Test Your Logo Small - by Jonathan Munk
The best logos will look good any size, be that on a billboard or on your business card. But since most small business owners don’t have billboard-sized budgets, having a logo that looks good small is even more important.
A company logo will spend much more of its life as a 1-inch icon than it will as a 5-foot-tall giant on a billboard. Just think of how you immediately plan to use your company logo: business cards, stationery, invoices, a website, t-shirts, hats, etc. Since 99 percent of the time your logo will appear very small, you need to make sure it looks good when it¹s no more than U.S. Quarter-sized.
One of the best ways to make sure a logo will look good miniaturized is to keep the design simple. Don’t use more than 3 colors, avoid complex illustrations, and watch out for hard-to-read fonts. Taglines or other superfluous information ought to be left out as well.
When deciding on a logo design for your company, shrink your concepts down and then compare them. The best looking one at that size will almost always be the simplest design. If a logo looks good small, it will look good tall.