As part of my internship at Southeast Tech, I was assigned to create a new Housing logo. This coincides with the current logo but adds details to make it unique for the Housing department. After the design was finished the next step was to create versions for print, online, various styles. Because Southeast Tech has two colors that are used primarily, a dark and light blue, the style needs to change depending on what the background is. For example, the business cards used have a black border but the “normal” Southeast Tech logo would not show the dark blue well. So instead, there is a version that includes the light blue and white. In total there are about five versions: the normal dark blue and light blue, all black, all white, white and light blue, and finally all dark blue. This can also be seen in the branding guide that is provided on their website.

Branding guides are really important because they dictate how a logo can or cannot be used. For the Southeast Tech logo, the background can really affect the legibility. This is another reason to have multiple colored versions. The branding guide also shows examples of inappropriate uses of the logo. For example, the logo should not be placed on top of a busy background. This might be foliage in a photograph, or an intricately patterned background. It also should not be applied to a variant color of blue, such as turquoise.

What is also interesting about the Southeast Tech logo is that there is a horizontal version compared to the “normal” stacked version. This allows the logo to be placed on things that don’t have enough room, such as a lanyard. This provides flexibility in using the logo. Sometimes projects are smaller but the logo still needs to be visible. Thus, a horizontal version allows legibility in the logo.

Being aware of branding guides will allow appropriate uses of a logo. This not only shows respect to the company that you are representing or designing for but also shows that time was taken for research and that you’re knowledgable of their needs.