Outfit Your Business for Success
Every year corporations spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars creating a corporate identity and logo system just to let it deteriorate. If you invest in a professionally designed logo identification system, there are things you should know and do to preserve and protect your investment.
Your business image is vital to its prosperity. We all know as professionals that we need to dress for success. Your business appearance should be given the same careful consideration.
- Equally important to your personal appearance are the materials that represent your business. Give it the same attention to detail you give to successful business attire. Avoid photocopying documents to be distributed externally. Put your best foot forward.
- Wear the uniform by always using the same logo. Don’t change logos like you would change shoes. Develop a logo and stick with it.
- Don’t overdress. With logos it is especially important not to over do it. A logo is a symbol for your company but it can’t possibly tell the whole story.
- Go with a classic. Classics that you can keep in your wardrobe are always in style, like the little black dress or navy blue blazer. Don’t go with the trend that will date itself quickly.
- Greet the world with a big friendly handshake. Your business card is one of the most important and cost-effective forms of self-promotion and a reflection of professionalism.
- Be consistent and develop your own unique style. Make your materials look like they are coordinates and belong together. If you do, your business will be easy to recognize.
- Just like business attire, it is wise to develop a color palette. Don’t change it to match the season or campaign. If you have a logo, use it consistently in the same font and color.
- Wardrobe accessories need to be developed but not overdone. Have a professional look and feel to everything that represents your company. Look at the whole package including stationery, letterhead and envelopes.
Recommendations for logo file format usage:
USE the right file format for the job.
Ai or eps file formats: Used for a wide variety of projects because they can be scaled large or small without loss of quality. Can be used for anything from business cards to billboard without loss of quality.
Jpg file formats: for use on the web but does not have transparency. Most people are familiar with jpg file format but do not understand that its use is limited. Jpeg files are considered “lossy” files because they discard some information to make the file size small. Because of the file size they are easy to email and view on most computers. With that being said, they are not the best file format for logos. Not recommended to be scaled larger than 115% without degrading image.
Gif and Png file formats: also for use on the web with transparency. Not recommended to be scaled larger than 115% without degrading image.