Branding strategies are essential for all companies, no matter how large or minor they may be. Your logo is an essential aspect of this. While it's true that "your brand is not your logo," no business can truly call itself branded if it doesn't have a logo. There are many more facets to a brand than just its visual representation. Let's ignore that, though, and focus on the logo. Only 42% of consumers think a logo adequately represents a brand's character.

Even though a logo is meant to be a solitary visual representation of your brand, it may and should take on a variety of shapes and sizes. Different logos serve this purpose. To rephrase, a logo variant is an alternative logo design to your primary logo. Thanks to the variance, your brand will be more unified, consistent, and identifiable in various circumstances. It teaches you to be flexible.

Consider that a social media profile picture, a website, and a business card can all call for distinctive variations on a logo's basic form. Instead of relying on only one logo, your brand might be more adaptable if you create multiple different logos.

Logo variations are helpful for all brands, although some will require more variations than others. This should be determined by the nature of your business, the logo design, and the requirements of the logo itself. To help you determine which logo variations are necessary, we'll go through the basics of the primary, secondary, submark, and wordmark.

But before going over the brand style guide, let's look at why a brand needs a logo, what are logo variations, and why are they important?

When Establishing A Brand, Why Is It Necessary To Have A Logo?

Get this out of the way first; it's essential. There are several reasons why a company requires a logo:

A logo is a powerful promotional tool

The logo you choose to represent your company is a crucial marketing tool; thus, it's essential to take your time in designing it. A company's logo is vital in establishing its identity and spreading the word about its goods and services. 75% of people can identify a company by its logo. Your logo's visual identity may either propel your business forward and attract new customers or hold it back and keep existing ones.

Acquire More Customers and Raise Revenue

For any company, success means maximizing profits, and a solid logo may help get them there. Depending on how effective it is, the company's logo design could wind up helping or hurting your business. People are more inclined to buy from you if they appreciate your logo and associate it with quality. While it's true that there are a lot of various elements when it comes to improving your business's revenue, your logo may be of great help.

Create Your Reputation

A professional logo may do wonders for your company's reputation. The quality of your logo is crucial if you want customers to take notice of your company and have a positive impression of it. Those just getting their firm off the ground should put as much effort as possible into creating a positive reputation for themselves, including designing a stellar logo. A professional logo designed for your company will do wonders for its public perception.

This Will Pique People's Interest

If you want people to take notice of your business, create a logo that is both original and aesthetically beautiful. You should expect more paying consumers if you can capture and hold their interest. Customers are more inclined to purchase from a company with a memorable logo.

Looks Professional

The appropriate logo may give your company credibility and reliability, making your items more appealing to customers. Having a professional-looking logo is crucial if you want people to take your company seriously. After all, the logo you pick will be the face of your entire company.

Make a statement

You'll get a chance to have some input into the final product when it comes time to create the logo for your company. The logo design should be an unabashed and accurate reflection of your company. Upon first glance, what do you want customers to think of your company? Before you call it a day on the logo design process, it's crucial to think about this. Having a logo with a clear, positive, and concise statement about your brand is essential.

Brand Reinforcement

A distinctive and appealing logo may work wonders for your company's brand recognition. Your logo is an excellent tool for promoting your company's identity and fostering customer loyalty. Your brand's individuality is bolstered, making you more memorable to consumers. The potential is there if you put in the time and effort to create the proper design, but so many companies have terrible logos that do nothing to strengthen their brand.

Possibilities for Promotion

Excellent branding can also help spread the word about your company. All sorts of freebies can be printed with your company's name and logo and distributed to customers as a form of advertising.

Numerous companies print their logo on a wide variety of promotional items, including clothing (shirts, hats, etc.), drinkware (water bottles, mugs, etc.), and office supplies (stationary, writing tools, Frisbees), and more. A well-designed logo is crucial to get the word out about your company. Distributing more of these goods will increase your company's visibility and popularity.

Make a Name for Yourself

When you have the correct logo, it's not hard to give the impression that your company is well-known and successful. An expert-looking logo can give the impression of being an industry leader, even if your company is still in its infancy.

Captivate the Intended Audience

People who create a logo for their company while keeping their target demographic in mind will have no trouble gaining the respect and loyalty of their customers. You should keep in mind that the appropriate logo might genuinely have a beneficial effect on some people while designing your logo. If the targeted people like your logo, it will be successful.

What Is A Logo Variation?

Simple logos often have the greatest effect. While ease of recognition is paramount, it is equally important that your logo serves a purpose. That makes it easy to modify for use on many systems. Your logo must be easily recognizable in both black & white and full color. Your brand will have more leeway in developing a memorable identity if you employ multiple logos (including a primary, secondary, submark, and wordmark).

As time goes on and innovations are introduced, logos that can be used for several purposes will become increasingly important. They add personality, strengthen your brand's identity, and give customers more options to engage with your business.

Why Do You Need Multiple Logo Formats?

It is necessary to have more than one logo to represent your company if you want to develop a distinctive, consistent, and well-organized brand. Imagine that your company's brand identity is a system and that for any component of the brand to be effective, it needs to interact with the others.

Consistency across all aspects of your organization can be maintained without using the same logo repeatedly if you have various logo variations and complementary patterns and visuals. You need a logo or design that you can use on everything from your website and letterheads to your Instagram account and gratitude notes. Having multiple logos for your company will give it a more polished appearance.

Different Logos Add Value to Your Company

Branding, which includes more than simply a logo, is an essential initial step in developing your company. Brand identities comprise several visual aspects, the most crucial of which is the logo. A logo is an optical glue that unites each piece of marketing material, whether it's a website, business card, or brochure. You should never begin a website design without deciding on a logo, typeface, and color scheme.

If you don't start with the correct logo, you can't hope to create anything lasting value from the rest of the project. The logo must be spot-on from the get-go, as any revisions made afterward will throw off the overall aesthetic. But is a single logo sufficient? Try as you might, you won't be able to successfully adapt a single work of art to various contexts. Every company we work with should, as a result, develop multiple logo versions to ensure their brand identity remains consistent no matter the setting.

The Top 4 Logo Variations

Primary logo

Are you wondering what a primary logo is? To create your logo's variations, you must first create your primary logo. This logo will be the most elaborate and comprehensive one you've ever made. This is the one you'll find yourself using the most frequently. The primary logo will feature relevant data, including the company name, tagline, and founding year. It's the emblem you use most consistently, and it's a big part of your brand's identity, from billboards to business tees.

Although most primary logos are laid out horizontally, this is often adjustable based on the overall aesthetic. Primary logos are sometimes presented in a stacked format. Keep a black-and-white version of your logo handy if your primary logo features color.

Make sure your major logo never gets squished or buried by other aspects in the design to give it the attention it deserves. The primary logo must be attractive, easy to remember, and dynamic. Make sure it looks great in large print and as a website header. Put the spotlight on it.

Most companies choose a single logo to use throughout their marketing. There are, however, rare cases where we encounter an outlier like Adidas. The brand's three prominent logos are rotated among the different collections. Their logos look consistent because they all use the same font and feature the company's signature three stripes. This is a novel strategy, and it probably won't pan out for most brands, especially if you're still in the early stages of building your company. However, Adidas is exempt because it is the world's second-largest producer of athletic wear.

Most firms, unlike Adidas, opt for a single logo with different variations, such as a secondary logo, submark, and wordmark (which we'll get into shortly). Headers, branding reports, documents, corporate postcards, about us pages, giant posters, and presentations are all excellent places for primary logos.

Secondary logo

Let's take a look at what is a secondary logo!

Once you have your primary logo established, you should move on to creating a secondary logo. A secondary logo's principal purpose is to offer an alternative presentation to the primary logo. For instance, if your primary logo is horizontal and features an image next to some text, a secondary logo could be vertical and feature the image on top of or below the text.

The secondary logo is like a mirror image of the main one. To maintain your brand's identity, everything from the typefaces to the lime weight to the overall design scheme must be consistent. Sometimes, you may need to use a secondary logo because of space constraints or because your primary logo doesn't fit in a particular location.

For example, a logo designed on a business card template or a letterhead might need to be horizontally aligned to fit the available area. Or, a vertically stacked logo might look better as a profile picture on a social media platform. Your secondary logo serves as a backup and helps out in situations where your primary logo wouldn't look good or fit properly.

Submark Logo

After finalizing your primary and secondary logos, it's time to design your submark. Let's look at how you use a submarket logo. This version of the logo is the most streamlined and compact, making it ideal for use in limited real estate (on paper or on-screen). Remember that not all primary and secondary logos can be reduced in size. A submark will be helpful in this situation.

Submarks can be either a circle with text and symbols inside or a single symbol. There's no hard and fast rule about whether or not you need a submark; it all depends on the size and design of your primary and secondary logos.

Submarks are often used in print as footers or watermarks; they can make a nice sticker. Submarks are great for social media avatars and other digital applications where you need to use your brand but want it to seem more sophisticated. You can use a submark logo in the footer of your website or document, in fine print, or on a platform.

Wordmark Logo Designs

The fact of the matter is that people need to remember one thing about business above all else, which is your company's name. Although logos and slogans are essential, it is not always possible to identify a new venture or a small business based solely on these characteristics.

The name you've given your company is what brings attention to you. It's the thing that people have to recall the most to draw the connection to your goods or services, as well as the other components of your brand. It's the initial step toward recognizability that gets them to the point where they can think of you with simply your logo or slogan in their head.

Wordmark logos are vital since they highlight customers' fundamental aspect of your company, which is your name. Wordmarks are all about simplification, which is why you need to carefully consider the name of your company and its typography. Because there are no longer any other factors for visitors to digest besides your name and font, you will need to establish a strong posture from the beginning of the process.

When selecting a name for your company, one that is concise and easy to recall is ideal; wordmarks capitalize on this trait to significant effect. Not to mention that the maxim "less is more" serves as a foundational principle for certain aspects of branding, such as names and graphics.

Although company names are easily recognizable, the strength of typography resides in how it is used quietly inside the lines of a document. In most cases, individuals won't be able to recognize a font. On the other hand, they might have a response to it that is more subconscious. Make sure your typography is easy to read, stands out, and is an exact match for your brand. You won't need me to tell you when you've found it.

Google's logo is an excellent example of a wordmark design done well. People are likely to remember it, and it does an excellent job of naturally incorporating the colors associated with the company. Consider what they have to say: a successful wordmark is easy to recall, stunning to see, and adaptable to various display alternatives. Wordmarks are most effectively utilized as logos for commercial products, labels, medium and enormous-scale online signs, and large-scale outdoor signage.

Advice on the Development of an Effective Logo for Multiple Uses

If you have the correct mentality, the steps to producing a good logo that can be used for various purposes are simple. You should try to steer clear of complicated patterns and minute features during the design process if you want the finished product to be functional and adaptable. When it comes to this topic, less is more.

If you're having problems finding ways to simplify your logo, try coming up with ideas for designs that involve deleting graphics and letters and switching the brand's colors. If you follow these principles, it will be possible for your logo to function correctly in any setting and on every platform.

As you can see, the necessity of having a logo that can be used for a variety of purposes is critical when it comes to making an impression that will last for your brand. It is essential to keep in mind that multi-purpose logos are not alternative designs to your existing logo.

Their condensed variations feature the same watermark, colors, and characteristics as your primary logo. It is crucial to express how your firm is seen; having a strong brand identity and a logo that can be used for various purposes will help you achieve this.

Your company's logo is the most easily recognizable feature of your entire brand. In addition to being aesthetically pleasing and easy to recall, it should also be versatile enough to take on a variety of shapes. Your company will be ready to make a strong impression at any time and location if you use different variations of your logo. The best possible visual representation of a brand can be achieved by combining a primary logo, secondary logo, submark, and wordmark. Your company is not a generic model, nor is your logo intended to be.

Show your audience that you have a lot to say by using many variations of your logo that communicate a lot with very little text. And if you're having trouble figuring out how to go about it, help from a trained specialist is never too far away.

Adode Media - A One-Stop Destination For The Best Logo Variations

Our objective at Adode Media is to give our clients a comprehensive branding experience, from the very beginning to the end, by developing powerful visual identities across various platforms.

Because of this, we provide complete branding packages that include up to four different logo options. By hiring Adode Media to create your branding, your business will be able to retain its exposure without having to deal with the associated headaches.

Take a moment to see some of our past work and what our clients have to say.