Logo design in Newcastle, NSW: a mark that works small, big and in one colour.

Stay readable at the size of a phone icon, work in one colour for stamps and signage, and still make sense in five years. Past that it is taste, and taste is the owner's.

Most logo conversations are about whether somebody likes it. The tests that matter are practical and they can be run in a few minutes.

What to test it against

• Small. Shrink it to the size of an app icon. If the words disappear, the mark will disappear on a phone.
• One colour. Solid black on white. Signage, stamps, embroidery and a fax from a supplier all end up here.
• On a dark background. There has to be a version that works, because half of everything is dark now.
• Photocopied. The old test and still the honest one. Fine detail vanishes and you find out what the mark really is.

A logo that passes those is usable everywhere. One that fails them costs money every time it goes on something new.

A plain logo used consistently on everything beats a clever one that the quote, the van and the website do not match. The set around it is doing most of the work.

Owners spend weeks on the mark and minutes on everything it goes on. Customers do the opposite: they never look at a logo on its own, they see it on a quote, a van and a website.

What they notice is whether those three look like the same business. That is the colours and the type doing the work, and both usually get decided in the last ten minutes of a logo job.

So the logo is worth doing properly and it is worth about a third of the attention it usually gets. The other two thirds belong to the set around it.

A vector version, which can be scaled to the size of a truck without going fuzzy, flat versions for the web, a one colour version, a dark background version, and the exact colour codes.

This is the difference between owning a logo and renting one. Ask for the list by name, in writing, before any money changes hands.

What comes back at the end

• The vector file. The original, which means it can be blown up to the size of a truck without going fuzzy. Without it, every future sign or shirt starts with somebody redrawing your logo.
• Flat versions for the web. Ordinary image files, in a few sizes, including a square one for social profiles.
• A one colour version. Solid, for signage, stamps and embroidery.
• A version for dark backgrounds. Because half of everything is dark now.
• The exact colour codes. For screen and for print. They differ, and a printer will ask.

Get the ownership in writing at the same time. It is cheap to agree at the start and expensive to argue about the day you change designers.

Search whether somebody has already registered the name or a similar mark in your industry. It is free to look, and finding out afterwards means paying for the signage twice.

This is the step that gets skipped and it is the one with a real bill attached to skipping it.

Search the name, then check IP Australia for a registered trade mark in your industry. The search is free to run and it takes minutes.

While you are there, make sure the name is written the way it is registered on the Australian Business Register, because that is the version that belongs on anything printed.

Whether to register a trade mark of your own is a legal question rather than a design one. It is worth asking somebody qualified rather than us.

Collect examples, say where it will be used, agree the file list, look at directions rather than finished marks, give one round of notes, then put it on the things customers see.

1. Collect examples before you talk to anyone

Five marks you would happily have and two you would not. Any industry. This is faster than any adjective you could give a designer.

2. Say everywhere it is going

Van, shirt, sign, website, social icon, stamp. A logo for a website only is a different job to one going on a truck.

3. Agree the file list and the ownership

In writing. The list from the chapter above, and who holds the files at the end.

4. Look at directions, not finished marks

A few different ideas, roughly. Picking a direction early is what stops a job running for months.

5. Give one round of notes

Everybody's opinions argued out first, then one list. A new opinion every Friday is how a logo job stops finishing.

6. Put it on the things customers already see

Quote template, invoice, email signature, listing photographs, website header. A logo in a folder changes nothing.

The drawing is the short part. Feedback decides the length, and putting the mark onto everything it has to go on carries on afterwards.

The order it happens in

• The brief is agreed. Examples, where it will be used, the file list, and who owns it. Nothing drawn during this part.
• Directions, then one round of notes, then the files. This is the drawing, and it is shorter than most people expect.
• It goes onto everything. Templates, signage artwork, profiles, vehicles. This part carries on and it is where the value actually arrives.

A job that gets one clear round of notes moves along. A job that gets a new opinion every week does not, and that is about the business rather than the designer.

Ask which files you get, who owns them, how many rounds are included, and whether they will set up the templates it goes on. The file list is the one that decides whether you own anything.

We do this work in Newcastle, so we are not neutral. These are the questions we would want asked of us.

• Which files do I get? The vector original, flat versions, one colour, dark background, and the colour codes. Ours goes in writing before a deposit.
• Who owns the artwork? The business. Ask plainly, because the answer is not always yes and it matters the day you change designers.
• How many rounds are included? A number rather than a feeling. Two is normal for a logo when the brief was clear.
• Will you set up the templates it goes on? The quote and the invoice are what customers actually receive. A job that stops at the mark has left the useful part undone.
• Am I locked in? Ours runs month to month and always has. Any arrangement you cannot leave at the end of a month is worth a second look.

If the business is new and the money is tight, a plain wordmark set properly in a good typeface is a perfectly respectable answer, and plenty of businesses in Newcastle run one.