Every brand needs more than one version of its logo. A horizontal lockup fits a website header, a stacked one fits a square, a badge suits stamps and packaging, and the mark alone becomes an app icon or favicon. Using one file everywhere is what makes a brand look improvised.
The arrangements a brand actually needs:
- Horizontal: mark and name side by side. The default for website headers, email signatures and letterheads, anywhere wide and short.
- Stacked: mark above the name. For square and portrait spaces: social posts, packaging panels, posters.
- Badge: the elements locked inside a containing shape. Suits stamps, labels, apparel and anything that needs a self-contained emblem.
- Logo mark: the symbol alone. App icons, favicons, profile pictures and any space too small for words.
- Wordmark: the name alone, set left, centred or horizontally. For when the symbol would be redundant or too small to read.
- Secondary: an alternate arrangement for the cases the primary does not cover.
Pick by the shape of the space, not by preference. A wide slot takes horizontal, a square takes stacked, a tiny slot takes the mark.
Why does a brand need more than one logo lockup?
Because the spaces a logo has to live in are different shapes. Forcing a horizontal logo into a square profile picture means shrinking it until the name is unreadable. Forcing a stacked logo into a narrow header means it either overflows or becomes tiny. The lockups exist so that there is always a version that fits without compromise.
Which logo variation should you use?
| Arrangement | Use it for | Avoid it when |
|---|---|---|
| Horizontal | Website headers, letterheads, email signatures | The space is square or taller than it is wide |
| Stacked | Social posts, packaging, posters, merchandise | The space is short and wide |
| Badge | Stamps, labels, apparel, seals | You need the mark to sit flush in a layout |
| Logo mark | App icons, favicons, profile pictures | The audience does not yet know the brand |
| Wordmark | Small headers, documents, co-branded lockups | The symbol is the recognisable part |
How many variations is enough?
Most brands are well covered by four: horizontal, stacked, mark and wordmark. Add a badge if you sell physical products, and a reversed version of each for dark backgrounds. Beyond that you are producing files nobody will open.
Whichever set you choose, keep the relationships consistent. The spacing between mark and name, the relative sizes, and the alignment should feel like the same system, because that consistency is what people recognise even when the arrangement changes.
Logofai's logo system takes one approved logo and produces these arrangements together with a presentation sheet, so the set stays consistent rather than being redrawn by hand. It sits alongside the brand kit in the same project.
Every arrangement, from one logo
Generate the lockups your brand needs, normalised onto one sheet.
Start free with 15 creditsThis is one piece of a complete hand-off. For the full list of what you should receive, see what a brand identity hand-off actually includes.
