6.17.2015
Can't you just trace or redraw our logo?
We love our clients. Oh, so very much so. From time to time we’re left to wonder whether or not we have a flaw in our process. Why? Because every so often we get asked one or all of the following questions:
“We only have a .jpg of our logo. Can’t you just redraw it?”
“Can’t you just use the logo from our website, email signature, or Facebook page?”
“We don’t have a high-resolution image of our logo at the moment. The designer has it. How much would it cost for you to just draw something up?”
Why a .jpg is not the best choice for use in design
As we’ve written before in our article regarding digital copies of the brand’s assets, in order to properly scale an image such as a logo to the size needed to draft outdoor signage, the digital asset file needs to be able to vectorize. Otherwise, if the logo is not designed in vectors, the image will pixelate (get blurry) when it is scaled to these larger sizes.
Note the image in the beginning of this article. The one on the left is what happens when a low-resolution image is stretched or enlarged to fit needs. If we were to stretch it any wider, it would look like it is artwork from the cubist-styled game Minecraft. The one on the right is what an image would look like if enlarged from a high-resolution, vector-drawn source.
Typically, the file type that has this capacity is Adobe Illustrator. Those file types are typically saved with a .ai extension.
Extension such as .jpg, .gif and .bmp - formats that web images, social media properties, and email signatures use - do not provide scaling.
”Just redrawing” an image isn’t a quick task
Redrawing an image is the task of skilled artists. The richer and more finely-drawn the logo, the longer it takes to re-draw. Developing the proper mixture of shadings, hues, and saturations at each pixel of the image is a task that takes hours. It is a task that’s well-worth it in order to get things right, but if it can be avoided by doing a little searching of old folders in computers, then a little searching should be done.
Email Signatures are typically in .jpg
Adobe Illustrator files for logos are typically big files. We haven’t as of yet seen an email program that would accept an image as big as a .AI file. Even if an email program would use it, there’s a better than average chance that with normal email use, the account’s file storage limits would be consumed in a month.
So, if you’ve been able to easily email from your account this year without having to continue delete emails to save space, you probably don’t have a file in your email signature that could be used.
What it would take for us to “draw something up?”
We could draw something new. Redrawing the digital assets is also a possibility. We have an incredible design staff that would design new branding assets to accompany the new signage. Our design rates, like most agencies in the Chicago and Northwest Indiana area, are typically $125 an hour. This would include time and materials to make revisions and changes. If this is something you would like to have us perform, we can come up with a new, separate contractual agreement and design one for you. This would undoubtable back up the timeline for the design and construction of your outdoor signage.
Also, creating the new branding would mean that you would probably have to rebrand your other marketing channels with the new iconography in order to maintain consistency.
More often than not, our clients decide it’s long-overdue that they get in touch with their logo designer and pick up a copy of the original digital asset.
