Posted on 10th July 2024
by Sarah Lawrence
Lots of effort will go into creating the key visuals integral to your business. Fonts, icons and colours will be crafted and created. Yet alongside the form of a logo design, don’t overlook it’s format. This will have a big impact on the usability and professionalism of your key visual asset.
The gold standard is vector logos, far superior to the alternative, raster logos. Whilst both formats have their uses, we’ll guide you through the reasons why vector logos are superior for choice than raster logos for businesses and brands.
The key advantage of vector logos is their scalability. Vector graphics are made up of points, lines, and curves based on mathematical equations, allowing them to be resized infinitely without losing quality. Whether you need a tiny icon for a mobile app or a massive billboard, a vector logo will maintain its crispness and clarity.
Have you ever found that your logo doesn’t look great when it’s increased in size? Chances are it was a raster logo, composed of pixels. Pixel is the shortened term for ‘picture element’. It is a tiny square or dot that represents a single colour, and the smallest unit of a digital image or display. Enlarging a raster image results in a blurry or pixelated logo, which can be detrimental to your brand’s professional appearance.
Vector files are generally smaller in size compared to high-resolution raster files. This is because vector graphics store information as geometric instructions rather than individual pixels. Smaller file sizes make it easier to store and share logos, especially when sending them over email or uploading them to a website.
Editing a vector logo is straightforward because each element can be manipulated independently. Colours, shapes, and sizes can be easily adjusted without affecting the overall quality of the image. This flexibility is invaluable when you need to make quick changes or adapt your logo for different uses.
With raster logos, editing can be more cumbersome. Changes often require altering individual pixels, which can be time consuming and may degrade the image quality if not done carefully.
Vector logos are highly versatile and can be used across various media. Whether it’s print, web, or even animation, vector graphics are compatible with different platforms and formats. This versatility ensures that your logo looks consistent and professional, no matter where it appears.
Raster logos, while useful for certain applications like photographs or web images, are not as versatile. They require different resolutions and formats for different media, which can complicate the design process.
When it comes to printing, vector logos are the gold standard. We require high-resolution images to produce quality prints, and vector graphics fit this requirement perfectly. They ensure that every detail of your logo is sharp and clear, whether the scale is that of a business cards or banner.
Raster logos, depending on their resolution, may not always meet printing quality standards. Low-resolution raster images can appear blurry or pixelated when printed.
As technology evolves, the need for adaptable and high-quality graphics becomes even more critical. Vector logos provide a future-proof solution, ensuring that your brand remains relevant and visually appealing as display technologies improve. Their ability to scale and adapt to new media types means your logo will continue to look great for years to come.
While raster logos have their place, particularly for detailed images and photographs, vector logos offer unparalleled advantages for most branding needs. Their scalability, small file size, ease of editing, versatility, superior print quality, and future-proof nature make them the ideal choice for businesses and brands looking to make a lasting impression.
Investing in a vector logo means investing in the longevity and consistency of your brand’s visual identity. For a professional, adaptable, and high-quality logo that stands the test of time, vector is the way to go.
At oodle, we get involved in brand and re-brand projects, where this information will be at the forefront of our minds. We also support clients with creative projects that follow the creation of their brand, by years or even decades. In these instances, a vector file format will enable us the best foundations from which to apply your brand, creatively and consistently to a whole range of physical and digital resources.
