A logo has to work at 16 pixels and on a van.
Most logos are designed at one size on one background and then quietly fail everywhere else - unreadable as a favicon, unusable in one colour, impossible to embroider.
The work is less about the drawing than about making a mark that survives every place it has to appear.
Clutch 5.0/5 - 15+ years experience - Australia-wide
Four tests most logos have never been put through.
The same mark, at 16 pixels, in one colour, and on black.
A logo is almost always approved as a large image on a white slide. Then it has to be a browser tab, an app icon, a single-colour stamp on an invoice and a shape on a dark uniform.
If it only survives the first of those, the problem shows up months later in every place you cannot easily change.
What we do before drawing anything.
The research is the part that stops a new logo looking like the three competitors down the road.
Look at the competition
What everyone else in your industry and area already looks like. Half of standing out is knowing what you are standing out from.
Work out where it has to live
Website, invoice, signage, uniform, vehicle, app icon. The list decides the constraints, and it is different for a trade than for a consultancy.
Colour that holds up
Colours that survive one-colour printing, dark backgrounds and accessibility contrast requirements. A palette that only works on white is half a palette.
Rules and files
The variations you will actually need, in formats you can hand to a printer or a developer, with simple guidance on spacing and use.
What businesses ask about branding.
We just need a logo. Is that a problem?
Not at all. A mark plus the files and variations to use it properly is a sensible, contained piece of work. You do not need a full brand exercise to get that.
Do we need to rebrand to look more modern?
Rarely, and it is an expensive way to solve the wrong problem. If customers recognise your mark, throwing it away costs you something real.
Often the mark is fine and it is the application that looks dated - inconsistent colours, poor files, a website from another decade.
Will you keep our existing colours?
If they are working and people know them, yes. We start by understanding the current logo and palette rather than assuming everything should change.
Where does your logo have to work?
Tell us what you have now and everywhere it needs to appear. We will tell you whether it needs replacing or just repairing.