No One GAF About Your Logo

As a designer, it is my job to help guide the direction, layout and ease of use of your website. This is always a balance between the business owners desire and what's best for user experience.

One of the most common requests from small business owners is to make their logo bigger and more prominent on the website. To which I of course ask: "why?"

I do understand the desire to show off your brand and brand identity is of course a major part of any growing business. The reason I ask why though is to see if for some magical reason there is a valid answer as to why you should have a monster big logo on your site. In 20 plus years of website design, I am yet to hear a valid reason, but I continue to remain open minded.

Real estate on a web page is extremely limited, and a vast majority of my clients are in the business of selling something. Whether that be a service or product, it's irrelevant, as they are not selling their logo. As such I do not recommend taking up chunks of space on your site with something that does nothing other than bolster your own ego or perhaps expenditure on your graphic design purchase.

Logos are indeed a very recognisable feature of any business but they aren't the meat and potatoes of what keeps your bank balance topping up every month. Think about the Ghostbusters movie logo above, whilst it is recognisable by a large percentage of the world, it doesn't make up what is the actual content of the movie. Have you ever heard anyone walk out of the cinema and say :OMG that was the most amazing logo of any movie ever!". Or were they talking about the movie content itself. Your business in simple terms is no different. It is you and the quality of your service that sells and it is what clients are coming to buy.

 Some ideas to have the best of both worlds:

• Fix your header - you can make your header on your site that typically includes your logo and navigation 'sticky', so that even when scrolling it remains on the top.
• Go one step further and "shrink" your header and logo on scroll so that is still there, yet not in the way
• Include a logo in the footer - a similarly small logo in the footer also assists, particularly useful if you have a horizontal and vertical version allowing you to display both on the same page.
• Include your logo on all stationary - business cards is a no brainer but also on your invoices, memos or your email signature.
• Signage on your vehicle - whether it be a simple magnetic banner or proper vinyl signage, your car is often a better place to have minimal text and maximum pic.

So don't be afraid, or offended even that no one gives a flop about your logo. Just remember that they're here for you and your service, not for the amount of time, money or effort you spent on your brand identity.