by Erin Ferree

While we recommend that you contract with the same designer or design team while creating of your brand identity materials as possible, we know that this scenario is not always possible.

Whenever you work with a designer other than the original who created your logo, stationery and marketing materials, we suggest a few practices that will prove invaluable for ensuring a consistent look and feel across all of your marketing communications.

At a minimum, make sure that you know:

Which Pantone Matching System (PMS) colors were used in the design? These will come in the form of a number. For example, PMS #280 is a deep blue color.

Which fonts have your designer specified? Ask your designer what font is used in your logo, and what secondary and tertiary fonts are used in your stationery and other marketing materials. Having this information will save a future designer many font-matching headaches.

What type of paper is used in your materials? In order to duplicate and keep consistent with the look and feel of your materials in future print runs, you'll always want to have your items printed on the same type of paper.

Who printed your materials? By knowing whether a digital printer or a press printer reproduced your materials, you can ensure that future batches of your print materials will have the same results as your current materials. With press printing, you can save money on additional films as well, since you won't have to buy a second set of films as you would with a new printer (digital printing does not involve films).

To make for an even smoother transition, negotiate for the original files for your designs. This can be a delicate matter, as some graphic designers do not sell the rights in the original files to their clients. If you cannot get the entire assembled files, we recommend that you negotiate for a minimum of the following pieces:

An original file of your logo. This is typically known as a vector graphic version, which means that, if the appropriate software is available (Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand are the most common), you can scale the image up and down without losing image quality. If your logo was not created as a vector graphic (i.e., if it was created in Photoshop), then you need the largest, highest resolution file available. See our article on Logo File Formats for more information on the which type of formats of your logo you should have on-hand.

A file containing any specialized secondary graphic brand elements. Some designers will give you files containing special headers, backgrounds, illustrations, etc., so they are available for any future projects. Loss or lack of these elements keeps a new designer from knowing what original effects were used to create the design.

Having this information will ensure that your materials have graphics that are consistent in all parts, clear and high-quality, and will save time on future projects.

Contact us for design packages that include final files in all the formats listed aboce.

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About the Author:

Erin Ferree is a logo, print, and web designer who has been making it easy for small businesses to stand out and to be visible, credible, and memorable for the past nine years. Logo design at http://www.elf-design.com.