that the logo can be seen. It also announces that the logo was not made for the page it is on, and on a phone it takes space the header needs.

Drop shadows and glows added to lift dark lettering off a dark background have the same effect, and they date quickly.

The versions a business needs

A full colour version for light backgrounds, which is the one you already have.

A reversed version, in white or a light colour, drawn for dark backgrounds and photographs. Not simply inverted: some parts usually need adjusting by hand.

A one colour version in black, and the same in white, for embroidery, vinyl, rubber stamps and anything printed in a single ink.

A horizontal arrangement for headers and a stacked one for square spaces. And the symbol on its own, without the name, for the smallest places of all.

Each should come from the designer rather than being improvised on the day it is needed. Improvised versions are how a logo slowly changes shape.

Simplified for small and stitched

Detail that looks refined on a sign disappears at the size of a shirt pocket.

Small and stitched versions drop the slogan, thicken thin lines, and replace gradients with flat colour. The designer decides how far to simplify, so the mark stays recognisable.

Embroiderers usually charge once to convert a logo into a stitch file, so it is worth getting the simplified version right before the first order.

Each version also needs a minimum size, below which it should not be used, and a clear space around it that nothing else enters.

A worked example

A family roofing company had a logo drawn years ago: navy lettering, a thin grey roofline above it with a soft gradient, and the company's slogan underneath.

It looked fine on the white trucks and the invoices. On the new website's dark header the navy vanished, so the logo sat in a white box.

The embroiderer doing the crew's black jackets could not stitch the gradient or the slogan, and the first sample came back unreadable. The Instagram profile picture showed the middle of the word roofing.

The designer produced the missing set: a white version for dark backgrounds, a one colour version with a thicker roofline for stitching and vinyl, a stacked version, and the roofline with initials for small squares.

The logo itself did not change. It finally had the versions its jobs required.

The files to keep

A vector master of every version, as Illustrator, EPS, PDF or SVG files. Vector artwork is drawn from shapes rather than pixels, so it scales to a van or a billboard without blurring.

Sign shops and embroiderers will ask for it, and they tend to ask on the day the job is due.

PNG files with transparent backgrounds, in a few sizes, for documents, presentations and anywhere a logo sits on a coloured background.

SVG for the website itself, which stays sharp on high-resolution phone screens. A JPEG has no transparency, which is how white boxes appear around logos in the first place.

Colour values written down

The same blue gets described four ways: a Pantone number for spot printing, CMYK for ordinary print, and RGB and a hex code for screens.

Without those values on paper, the sign shop matches the van, the printer matches the card, and the web designer matches a screenshot. Four slightly different blues follow.

One page listing every colour in all four forms, filed with the logo files, prevents that.

Thread is matched separately, from the embroiderer's own range, so ask them to note which colours they used and add those to the page.

Where the files live

Usually on the computer of whoever designed the logo, sometimes years ago.

Ask for the full set while that person can still be reached, and keep it on the business's shared drive with plainly named files. A folder called logo holding a file called final2 does not survive a change of staff.

Check that the files open, too. A file nobody can open, or a PNG only a few hundred pixels wide, is not a usable master.

The counter-case

Some logos already work almost everywhere.

A simple wordmark in one solid colour, with no gradients or fine lines, may only need a white version and proper files.

And a business planning a rebrand within months should fold all this into the new design rather than patching the old one.

Otherwise the answer is not a new logo. Keep the mark people recognise and give it the versions and files its everyday jobs need.

Asking for the set

  1. Collect every logo file you can find.
  2. List the places the logo actually appears.
  3. Ask for a reversed version for dark backgrounds.
  4. Ask for one colour versions in black and white.
  5. Get the symbol on its own for small squares.
  6. Get vector masters of every version.
  7. Write down the colour values on one page.

Step two is the one that decides the rest. A business whose logo appears on vans, shirts, a dark website and a social account needs a different set from one that only prints letterhead.

The other thing usually competing with the logo at the top of the home page is covered in a homepage slider nobody waits for.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my logo disappear on dark backgrounds?

Because it was designed with dark lettering on white. A reversed version in white or a light colour is drawn specifically for dark headers, photographs and dark clothing.

Which logo versions does a business need?

Full colour, reversed for dark backgrounds, one colour in black and in white, horizontal and stacked arrangements, and the symbol on its own for small square spaces.

Why does embroidery ruin my logo?

Thread cannot reproduce gradients, hairlines or small text. Embroidery needs a simplified one colour version with thicker lines, which the embroiderer turns into a stitch file.

Which logo file formats should I keep?

Vector masters as Illustrator, EPS, PDF or SVG files for print and signs, transparent PNG files for documents, and SVG for the website itself.

Why write down the colour values?

So the sign shop, the printer, the embroiderer and the web designer all match. Pantone, CMYK, RGB and hex values on one page prevent four slightly different blues.

Do I need a new logo?

Usually not. Most logos that fail away from white need extra versions and better files, not a redesign. The mark people already recognise stays exactly as it is.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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