There’s a lot of talk these days about having a sustainable brand in the marketplace. Experts will talk about branding, and marketing, and customer experiences, and these are all genuinely important aspects in maintaining a successful brand. But there’s always one thing that is rarely mentioned…could it be because it can be unsightly, hidden, and sometimes go undetected? Yes, it’s true. Your logo could have an STD or what I like to call a Shamefully Transmitted Deterioration.

Finding cures for logos with Shamefully Transmitted Deterioration. Photo: RhizomeImages.com

A brand is more than a logo, but a logo represents that brand at-a-glance. So as a designer, when I see logos that look pixelated or fuzzy, it’s like nails on a chalkboard for me. I feel the need to save it or cure it even if I did not create it.

So where do these diseased logos come from? There are two sources for this strain of the virus. One is directly from within a company. It might be from clueless sales or marketing people who don’t understand how to use their logos or what to hand off, or worse yet, from a CEO who could care less. Logo usage guides may or may not exist, be rarely used, or in some cases they may be too complex to use. I’ve found creating a basic logo usage guide for clients that explains various formats and speaks simply with visuals and callouts, is a much more effective way to keep a brand intact.

The second strain comes from inexperienced designers who hand off only JPGs or rasterized versions to their clients. These are the designers I want to take out in a back alley and…well, never mind. I can understand the client may not be big enough to warrant a logo usage guide, but they still just hand off logos into the ether. In some cases designers go to all the trouble of creating the logo in Illustrator but don’t outline the font. (A major rookie move). This means when it’s opened by another person it’s looking for a font that may not be available. Unusable.

For example, a client of mine does several events every year with major sponsors, and after nine years of working together, I have beaten it into him (in a really nice way) to ask his sponsors for the correct types of logos for my purposes, which are print, web, and signage. I ask for Adobe Illustrator^® .EPS files or PDFs I can open Illustrator. This is because vector files are the best files to use when multiple media applications are required. Sometimes for smaller print projects a really high-resolution .JPG or .TIF file will work just fine. But in my case I need those vector images to scale up and not look deteriorated.

Sometimes I get the perfect logos sent to me. It’s a beautiful thing really. Other times, I get the dregs of logo hell sent to me, and worse yet, people send me images from the web. (Yeah this will look good blown up to 2 feet long on a 15 ft. banner. Insert eye roll here). He’ll sheepishly send them over to me and ask, “Can you work your magic?” My magic is the penicillin of many a promiscuous logo—a logo that’s been passed around from multiple sources. It may not cure it completely, but the illusion of a healthy brand will be there when I’m done.

So what’s a respectable logo girl to do? Well the first thing I try is going back to the company and asking again for the right logo or putting me in touch with the art department. This entails tracking down the designer, who speaks my language.

If I can’t do that, the first place I look is www.brandsoftheworld.com. Thank God, that site exists. You just need to make sure you have permissions to use them. In my client’s case he has signed contracts with those sponsors and logo usage is part of the contract.

If a particular brand is not on Brands of the World, then it comes time to use the magic penicillin. I take a logo that’s been poorly JPG’d or some web logo and recreate it in Illustrator. This means finding fonts that are similar or the same, using techniques to pick up colors and shape, redraw what I can with tracing tools, and recreating icons. It feels so completely wrong to touch these logos inappropriately. It makes me feel dirty, I’ve lost time and money on the project, and the logo is now a bastardization of what it once was. But do I feel bad? No. Because I am not the keeper of that company’s brand, and I’m trying my best to work with the sins of others.

It’s a sad thing really. All the time and money that was used to create a once beautiful logo only to be passed around like a cheap commodity. So remember people, take good care of your logo if you want it to be STD free, or prevent unwanted future generations of genetically altered versions milling about.

Printing

Rhizome Images brochure

Graphics Plus
Seattle, WA (White Center neighborhood)
www.graphicsplusseattle.com

David Hell, the owner of Graphics Plus has been an integral part of Rhizome’s success over the years. They print for almost all of our clients for one simple reason. We trust them. David and his team are great, responsible printers, fair-minded, committed to the quality of a project and conscientious about the impact printing has on the environment. They have even upped the ante on their processes to include chemistry-free plating, which is a huge step forward for the print industry.  They are agile and print both traditionally and digitally. Most recently they have branched out into large format Epson printing with stunning results. Together, our projects have won a number of awards and we are proud to have such a long lasting relationship with them.

Signage

Elliott Bay Brewhouse & Pub Marquis Lettering

Foley Sign Co.
Seattle, WA (Lower Queen Anne neighborhood)
www.foleysign.com

Foley Sign Company has served the Pacific Northwest sign industry for over 85 years.  A family-owned business, Mark Metcalf is who I call for large signage projects. We met during my first year in Seattle when we worked on Caffé Appassionato projects and later on various lobby signage projects. A few years ago Foley helped us by creating a beautiful series of branded signs for the Elliott Bay Brewhouse and Pub in Burien. We even had them brand the roving “Beer Van.” When I work with them, I never have to worry about how the installation will turn out and their attention to detail is critical to creating a larger than life, seamless, brand experience.

Silkscreen/Embroidery/Apparel Printing

Whidbey Camano Land Trust, long sleeve, organic cotton T's Celebrating 25 years of All Natural Preserves.

Border Thompson
Seattle, WA
www.borderthompson.com

I was glad to make the acquaintance of Scott Carlsen when Elliott Bay Brewing co. introduced me to him. Scott knows his stuff and is one of the nicest guys.  I had been looking for a new company that could help me with t-shirts, hats, polo shirts, totes, accessories and the occasional embroidered dress shirts. I also like that they offer organic cotton, and well known brand clothing from Port Authority, Nike, Hanes, and Columbia to name a few. I have no hesitation offering up Border Thompson as the go to company for all your branded apparel wear!

Large Format Printing

Large kiosk prints at an International optics show

Stella Color
Seattle, WA (near Costco downtown)
www.stellacolor.com

Lynn Krinsky is a fireball of energy with a huge passion for big images which is good because her business can print anything huge! Speaking of huge, Rhizome congratulates Lynn and Stella Color on becoming the 1st SGP (Sustainable Green Printing) Certified Printer in Washington State. There’s no job too big, or item too crazy to print on. They are experts in substrates, and fabric printing, and provide a large range of eco media options. Stella Color has printed a number of large tradeshow booths for us in the past, including our own and we’ve even printed awards on tiles. Small Dog. Big Color.

Roll up Banners for SK Food Group

Portland, OR
www.infinityimages.com

If you’re in P-town, try looking up Infinity Images. Their customer service is outstanding and I like the way they show me proofs on projects. They also provide me with a small kit that helps me pick my substrates and each sample has a label that helps me understand the sustainability content of that item. From small tabletop displays to larger banner stands, to items mounted on ultra-thick cardboard cutouts, Infinity is a great resource. They are also deeply committed to sustainability. Ask for Don Brown, he’s a wonderful customer service representative who works hard for his customers.

Digital Printing: Digital printing offers quality, but is a step down from traditional printing. Digital printing works well for smaller runs of brochures, postcards, flyers, etc. The media used for digital printing is normally smaller than the larger traditional sheet-fed presses.

In-house Printing: The invention of color LaserJets and Inkjet printers has made it easier for the average person to print their own materials. While paper sizes are limited, for the most part, in-house printing is a perfect way to handle small quality runs and to customize presentations.

Color LaserJets use toner cartridges and the ink has a longer life span than Inkjets ink. LaserJets are perfect for in-house everyday office use. A larger selection of papers may be utilized with these printers.

Color inkjets use ink cartridges and the ink has a shorter life span than LaserJet ink. Inkjets are perfect for reproducing higher quality photographs or limited presentation materials as they print well on both glossy and matte stocks.

The rule of ownership is actually very simple. You only have the right to use material if you have paid for it or have written permission from the owner to use it. You may NOT download an image from the Internet and use it in any way, shape, or form unless that image is specifically identified as public domain, free or you have obtained permission from the owner. Even then, you do not own the copyright. While it is possible to obtain full and unrestricted use of images for a fee, it is rare that an “author” is willing to sell that copyright. What rights you do access, must be in writing.

Resolution is a measurement of the output quality of an image. Images are often referred to as high resolution (hi-res), medium resolution (med-res) or low resolution (low-res). High resolution works better for print, medium resolution generally works well for in-house printing, and low res images work best for screen display, Web and emails. Resolution is measured in “dots per inch” or “DPI.”

* Traditional Offset Printing requires a minimum resolution of 300 DPI – highest quality
* In-house LaserJet or InkJet printing requires between 150-200 DPI – medium quality
* Web graphics – requires 72 DPI – lowest quality
* Never use an image from the Web for print. Aside from the low quality, it’s most likely not legal to use the image without permission from the owner
* Always work with the highest resolution image you can. It’s easier to downsize an image to a lower resoultion than the other way around
* Try not to enlarge images inside a new application. Go back to the original (often called “native”) program the image was created in (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.). Enlarge it there, and save a new version of image for this purpose

Red, Green, Blue (RGB) is a color mode used for multiple purposes. Most often, an RGB file is used on in-house printing on a color LaserJet or InkJet printer. RGB is also the color space that is used for Web imagery.

Vector .EPS files – Image vectors
Vector files offer the greatest amount of flexibility, as you can create any file format you may need. In most cases, logo files in this format are also the safest files to hand off to a vendor or printer when you are unsure of what their needs may be.

Vector graphics

* Line drawn images
* Extremely versatile
* Can be enlarged to any size
* Great for signage
* Often contains pertinent Pantone Color or brand color information
* Backgrounds can be transparent
* Great for placing on colored or textured backgrounds

Bitmap images – TIFF files

* At 300 dpi, these files are perfect for traditional printing
* Lossless images
* No loss of detail or image in the saving process
* Easy to make JPGs from these files
* Backgrounds are not transparent

Compressed files – JPGs

* Makes file sizes smaller
* Contain compressed information and artifacts
* At 150-200 dpi, great for Microsoft Office Suite applications
* NEVER re-JPG a JPG
* Backgrounds are not transparent

While many Rhizome clients are comfortable with Microsoft Word – and Word is a terrific application – Word is rarely Rhizome’s tool of choice as a design program. Programs like Adobe® InDesign or Quark® XPress, with imported links from Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator files, offer greater flexibility and higher quality design options. Below is a brief description of some of the more common programs Rhizome uses and the purposes they serve.

Adobe Photoshop: Photoshop is a rasterized, (meaning pixel-based) creative image-editing standard program. Designed to work with photographs or other digitally created artwork graphics, many Photoshop files have layers that can be edited later. “Flattened” versions of these files can also be exported to for use in Web pages and print applications. Some well known formats and extensions include: .TIF, .JPG, .PSD, .GIF, .BMP, .EPS and .PICT.

Adobe Illustrator: This is a vector-based (meaning scalable-line drawn) programs that is used to create scalable logos, text graphics, specific dimensional renderings, and any artwork that needs to be sharp and clear. A scalable file is a file that can be made larger or smaller without losing design integrity because it is not pixel-based. Additionally, Illustrator supports the scaling and line image integrity needed by signage makers to ensure clean color on a large-scale.

Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress: InDesign and QuarkXPress are desktop publishing programs that can import graphics made from Photoshop, Illustrator, or Freehand. Designed to handle both small and large projects, they are ideal for everything from flyers and stationery to posters and catalogs.

Adobe PDF: PDF stands for Portable Document Format. PDFs allow to be seen by anyone on any platform using Adobe’s free Acrobat Reader. PDF files retain the formatting and appearance of their native files and is the industry standard for delivering information in a convenient, easy-to-open format.