Logos: Vector = VICTORY!

In case you didn’t already know, I’m the “Logo Master” of the office and thus all lovely logo and design requests come over to me. While I try to love everyone’s logo equally, nothing will receive a more exaggerated eye roll than a .jpeg sitting in my inbox. Why you ask? Well, with a .jpeg, I basically only have a photographic image of your logo. As it is like a photograph I can do literally nothing to it, except maybe print on a sheet of paper. It's totally not cool when we could be putting it on some sweet sunglasses or snazzy coffee mugs instead! Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and a place for a good ‘ole fashioned .jpeg, but in my world, there’s not many good times or places. If you want to be friends, don’t ever send me a .jpeg, .jpg, .psd, or .png file unless you have no other choice, understood?Now that that’s out of the way, you probably want to know why I’m so picky and demanding about my logos. You can ask Matt and Shannon about my bad logo art rage…. It’s no fun for anyone. So let’s have a little lesson on what constitutes a useable logo, shall we? In today’s class we’ll be comparing raster logos (.jpeg’s) vs. vector logos (.eps’s). In the early days, (before I received that piece of paper that says I’m a designer) if somebody would have come up to me and asked if I knew the difference between a vector and raster logo, they’d be greeted with a blank stare and crickets. It’s true… I’ve been in the non-designer shoes before. It’s a confusing and uncomfortable place to be, which is why we've got to steer you away from the dark side. Instead of me jabbering your ears off about my point, let’s look at some pretty pictures to figure it all out:

This is a .jpeg.

Sure, it looks nice and pretty at first. But let’s take a closer, zoomed in look…Ewwwww. It’s not so pretty anymore, is it? You can just hear those sad little pixels screaming “Make me into a smooth line!” So, in my world, (the wonderful world of usable art) .jpeg = BAD. Up next, we’ll take a little looksie at my dear friend, Vector Logo…. Hey Vector!

This is a Vector

Look at all of those nice curves and points you have there… looking sharp buddy! Give me a V-E-C-T-O-R… Y! Vector = VICTORY! Did the pictures help make a little sense out of my nonsense? While raster .jpeg images are made up of tiny little squares (pixels), vector images are made up of sexy, sharp points and lines. When magnified or minimized, the image will never appear blurry or unclear whereas the .jpeg always will. Usable vector logos come to me in the form of .ai files, .eps files, and sometimes we can get lucky with .pdf files. That doesn’t mean it’s helpful for you to take that .jpeg and plop it into Adobe Illustrator and call it an .ai file. It’s still missing the most crucial elements: the sexy points and lines! Now, if you’re getting all upset because you only have that single .jpeg file of your logo, don’t lose sleep over it. We can still be friends. It’ll take a little legwork on my end, but don’t you worry child, I’ll hook ya up! Just say the word and I can almost always re-draw that sucker for you. Then you’ll be good as new, enjoying your newfound freedom of putting that logo EVERYWHERE you want it to be!! You’re welcome for that :)- Shelby Zach