Why we need responsive logos
Considering the applications of a logo is more important now than ever before.
Digital technology means companies must consider how customers interact with their brands in different environments. Your logo is one of the essential visual assets your brand has; therefore, it needs to make an impact whether it is seen on a billboard, a computer screen, a smartphone or a watch.
We came across this project by Joe Harrison, a British digital designer based in London. When resizing the browser window, it is possible to see how he removes the details logos can do without and only keeps what is strictly necessary.
An effective, responsive logo design means your brand maintains visual consistency in any environment, a critical component in developing brand familiarity and customer loyalty.
How to design responsive logos?
Although there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to creating a responsive logo, some of the main considerations include the following:
- Removing Details: As the logo reduces in size, details need to be simplified.
- Removing Colours: Using a limited and recognisable palette creates a clearer design as the logo gets smaller.
- Stacking shapes and elements: Digital requirements, including mobile app icons, shortcut icons and favicons, mean logos need to work as a very small square or circle. Therefore, decreasing the width by stacking letters can be very effective at the smallest scale.
- Less is more: With logo design, a simplified style can stand the test of time much better than a complex image, and this is even more true when it is responsive.
Responsive logos allow companies to keep brand recognition and familiarity across multiple channels and resolutions. This versatility will become increasingly important for businesses in the future and as new mediums appear, such as immersive technologies like virtual reality or augmented reality.
⇧ ABOVE: Google’s distinctive simplicity and colour palette lend themselves well to responsive refinement. The logo can appear as a simple ‘G’ segmented into the different colours of the original logo. In other environments, it reduces to nothing more than a series of dots in Google’s palette of blue, red, yellow and green.
“An effective, responsive logo design means your brand maintains visual consistency in any environment, a critical component in developing brand familiarity and customer loyalty.”
⇧ ABOVE: Scaling back the details as they scale down in size, these responsive logos show other companies how it’s done.
