#Logo
Which logo goes on which background?
How to pick the right logo version for light, dark, colored and photo backgrounds, and the mistakes that make a logo hard to see.
It always comes up in the middle of making something. The flyer's background is the brand's dark blue, the logo has dark blue in it, and suddenly half the logo has disappeared. Which file was supposed to go here?
Nearly every brand guide I make answers this question, because it's the one clients ask most once the files are in their hands.
What's the basic rule?
Contrast first. The logo has to stand out clearly from whatever is behind it. That leads to three defaults:
| Background | Logo version | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| White or very light | Full-color main logo | Pale parts of the logo disappearing on cream or light gray |
| Dark or saturated brand color | White (reversed) logo, or an approved color pairing | A logo color that matches the background exactly |
| Photo | Solid white or solid dark logo | Busy areas: faces, text, patterns, bright spots |
| One-color printing | Solid one-color logo | Fine details that fill in on stamps and embroidery |
What about colored backgrounds from the palette?
This is where a guide earns its keep. Most palettes have four to eight colors, and the logo won't work on all of them in every version. The guide should show the approved pairs.
One brand I worked on has four colors and no tints. Its guide sets each color as a background under two of the others, which gives eight approved pairings and nothing left to guess. Another brand's guide includes a whole page on which logo goes on which background, plus how to shoot food photos that fit.
Full color on white
White type on Deep Navy
Navy type on Golden Sunrise
Outlined icon on Blush Pink
Stacked on off-white
White type on Sea Breeze
If your guide shows the pairs, use those. If a combination isn't there, the answer is usually no.
How do you put a logo on a photo?
- Find the calm part. Sky, a plain wall, a blurred background, an empty table. Not a face, not text, not a pattern.
- Use a solid version. A full-color logo over a photo fights with every color in the image. Solid white or solid dark reads cleanly.
- Check it small. Look at the post at phone size. If the logo blurs into the photo, move it.
- No calm part? Add one. Put the logo on a band or a box of brand color across the photo. Plenty of post templates are built this way on purpose.
What are the common logo mistakes?
Guides often end on a do's-and-don'ts page, and the don'ts are nearly always the same:
- Stretching or squashing the logo to fit a space. Use a different lockup instead: the horizontal one for wide spaces, stacked for tall ones.
- Recoloring it to match one design.
- Adding shadows, outlines or glows to rescue it on a bad background. Usually a sign it needs a different version, or a different background.
- Low contrast, like the light logo on a light color.
- Crowding it, with text or images inside the clear space.
- Rebuilding it by typing the name next to a cropped icon.
Don’t: Stretched to fill a space
Don’t: Navy type on navy
Don’t: A shadow to make it stand out
Don’t: Full color on a busy photo
One brand's guide closes on three things not to do: low contrast, off-palette colors and shadows. That covers most of the ways a logo goes wrong.
Why write this down at all?
Because the people placing the logo change. A virtual assistant, a printer, a volunteer making an event flyer, the owner at 11pm. A guide with a do's-and-don'ts page means a new design doesn't need a phone call.
For the full set of versions this relies on, see logo variations. For what else goes in the guide, see what goes in a brand guide.
Questions people also ask
What is a reversed logo?
A reversed logo is the white or light version of a logo, made for dark backgrounds. Parts that are dark in the main logo become light so it still reads.
Can I change my logo's color to match a design?
Only to one of the approved versions in your brand guide. Picking a new color for one flyer is how a logo starts looking different everywhere.
How do I put a logo on a busy photo?
Place it over the calmest area of the photo, such as sky, a wall or a blurred background, and use the solid white or solid dark version. If there's no calm area, put the logo on a solid band of brand color instead.
What is clear space around a logo?
Clear space is the minimum empty area around a logo that no text or image should enter. It's usually measured with a part of the logo itself, like the height of one letter.
