Vector Artwork
We have all had the same nightmare. The jagged edges. The murky misrepresentation of a client’s identity. The incorrect use of logo artwork, and more commonly, oversight on low-resolution artwork are the bane of professionalism, especially in the creative industries. We are publishing this article with two groups in mind. One we would like to educate and inform. The other, to acknowledge and amuse. Our goal is to bring clarity to the expectations surrounding the correct, and more importantly, professional manner in which artwork is being presented.
In my experience, the most common issue with image quality surrounds the sourcing of client and partner logos. Lots of folks, even ones in the industry, don't understand terms like “DPI” and “vector,” and as a result they degrade both the brand and the medium in which the logo appears.
It is important to source the correct logos at their highest resolution the first time around. Just because your initial presentation has the logo at a very small size does not mean that two weeks later you won’t need the same logo at ten times that size. Search and download once. It will pay off later.
Here are some tricks I have learned in my years to avoid some of these costly pitfalls:
1. Always start with http://www.brandsoftheworld.com Create a free account. More often than not, the logo you are searching for is here in vector format. And it's free.
2. If brands of the world cannot help you, search the company site for files with the extension .ai or .eps.
3. Search in company site with .pdf in the search. Many corporate docs have vector quality artwork embedded. Once you have located the pdf document and used the magnification tool to verify quality, you can extract the logo by opening it in Adobe Illustrator.
So whether you’re a creative director, an intern, or even a media buyer, think about what the quality of your presentation is saying about you and your company. In this business, a little professionalism goes a really long way.
Written by Bryan Dempler and Erik Welch
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