Confused about logo terminology? We created this blog to explain key terms like lockup, mark, color palette, and typography. Perfect for small business owners looking to polish their brand identity.
If you've ever talked to the marketing team or designers about logo files or branding, you've definitely heard a lot of words thrown around to describe what might all seem like a "logo."
Totally cool, don't sweat it. We feel the same way when we talk to tax accountants.
Today, we're going to take a look at common words and definitions that all fall under the logo umbrella. Let's get right into it.
Lockup - A combination of a logo mark, word, and any supporting elements. Typically, this is your primary logo.
Horizontal lockup - building off our previous word, "Lockup." The horizontal lockup is the horizontally oriented version of your logo. Often, you'll see the mark on the left and the word on the right. The artwork is laid out in a horizontal manner.
Vertical lockup - The alternative to the horizontal lockup is the vertical lockup. The vertical lockup is where artwork is stacked vertically. Often, you'll see the mark on top, the word beneath. The artwork is arranged in a vertical manner.
Note - When applying your logo places, you'll find that sometimes the logo fits better in a horizontal lockup, and sometimes it fits better in a vertical lockup. This is why you ideally want to have both versions. When we do brand development projects for clients, we create designs that can be arranged both ways.
Mark: The images, icons, and illustrations that identify the business. For Launch Kit, this is the rocket ship. For Nike, it's the swoosh. For Apple, well, it's the apple. For Verizon, it's the check mark. For McDonald's, it's the arches. All of these would be considered the "mark."
Note - When we create marks, we like to create designs that identify the business rather than explain it. Launch Kit is a marketing agency. Our mark isn't a laptop. It's a rocket ship to symbolize growth and development. Nike's mark isn't a shoe; it's a symbol of victory to represent speed, motion, and power.
Supporting icons: These are supporting designs found in your brand's marketing collateral. Often used on your website and in graphic design material.
Patterns: Think of a Louis Vuitton handbag. What design do you picture in your head? That's a brand pattern. Patterns are a great way of creating a design using your identity.
Color Palette - primary colors: When crafting your brand identity, your brand's primary colors are the three or four main colors used to identify your brand. Below are Launch Kit's primary colors for reference.
Color palette - supporting colors: In addition to your primary colors, you can establish supporting colors to be used sparingly. At Launch Kit, we use these colors to identify our different business lines.
Logo font: First, we have your logo font. Your logo font is the font that is used in your logo word. For example, the word Launch Kit, as seen in our lockup, is typed using the font Poppins. When designing logos, sometimes we use fonts, sometimes we start with a font, then modify it, and sometimes we do custom lettering.
Heading fonts: This is the font used in website headings and graphic design collateral. Usually, this font is displayed larger than your body font.
Body font: This is the font that is used in paragraph text on your website and in graphic design collateral.
Note: Your logo, heading, and body fonts do not need to be identical. Quite often, when doing brand development projects, we use a font in the logo design which is different from the heading and body fonts. We aim to select complimentary fonts that pair up well together to create a nice distinction between heading and body copy.
There you have it, a handy guide for understanding the terminology used to describe different components of your business branding and logo.
We hope you found this article insightful. Our goal is to help at least one person with this content. If your business needs logo files, colors, or fonts, send us a message. We'd love to work on a proper brand development project together.
