How to Use an Alternate Logo
Welcome to 2018 friends! With the new year, I am focusing on giving you all some seriously valuable information. So I’ve been wracking my brain and coming up with a list of blog posts that will benefit you in many different ways. This means that I dug through emails from my past and present clients and came up with some frequently asked questions and will be writing about those, as I know many of you also have these same questions popping through your head.
One of the most frequent questions that I receive from branding clients is “what is an alternate logo or sub mark”. Or some also ask “I already have a logo what is the point of having an alternate or sub logo, and how do I use it?”
How to Use an Alternate Logo
First, let’s quickly touch base on what the purpose of having a logo is. A logo is for identification. It identifies your business in its simplest form. It does not sell the company or the products directly, nor does it usually describe a business.
Your logo might fit best on your website or letterhead, for example. Now, what if you want to deliver a product to a client, such as a gift or final product? It would be a bit redundant or even a little gimmicky to just stick your logo on every single piece of your brand experience. This is where your alternate logo comes into play.
An alternate logo also fits where your main logo cannot. So you may use it on different shaped spaces, such as stickers or on social media. Alternate logos are designed so that they can fit into smaller spaces – either as a square or vertically aligned image.
Your logo is like your name, and your alternate logo is your nickname.
What it comes right down to it, an alternate logo helps to fill out your brand elements. Having a consistent, cohesive brand is important for communicating and attracting your ideal client.
As always if you have any questions regarding your logo design or branding comment below, or let’s chat about how you can take your brand to the next level!
Thank you for this blog post! It was very informative and explained the alt logo well. I just had my business branded for the first time and when the graphic designer sent me a copy of my brand board I saw the alt logo was a similar, yet smaller, version of my main logo, but I wasn’t quite sure where and when I would use it in regards to my business and packaging! Thanks so much for explaining it so well.
Hi Amanda! I am SO glad that this post was helpful for you! If you have any other questions or need clarification on anything with your branding feel free to reach out!
I’m in the process of designing my own logo currently, but I’m having trouble with creating my alt logo. You stated here in this article that an alt logo should be something smaller that’s usually vertically or squared. Could you please provide some visual examples? I’m also creating my own watermark and was considering making that logo inside a circle/square, this is where my confusion is. I don’t want to have two logos that are identical. Thanks!
Hi Kimberly! Every business is different on what it all needs. So for visual examples, if you go to my branding portfolio you can see what I mean. For example – with Writefully Simple my main logo has both words on 1 line. My alternate logo has Writefully on 1 line and then is Simple directly below Writefully. It sounds like your watermark would be considered more like your submark – it’s a mark that you would use for things such as watermarks, stickers, social media, etc. Feel free to email me at [email protected] and send over what you have and I can always make some suggestions & help clear things up more, if needed! 🙂