Utilizing the "white" version of a corporate logo
ladylee (141 pencils) | Mon, 2010-10-25 15:50Just curious of your guys' opinions on here. I work for a medium sized company that does mostly automotive marketing. We have many ads in Auto-Shop owners type magazines, we do many tradeshow booths, and tons of direct mail to target customers.
My question is, that our "marketing department" always makes us (design department) use the companies full color logo (the logos is a black word with a small, simple, yellow and blue icon at the end. So we always end up having to modify the design, or add a stupid lighter colored white-blue gradient behind where the logo goes (barf)
This is constantly limiting our designs, especially since much of our corporate material is a blue flood background. Our logo usage guidelines says it's okay to use the logo in full white, against a dark background, but the marketing dept. claims that we need to have brand recognition/etc.
It's a constant battle, and I personally try to tell them how there is a reason we have white versions of the logo, and there is no reason we shouldn't be using them it's the same logo, just white! And it's necessary sometimes to use that one.
They think people are not going to know what it is or recognize easily. but I try to tell her that it's fine, and that people aren't buying our product for our logo anyway/etc.
What do you guys think about this?
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I think your marketing department needs to brush up on their brand identity skills. It's fine and dandy to want the full color logo as often as possible, but the reversed ("white") version is also your logo. You don't lose any brand identity by using a different version of the same logo. Your marketing folks don't seem to understand that part of the equation - the reversed logo is still your logo.
Thats exactly what I tell them, but they are stuck so much on the fact that the color (which is SO minimal) is SO important to be able to recognize the logo. I agree, if possible, we should TRY to use the regular logo, but we should not have to limit our designs around ALWAYS using it. It's so frustrating! thanks for your input, I'd like to hear what others have to say as well!
www.abovegraphicdesign.com
www.facebook.com/abovegraphicdesign
It may be there is nothing you can do to convince marketing the reverse logo is perfectly acceptable. However, it could be fun to make a small presentation showing how brand identity in reverse is used by other companies such as Apple.
Without my sense of direction, I don't know where I'd be.
not the first time i've seen that issue.
the fact that you have a usage guide that shows it as proper should be enough. i completely understand wanting to use it when you're able, but if you're compromising the rest of the design to accommodate a color logo, you're not doing the brand any favors. even pantone, who's whole business is color, sometimes has a reversed out white logo in their marketing.
Apple's use of their logo is a fantastic example. They very rarely ever use their old rainbow logo.
The fact is, most businesses design their logo in straight black in order to make sure it's going to be recognizable over faxes or in black and white publications/photo copies. Do you have any versions of your logo that's used in just black at all? A reverse white logo on a black background is just as easily recognized as the color version or the black version.
You could also provide side-by-side examples of your company logo in full color, black, and reverse to give examples of how it's can be recognized with or without color.
And then, you'll just run into those people who are just really kind of insecure about things and are pretty convinced the color version of their logo is the only one that should be used.
I tried using a reverse version of a logo recently in a design and was told right away they wanted their logo in color, even though the colors were going to seriously clash. I was about to get up in arms over it, but decided "if you want it that way, then fine". I did tell them the reason I went with a reverse logo, but I didn't dig in my heels and battle them over it, either. I had to do the blah "glow" behind the logo, too, just to at least give some separation between the clashing colors.
Pretty sure Apple retired the rainbow logo around the time of the original iMac. The Think Different campaign might have been the last time they used it (that's the last time I remember seeing it on anything corporate). Being in graphics, I was kind of surprised Apple kept a lot of their full color marketing materials long after all the other computer/software companies had already dropped theirs. Some people might not be aware that the Apple manuals were full color for quite awhile as well.