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Every professional brand has a logo. But a logo without rules is just a pretty picture waiting to be broken. Brand logo guidelines are what keep a logo consistent across hundreds of touchpoints, from a business card to a billboard, from a social media avatar to an embroidered cap.
Brand Identity Logo Design Design Systems
Every professional brand has a logo. But a logo without rules is just a pretty picture waiting to be broken. Brand logo guidelines are what keep a logo consistent across hundreds of touchpoints, from a business card to a billboard, from a social media avatar to an embroidered cap.
For designers, understanding these rules is not optional. It is the baseline expectation. Whether you are working with a client's existing brand or helping build one from scratch, ignoring logo guidelines leads to visual inconsistency, weakened brand recognition, and sometimes real legal consequences.
This guide focuses entirely on execution. No branding theory. No abstract principles. Just the practical rules you need to apply logo guidelines correctly, across digital, print, and everything in between.
Consistent brand presentation across all platforms has been shown to increase revenue by an average of 23%. Logo guidelines are the first line of defense for achieving that consistency.
Most professionally produced logo guideline documents cover a predictable set of sections. If you are handed a brand guide, here is what you should expect to find inside:
Not every brand document includes every section. Smaller brands may have a one-pager. Enterprise brands may have a 100-page PDF. Either way, the categories above are what you will most commonly encounter, and what we will walk through in detail.
A well-designed logo system is not just one file. It is a family of approved variations, each built for a specific use case. Understanding which version to use, and when, is one of the most fundamental skills in applying brand logo guidelines correctly.
For a deeper understanding of how wordmarks differ from symbol-based logos, see this guide on wordmark vs symbol logos.
Never switch versions arbitrarily. Each version exists for specific spatial or technical conditions. If you are designing a wide header banner, use the horizontal layout. If you are designing a small circular social avatar, use the icon-only mark.
Proportions must never be adjusted. The relationship between the icon and the wordmark, or between letterforms within the wordmark, is locked. Scaling the logo up or down uniformly is fine. Stretching it horizontally or compressing it vertically is a violation.
Alignment integrity also matters. If a logo is positioned alongside other brand elements like a tagline or division name, that spatial relationship must match what the guidelines specify. These combined arrangements are called logo lockups, and altering the spacing inside a lockup is treated as misuse.
Clear space (also called an exclusion zone) is the protected empty area that must surround the logo at all times. No text, no other graphics, no decorative elements can enter this zone.
The purpose is straightforward: give the logo room to breathe so it remains visually distinct and readable, regardless of what surrounds it.
Different brands use different reference units. The two most common methods are:
Method 1: Based on a letter height from the wordmark. The height of a specific letter, usually a capital letter like "X" or the brand's first initial, is used as the spacing unit. If the letter is 20px tall, the clear space on all four sides is 20px.
Method 2: Based on a unit from the icon or symbol. A specific measurement derived from the icon itself, often the width of a shape or stroke within the mark, becomes the spacing unit. This is common in icon-heavy identities.
If you work in Figma, the guide on how to use logos in Figma covers how to set up constraints and auto-layout to enforce clear space automatically.
Every logo has a minimum size below which it should not be used. Below that threshold, fine details, wordmarks, and taglines become illegible. Forcing a logo into a too-small space does not just look bad — it actively damages brand recognition.
For screens, minimum size is usually expressed in pixels. Common guidelines specify values like 80px wide for the primary logo and 24px for an icon-only mark. Key digital contexts to plan for include:
In print, minimum size is expressed in millimeters or inches. The logo must remain legible after production, accounting for dot gain in offset printing or material absorption in screen printing. Common minimum print sizes are:
A brand's logo should look correct whether it appears on a white background, a dark navy surface, a colored photograph, or a printed envelope. That is why most logo systems include multiple color variations, each approved for specific contexts.
You can browse categorized logo assets, including colored logo files, black logo files, and white logo files, on Logo To Use.
Background control rules exist because contrast determines legibility. WCAG 2.1 recommends a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for text and 3:1 for logos and graphical elements. When in doubt, check the contrast before placing a logo on a colored or photographic background.
Where a logo sits on a page matters as much as how it looks. Placement rules define consistent margin behavior, alignment relationships with other elements, and the spatial logic that gives a brand its visual order.
Placement also comes up frequently in presentation design. If you create slide decks, see the full guide on using logos in PowerPoint for positioning best practices in that context.
File format is not a minor technical detail. It is the difference between a logo that scales perfectly on a 6-foot banner and one that turns into a blurry mess. Knowing which format to request and when to use it is a core professional skill.
| Format | Type | Best For | Transparency |
|---|---|---|---|
| SVG | Vector | Web, scalable UI, responsive design | Yes |
| PNG | Raster | Digital use with transparent background | Yes |
| Vector | Professional print workflows | Yes | |
| EPS | Vector | Legacy print and press workflows | Yes |
| JPG | Raster | Only when transparency is not needed | No |
For a deeper breakdown of which format works best for websites and digital platforms, see the guide on best logo formats for websites: SVG, PNG, JPG explained. If you are dealing with legacy print files, the EPS logo files explained guide is worth reading too.
brandname-logo-primary-rgb.svg is cleaner than logo_final_v3_USE THIS ONE.pngMost brand guidelines include a misuse section. It is not there to be punitive. It is there because the most common violations are unintentional, and showing what looks wrong is often more instructive than only showing what looks right.
Here are the violations you will see most often, and why they each matter:
Understanding misuse is also key to knowing when simpler logo types prevent these problems from arising. The guide on minimalist logos explained covers why reduction in logo complexity often increases misuse resilience.
Reading a brand guide is the beginning, not the end. The real value comes from building systems and habits that make following those guidelines automatic, so the right choices happen by default rather than by constant vigilance.
Building these habits into your workflow is what separates designers who occasionally follow guidelines from those who embed them into every project by default.
Before any logo-containing design goes to a client, into production, or onto a platform, run through this checklist:
Brand logo guidelines are documented rules that define how a logo must appear across digital and print materials. They protect consistency by specifying spacing, size limits, color use, background rules, and approved file formats. Without these rules, a logo will appear differently across applications, weakening the brand over time.
Clear space ensures the logo remains readable and visually distinct. Without a protected zone around it, surrounding elements can reduce its visual impact, create cluttered compositions, and weaken brand recognition. Clear space is what gives the logo authority within a layout.
Ignoring guidelines leads to visual inconsistency, distorted logos, and reduced trust. Over time, inconsistent logo use dilutes brand recognition and can cost a brand significant revenue compared to those that maintain visual consistency.
Minimum size depends on the brand and medium. For digital, guidelines typically specify pixel widths (often 80px for the primary logo, 24px for icon-only). For print, minimum sizes are expressed in millimeters. If legibility fails at the required size, switch to an alternate approved version rather than shrinking further.
Vector formats like SVG or EPS are best for scalability and should be your default request. PNG works for digital use with a transparent background. JPG should only be used when transparency is unnecessary, such as a logo on a solid white background. Never use JPG for a logo that needs to sit on a colored or photographic surface.
Only if an approved color variation is explicitly provided in the guidelines. Designers should not create new color versions, apply brand colors from other elements to the logo, or use hex values not specified in the brand document. Unapproved recoloring is one of the most common and most damaging forms of logo misuse.
Misuse examples prevent common mistakes like stretching, recoloring, or adding visual effects. Showing what incorrect use looks like is often more instructive than only showing correct use. It also sets clear expectations for clients, contractors, and internal teams who may not have formal design training.
A logo lockup is a pre-approved, fixed combination of logo elements used together, such as the primary mark paired with a tagline, a division name, or a partner brand's logo. The spacing and proportions inside a lockup are fixed and must not be altered. Using a lockup correctly maintains the visual relationships the original designer intended.
Published by Logo To Use — your resource for properly formatted brand logo files.
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