Legal Writing

Setting Logotype ? Part I

In an earlier post, we made the distinction between logos (images) and logotypes (stylized text).

Now let’s focus on the latter.

If you want your firm’s logotype to look good to everyone — including those with iPhones and Blackberries and who-knows-what’s-next — then make sure it looks good at a range of sizes: the more, the better.

The most famous logotype of all time must be the name of Coke’s signature soft drink:

Most logotypes (like Google’s) are not so highly stylized as Coke’s.

Notice the trademark symbol at the end of Google’s logotype. It’s small, but very legible.

Law firm logotypes tend to be only mildly stylized.

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Now, the goal of this series is to help you set your firm’s logotype so it always looks its best, on line and in print. To achieve that goal, we have to take a close look at type.

Go to Google’s home page and zoom in on the logotype.

To Zoom:

Macintosh — Command + (plus sign) to zoom in; Command ? (minus sign) to zoom out
PC -- press and hold the Control key, rather than the Command key

The logotype looks sharp at one size. As you zoom in or out, it gets fuzzy.

Zoom way in, and it looks like so:

The trademark symbol is no longer so legible.

The logotype for Coca Cola has a similar appearance.

Why is that? Why don’t these logotypes work like regular type? Why do they look fuzzy close up?

It’s because they’re stored as images (like logos), rather than text.

And why are they stored as images rather than text?

We’ll get into that in our next episode of Setting Logotype.

Test Your Logotype

Go to your firm’s home page. The firm’s logotype is displayed at the top of it, right? Look at it as you zoom in and out of the page.

Zoom in and out of a PDF file with your firm’s logotype.

Does it look good at all sizes, just a few, or none at all?

If it looks anything like the Coke or Google logotypes, then it’s probably been done right.

But, if it looks anything like the following when viewed at normal size, it’s certainly been done wrong.

Notice the registered trademark symbol at the end of Venable’s logotype. It’s not legible.

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In upcoming episodes, we’ll review the steps you can take to make sure your firm’s logotype always looks sharp.

Full post as published by Set in Style on January 23, 2010 (boomark / email).