When an identity project ends, you are handed a folder. What is inside decides how easy every later job will be, from a printer's quotation to a new website. A folder with a single image file is not a delivered logo. It is a picture of one.
This guide lists what a complete folder holds, in plain terms, so you can check yours in ten minutes. It applies whether the logo came from us, from a freelancer, from a friend or from an old printer. A designer who is asked for these files and cannot supply them has told you something useful.
The master file
The master is a vector file, drawn with lines and curves instead of pixels, so it can be scaled to a visiting card or a hoarding without going soft. Common formats are SVG, PDF and AI. Everything else is made from it. If you hold only a JPG or PNG, you do not hold the logo, and a printer will redraw it from your screenshot.
- One vector master of the full logo suite, with text converted to outlines so it opens correctly on any computer.
- The same master in an editable version, so a designer can change a version later without redrawing it.
- A written note of who owns the files. Ask for it in the agreement before the project ends.
The versions you will need
A logo is a small family, not one picture. The horizontal version suits a letterhead and a website header. A stacked or square version suits a profile picture and a stamp. A compact mark suits an app icon and a favicon. Each needs a full-colour, a one-colour and a reversed version for dark backgrounds.
- Horizontal, stacked and compact versions, each in full colour.
- A single-colour version in black, for newspapers, rubber stamps and embossing.
- A reversed version in white, for dark photographs, shutters and packaging.
- A square version with safe space, for social profile pictures that crop into a circle.
- A favicon: the small icon in the browser tab, in sizes the website needs.
The file formats, and where each is used
Print and sign makers want vector files. Screens want small, compressed images. Presentations and documents want a PNG with a transparent background. Keeping each in its own labelled folder stops the wrong file travelling to the wrong job.
- Print and signage: the vector master in PDF or SVG, plus a version in your print colours.
- Website and social: PNG with transparency and SVG for the site, at sizes the platforms ask for.
- Documents and slides: a PNG with transparency, kept small.
- Embroidery, stamps and engraving: the one-colour vector, supplied to the maker directly.
Colours and fonts, written down
A logo in the wrong green is a different logo. You should hold the colour palette as values for each medium: HEX for screens, RGB for screen design tools and CMYK for print, with a Pantone reference if you print spot colours. Fonts need their names, where to get them and whether your licence covers the uses you have.
These live in a short usage note, ideally inside the brand guidelines. A one-page sheet is enough for a small business: the versions, the clear space around the logo, the smallest size it works at, the colours and the fonts.
A checklist to run today
- I can open a vector master file of my logo.
- I have full colour, black and white versions.
- I have horizontal, stacked and square versions.
- I have a favicon and a social profile image.
- I have my colours as HEX, RGB and CMYK.
- I have the names and licences of my fonts.
- I have a one-page note on how to use the logo.
- I know who owns these files, and it is in writing.
If you can tick six or more, you are in a good position. If you can tick fewer than four, ask your designer for the missing files now, while the project is fresh, and ask for them in writing. If the designer is no longer reachable, a studio can rebuild the master from your best artwork, and our branding service covers that as a short job.
Before you brief anyone, you can also fill in a printable design brief to note what you hold already. It saves the first week of questions.
