There are many resources out there that help you determine your brand colors and we can study color theory all day. For me, I am drawn to bright and colorful book covers and white and gray modern interiors so how the heck did I land on a black and white logo?
- From my experience in marketing, printing in black and white is ALWAYS cheaper than printing in color. Often, printers will charge per color. Even if you have a colorful logo, I recommend making sure that it also looks good in black and white for possible printing purposes.
- This also goes the other way – when needed, you can easily transition your logo to color. It’s so flexible.
- It is timeless. Even if your color preferences change or your brand evolves, your black and white logo will be able to evolve with it.
- It is legible. Growing up, I remember making my powerpoints colorful and then later I learned that white and black is ideal for presentations as it is the easiest for your audience to read. This has always stuck with me. You can’t beat the contrast between the two colors.
- It is so fresh and so clean, clean.
- It is simple. Enough said.
Here’s the ultimate reason why: A black and white logo is the classic way to make your brand relatable, accessible, and versatile. – Aviva M. Cantor from her blog post, 25 black and white logos that are anything but boring
Speaking of versatility, you will need several versions of your logo depending on its use. When tagging your graphics or photos, it is good to have both an all white and all black version of your logo with transparent backgrounds. The black version would be used on a light image and the white version would be used on a dark image for visibility.
You can also create transparent background versions of your logo with just your graphic image and just the text as well.
I have many more different versions of my logo. Horizontal and square, just the image, and versions with the image + text. I also have them where the colors are swapped – black logo on a white background and a white logo on a black background. I decided to create all of these from the get go so that I am ready whenever I need to use each version. It was really easy to DIY on Canva!
Color is just one of the many factors to consider behind a successful logo design. Here is my blog post about the graphic image on a logo.
Next up, logo typography!