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Branding & Identity

Logo Design Built for the Contexts You'll Actually Use It In

Custom logo systems with the lockups, file formats, and reversed-color variants that make a mark survive being shrunk to a favicon, embroidered on a polo, or printed in a single color.

Logo design illustration

Overview

Most "logo problems" are application problems. The logo itself is fine. The issue is that nobody designed for the situations the team actually faces: the LinkedIn avatar that's a 200-pixel circle, the embroidered polo that has to work in two thread colors, the printed invoice that's black-and-white, the favicon that needs to read at 16 pixels.

Our logo engagements solve that by treating the deliverable as a system, not a single file. The primary mark gets a horizontal lockup, a stacked lockup, a wordmark-only version, an icon-only version, and reversed-color variants. Each is designed and tested against the constraint it has to live with.

Logo work is the part of identity design that's most fun and most easily over-designed. We trade fewer concept rounds for more depth on the chosen direction.

What a logo system includes

A complete logo system is more than a single file. It includes the primary mark (the canonical version), 2–4 lockups (different arrangements for different contexts), reversed-color variants for dark backgrounds, single-color and grayscale versions for monochrome contexts, and a favicon variant for browser tabs.

It also includes spacing rules (the minimum padding around the mark), minimum-size rules (the smallest dimension at which the mark still reads), and don'ts (the misuses you specifically want to prevent). Without these the system is just a collection of files; with them, it's a brand asset that survives being applied by people who weren't there for the design conversation.

How we work

  1. DiscoveryOne-hour call to understand the business, the audience, and the contexts the logo has to live in. Embroidered polo, vehicle wrap, app icon, conference signage. They each push the design in different directions.
  2. Direction explorationTwo to three directions presented in context, not on a white page. We mock the logo on a real homepage hero, real social avatar, real business card so you're choosing how it actually looks.
  3. RefinementOne direction selected, refined through two rounds of revisions. Includes lockup development and stress-testing at the smallest and largest sizes the mark will face.
  4. System completionReversed-color variants, single-color version, grayscale version, favicon, and minimum-size rules. All packaged with clear naming.
  5. HandoverOne ZIP with all source and exports, plus a one-page usage reference covering spacing, minimum sizes, and don'ts. You own everything.

What you get

  • Primary logo mark and 2–4 lockups
  • Vector source (AI) and exports (SVG, EPS, PDF)
  • Raster exports (PNG with transparency, JPG)
  • Reversed-color and single-color variants
  • Grayscale and one-color print versions
  • Favicon at 16, 32, 192, 512 px
  • One-page usage reference (spacing, sizes, don'ts)
  • Full ownership and unrestricted usage rights

Engagement example

A regional service business had a 12-year-old logo with no source files (the original designer had retired), three slightly different versions floating around the internet, and a favicon that was just the first letter on a colored square. We rebuilt the mark from the ground up, kept the recognizable elements that had equity, and delivered a coordinated lockup system that finally worked at every size.

4Lockups in the new system (was 1 ad-hoc)
16 pxSmallest size the mark still reads
1Source-of-truth file replacing 3 floating versions

Representative engagement. Client identity withheld for privacy.

Frequently asked questions

Two to three directions on the first round, narrowed to one for refinement. Showing five or eight options sounds generous but always produces a design-by-committee outcome. Pick this nose, pick this eyebrow, pick that ear, and the result is a Frankenstein. Two strong directions force a real conversation about what the brand is.

Two rounds of revisions on the chosen direction. Most projects use one and a half. We include a third revision round in the proposal for projects with multiple stakeholders where extra back-and-forth is realistic.

Vector source (Adobe Illustrator AI), vector exports (SVG, EPS, PDF), raster exports at multiple sizes (PNG with transparent background, JPG with white background) for the primary mark and each lockup, plus a favicon at 16/32/192/512 px. Everything packaged in one ZIP with a clear naming convention.

We do a basic visual-similarity check against active marks in your category before finalizing, but formal trademark search and registration is something we hand off to a trademark attorney we can recommend. We don't practice law and won't pretend to.

Primary horizontal lockup (logo + wordmark side by side), stacked lockup (logo above wordmark), wordmark-only, and icon-only. Plus reversed-color variants for use on dark backgrounds. Most clients use 2 to 4 of these regularly; the others sit in the source folder for the situation you don't expect yet.

Outgrown an old logo?

Tell us about the business, what you have today, and what isn't working. We'll come back with a scoped logo-system proposal.