Over the years of working with private practices to create marketing, I’ve worked with hundreds of logos. Some people have designed them themselves, others have used websites, and others have hired professional graphic designers to create theirs. Considerations like knowledge of design, budget, and plans for use vary from person to person, but I’ll be honest - not all logos are created equal.
In this blog series, I am going to share with you some of the main features you should consider when you have a logo created for your business. Trust me, thinking about these things now will save you time and money in the long run. No matter where and how you have your logo created, you should know these basics.
*For clarity, it is worth saying that Therapy Marketing Kit does not design logos. However, we do create marketing materials for private practices by taking existing logos and creating branded materials around those colors and/or designs.
Do not use a colored background.
If your logo is positioned over a colored background, you will never be able to use that logo over any other color without a big box behind it. Consider this (fake) version of the Therapy Marketing Kit logo, with the teal background. With this design, I can only ever position it over the exact same shade of teal for a seamless look. The majority of the time, your logo will need to be used over white or another color (think flyers, photos, shirts, etc), and in all of these cases you’d end up with a big box behind it like this:
Instead, let the color in your logo be part of the design itself. This means you can place the logo over almost any color, especially white, which you’ll find is always available.
You need a .png file for a transparent background.
Another related issue I see with a lot of the logos I am sent to work with is that they are JPEG files. This can have to do with the way it was created or the way it was saved (or both). JPEG files do not have any transparency to them, which means that any open space around an image will be white. Again, this means that positioning the logo over anything will create a white box around it. You don’t want that and it really limits your options for its use. You need a PNG file, which has the capability for transparency, and as long as it was created the right way, you’ll have a file that can be positioned over anything without a white box around it.
Now of course, this isn’t quite as simple as just saving a file one way or the other, but any reputable graphic designer you work with for a logo should absolutely have a handle on this and it honestly shouldn’t be your issue at all. And, if you’re ever asked for your logo as you create marketing for your practice, (like for flyers from Therapy Marketing Kit, for example) you should always send your .PNG version with the transparent background.
Oops! Can I fix this in my current logo?
It depends.
When clients come to me with .jpeg files, the very first thing I ask is whether or not they have a .png version. Most graphic designers should automatically have provided this, so often clients have it and just didn’t know which one to send. If you don’t have one - reach out to the original source of your logo and ask for it.
However, some clients I work with did not receive a .png file (this typically happens when using discount websites for design or when they created one themself) or for some reason no longer have access to it or the person who designed it.
In these cases, I can sometimes create their marketing with that in mind and use their logo as is. We can design around the background, however, it does limit their options and constrains some of the design.
Other times, I am able to remove the background using editing software, but how well this works depends on many factors and sometimes the final result is not as crisp and clean as it should be. This also depends on the colors used in the design itself. For example, when clients have logos with solid colored backgrounds, they often have elements of the actual logo that are white. Of course, once we remove the background, the white won’t show on white, so that can be problematic too.
The takeaway?
Do it right the first time. There are many options for creating logos and I understand that for many private practices, cost is a real factor. However, your logo will go on almost everything you create for your practice moving forward - from logo apparel, to letterheads, to flyers, to your website. You do not want to have all of those things looking anything less than amazing or have to pay extra because your logo isn’t formatted or designed correctly.
There is a lot to know when it comes to something that may seem small, like a logo, and in my opinion, it is well worth it to invest in having it done by someone who knows what they’re doing - the first time.
