DESIGN
PREPARE A SQUARE (LOGO)
Back when print was all the rage, many corporate logos were designed to be horizontal, because a design that was short and wide fit nicely onto letterhead and envelopes, reports, and brochures, and displayed well at the end of a TV ad or on a corporate flag. When websites began to complement (and to some extent, replace) print in the late 1990s, horizontal logos hung out in the upper-left corner of corporate sites and worked okay there, too.
But times have changed, my friend. Although horizontal logos still work in a number of marketing scenarios, they're a bit of a nightmare in two areas: responsive-design websites and social media. Responsive design sites change the size of text and design elements in order to adjust to the size of the device you're using. When horizontal logos get squished down to smartphone size in a responsive-design site, the logo can be tough to read.
But the bigger challenge is in social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, and Tumblr all require a square or circle logo. In fact, of all the social-media sites, only LinkedIn accommodates a rectangular logo. (Read about social-media sizing requirements.) Horizontal logos that are squished into the square profile size on social-media sites tend to look pretty bad: at best, they're awkward, and at worst, unreadable.
Here's how some big brands have taken their horizontal logos and fashioning square ones that still represent their brands. Some particular favorites: IBM turning its logo diagonally to accommodate the square size. Google's use of its lowercage "g" (which it also uses as the Google+ logo, to which it adds a "+" and changes the color to red). And Disney's decision to eschew its logo and instead go with a selfie of its most iconic character.
How about your logo? Can you make it work as a square?