Modern graphic designers live in a time when many clients come to them with existing branding that needs to be incorporated into new mediums, for example, to be used in a new website or app.
Let’s say, for example, that a client’s logo is a circular stamp with a small crest in the centre and their brand name is incorporated within the boundaries of the circle.
Stamped in the centre of a letterhead or on the front of a business card, such a logo can make a striking impression: But when it comes time to making this logo stand out within a website header (which may only be a little over a hundred pixels tall) the text might not necessarily be very easy to read – and worse still, the distinctive crest becomes lost in a jumble of blurred pixels. When viewed on a small display, this problem increases tenfold.
The only solutions available would be to:
A) Make the header larger: To allow the logo to be inserted at a big enough size to appreciate all of its detail: Far from an ideal use of valuable pixels.
B) Revise the logo: Which would mean tampering with the clients existing branding, producing either a replacement or an alternative for use online. Unless the branding is entirely revised, or tastefully brought up-to-date, this increases the risk of ‘watering down’ the branding of the firm.
C) Think of some other clever way of using or adapting the logo, for example, using the logo in banners and images throughout the site, as watermarks, or by altering elements of the logo out to adapt it. For example, take a look at how the Costa Coffee Company uses its logo: Whilst its shops and products often feature a circular logo form, they have isolated a wordmark element from their logo to use in their website, as well as on other media where a circular form is not suitable. To take the coffee brand example further, Starbucks coffee changed their branding to remove the wording from their circular crest altogether: But then not all brands are as immediately recognisable as said coffee shop, Nike or Apple.
What is the solution?
In order to ensure that a brand has a strong identity across all media, it is important for designers to think about how a logo and colour scheme will look on as many different formats, devices and situations as possible. By thinking about the digital representation of a brand alongside more traditional physical manifestations of these graphics, a number of issues will be raised, but these are hurdles that need to be overcome going forward, for a strong, consistent identity that is truly future-proof.
In the end, the strongest brands will make their presence felt by making sure to adapt to the world around them – and how their audience sees them will depend on how well this adaptation has taken place.
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