- As I've mentioned,
one quality of a good logo is
it works everywhere.
Whether on screen, or in print,
or on fabric, plastic,
the most demanding use is anywhere that you're at
a small size, and
especially at low resolution.
I have three scenarios.
A logo that's simple and bold
will almost never have a problem.
The Red Cross, for example,
reads clearly,
even as a 16 pixel favicon.
16 pixels is tiny,
and a good test,
if it will read here,
it will read anywere.
But what do we do
if our logo is more complex and
has finer lines,
like this monogram?
You can see what happens at the size of a favicon.
The lines get super fine and
are in danger of being lost and
on low-res devices may actually be lost.
Also you can see that these two logos don't look alike.
The small one looks much thinner,
so we have two problems to solve.
The solution to both is to make a second version of the logo
that's bolder than the first.
This is a pretty easy process.
Bold the lines,
in this case to twice the width,
then open up the white spaces
by moving the stem of the L to the right and
the leg of the L up.
Moving those parts opens up the white,
which is as important as the colored part,
so don't miss that.
The original logo is the big one on the left and
the new logo is the small one on the right.
And what you can see is
they now look alike.
Just compare for a moment.
Now let me replace the small version with the
original thin version.
Quite a difference.
So rule one,
for use in small sizes,
make a bolder version of your logo.
Let me throw in a caviat here.
I've optimized the line weights and
the white spaces
for what I'm seeing on my monitor,
but you may be seeing something
a little different
because on their way to you
my files have traveled in design to
JPEG, to Adobe Premier,
to the movie file that you are viewing,
probably streaming at some size, so
chances are,
what you're seeing
is a little different from what I'm seeing.
Something to keep in mind.
Second scenario,
is where we start with type
that's both thin and small.
The name Vio is set in a beautiful typeface
called Didot.
Didot belongs to the modern classification of type and
it's characterized by its extremely thin straight serifs.
The small white byline is set in Helvetica Neue Light.
Both are in uppercase.
Didot is very popular in the world of fashion.
The problem with all this light stuff as
we've already seen is that when we reduce it,
the thin bits tend to disappear.
The solution here is similar to what we just saw, and
that is to make things bolder.
In this case though, we don't want the whole word bolder,
we just want the serifs bolder.
That's where this typeface comes to our rescue.
HTF Didot from typography.com
has been drawn in seven sizes
for just this purpose.
From very fine serifs to heavy ones.
Fine serifs are for big sizes like
magazine covers and posters and
heavier serifs are for smaller sizes like this.
It's not as elegant at this size, but
when we actually make it small,
it looks normal again.
Look at the two side by side.
The heavier version on the left is clearer.
Next problem,
is the line of tiny type.
Solution here is to set it two steps bolder
in Helvetica Neue Medium.
Now what we have
looks like a tiny version of the original.
But if we want to actually read that byline,
we have to make it bigger too.
In this case,
I'm going to double its size.
Keep in mind that how big or bold you make things
depends on how it will be used and
you'll have to trust your eye.
In making it bigger,
note that I've kept the total line length the same.
So the relationship between the name and the byline
stays the same.
And now when we reduce it,
it still looks right and
we can read it.
Compare its side by side with the original.
The new one is on the left and
when we put it side by side with
the original big version,
we've achieved our goal.
It looks like the same logo.
In this third scenario,
we have this cool Ion log,
by designer David Lurch.
We have a common problem.
We need a small square favicon and
this whole logo won't fit.
The solution here is to use a descriptive piece of the logo.
In this case,
the distinctive feature is the dot of the I,
so all we do is lift out a square piece.
Remember the white parts as important
as the colored part and
the white curve gets really narrow on the right edge.
So now we want to widen that curve,
place it in the menu bar, and
it makes a super identifiable favicon and
the two images look alike.