Branding is so much more than your logo. It is the heart and soul behind your business. A strong brand identity, including logo variations, is a system that represents you, your missions and values. Having a strong brand creates a cohesive experience and connection for your audience. It also helps your business grow.
Having just one logo – usually called the primary or main logo, isn’t enough. Today, I’m going more in-depth why you need logo variations for your business and explain some of the terms you can see listed in my services. So I am here to help bring clarity around logo variations and why they are important for your business.
Primary / Main Logo
Your primary or main logo is the main identifying mark of your brand and business. It is the most frequently used brand design element and will be most memorable to your target audience. Your primary logo sets the tone for the rest of your branding, and each logo variation should reference this detailed design in some way, whether that’s the imagery used, fonts, or overall theme.Your primary logo is most frequently used on your website, packaging and signage.
Examples of a Primary Logo:
Secondary / Alternative Logo
The alternative logo is often a simplified version of your primary logo. It uses elements of the primary logo arranged in a different composition. This provides your brand with more flexibility to use your logo in different design settings. It can be for example logo without the tagline, a stacked version, icon, badge and so on.
Example of an Alternative Logo:
Submark
Submark, or watermark, is the most simplified, compact mark of the logo. For example, it often pulls in an icon or initials that can stand alone as an identifying mark. Submarks are easy to use as favicons, social media profile images, watermarks on images, and footers of websites. Submarks are usually in geometric shapes like circles, rectangles, triangles, squares etc.
Example of a Submark:
Brand / Graphic Elements
Brand, or graphic, elements cover a wide range of design possibilities. An element could include an icon, pattern or texture that is unique to your brand. Brand elements are in addition to your logo suite and should not be used as the primary piece of your brand. They are supporting elements that add more context and explain more about your business.
Examples of a brand element:
Why do I need more than one logo?
Each logo serves a unique purpose in how you are presenting your business. It’s important to have variety within your branding and for it to be well considered and well designed. The logo variations are essential for the situation where your main logo is simply too long and won’t fit. As I said, submarks and alternative logos are great for social media profile pictures, digital graphics like blog post graphics, Instagram posts images, favicon, watermark, footer logo and so on.
I hope this has helped you learn more about branding and how having several logo variations will make your branding versatile, from digital to print.
If you’re looking to brand or rebrand your business I’d love to hear from you!
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