The topic of this article alludes to the fact that there are logos that cannot go online. As a matter of fact, you may be using or designing one at the moment. A logo that’s made with the mindset as a mere design or made to be a humongous illustration is the kind that cannot go online. That said, it’s a surety that you’d agree that going online is increasingly crucial. “Everything is going online” as a way to remain commercially viable or increase corporate visibility or maximize touch points to engage and ensure greater ease of customer awareness and use of products and services. Added to this reality is the impact of social media, which causes the persuasion that every serious business must operate an effective online strategic presence; one of which is to ensure the logo can go online. The need for a logo to go online is to fulfill its known purpose of identification and differentiation, which is central to the means by which impressions and emotional connection towards a business or brand is stimulated.
To reckon with the importance of this discuss, the reasons for the change of the Formula 1 (F1) logo will help you understand.
Sean Bratches, Managing Director Commercial Operations – Formula F1 said that the decision to change the logo had come about because the old design was not useful for modern digital platforms…He said the grand prix racing company had to follow the example of other worldwide brands – like Coca-Cola that have a simplified logo that already makes better use of the digital era. He said. “A number of brands, particularly in this day and age, are trying to simplify their marks to enter the digital space. We felt we had to go a little bit further and really retool to position us on a going forward basis.”
Sean Bratches, Managing Director Commercial Operations, F1.
He continues by saying “We hold in high regard the incumbent mark. It served F1 extremely well over the past 23 years, but in terms of where we are taking the business and our vision for the business, the negative space in the ‘1’ doesn’t come through candidly in digital”.
So how can a logo go online?
1. The logo has to be built with simplicity. “Less is more”.
2. The choice of color(s) – its intensity and temperature, must take into mind best visual renditions on digital/electronic platforms.
3. The logo or a central theme of the logo can be made into a Favicon.
4. Scalability: Both 1, 2 and 3 play a significant role in ensuring this. In other words a logo must retain crisp visual detail when reduced to the lowest possible scale. Lowest possible scale for example is 75pixels by 75pixels.
Hence by implication, if a logo isn’t made with the principles that governs the science of the aforementioned, such a logo cannot go online. It will not only fail in its purpose as a logo it will fail in the digital race of having a veritable online corporate image for the business or brand.
Written by Dayo Abiola – Chief Design Officer of Dayo Abiola – Nigeria’s foremost logo making company.
Look out for my next article titled:
*The Woes Of The Professional Neglect of Corporate Identity and Branding As Business Strategies.
