🚀 go-pugleaf

Neil: I've been doing this for 25 years. The intent was more for beginners such as Ian as far as logo design. Even so, I always tell my designers - especially interns and novices - to drop whatever logo they are designing into a dummy bc template. Obviously the logo has to work across all collateral but generally speaking if it works small it will work large. Not so the other way around. It's very good advice for a beginner or someone just starting out. I deal with tons of churches and civic organizations that do their own "design" and telling them to design small has saved all of us a lot of grief when it comes time to print their masterpiece.

I have tons of customers these days that only have a business card and a website. Nothing else. Maybe a brochure or palm card. Stationery suites are rapidly going away.

Another reason for designing and testing small is all the gradients people want in logos. Again, go to a site like logoworks to see their portfolio. Can't tell you how many times I look at a graphic artist and they're building this swirly thing with gradients in cmyk at 8 x 10. Ain't gonna work when reduced to 10% to fit a biz card.

I'm probably old school (passed the 25 year mark in the biz this year) but a lot of what is supposed to be a logo on the online logo mills strikes me as cartoonish. The ones that stick with me are few and far between.

When I get an intern in I give them these criteria when designing a logo: 2 primary Pantone colors, no clip art, no gradients. The AI file can be no larger than 3 x 3. I want them to think a bit on their intent when starting to comp a logo.