You approved the logo on a laptop screen, big and centred on white, and it looked great. Then the printer asked for a vector file. The embroidery shop said the gradient won't stitch. On WhatsApp, your profile picture cropped the name in half.
None of that means the logo was ugly. It was designed for one screen instead of the hundred places a logo actually lives. Here is how to get one that survives all of them, and how to make sure you own it.
The five types of logo
Every logo mixes two ingredients, letters and pictures. The types describe the mix.
| Type | What it is | Works best when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wordmark | Your full name set in distinctive lettering | The name is short and memorable | Long names get tiny on small screens |
| Lettermark | Initials or a monogram | The full name is long or hard to say | Initials alone mean nothing to a new customer |
| Symbol | An icon or abstract shape with no text | The brand is already well known | A new business with only a symbol is anonymous |
| Combination mark | Symbol and name together | You need flexibility across many uses | The two parts must also work apart |
| Emblem | Text placed inside a badge or seal | Schools, clubs, heritage and food brands | Fine detail disappears at small sizes |
For most new businesses, a wordmark or combination mark is the practical choice. People must learn your name before a symbol can stand in for it.
The rules a good logo must pass
Taste is subjective. These tests are not.
Legible when small
Your logo will appear at 32 pixels in a browser tab, inside a circle on WhatsApp and on the corner of a receipt. Shrink it to thumbnail size. If you can't read or recognise it, it needs a simpler small version, or a simpler design.
Works in one colour
Stamps, embroidery, engraving and thermal receipt printers all strip your logo to one colour. If the idea depends on a gradient, a shadow or overlapping colours, it fails there.
Scalable, which means vector
A vector file is made of mathematical shapes, so it stays sharp from a business card to a building. A JPG or PNG is made of pixels and turns blurry when enlarged. The master logo must be drawn as vector artwork from the start.
Built for Arabic and English
Bilingual brands need more than typing the Arabic name next to the English one. The two versions should match in weight, height and personality, and the layout must be decided in advance: side by side, stacked, Arabic first or English first. Arabic letters have ascenders and descenders that behave differently from Latin, so balancing them is real design work, not an afterthought.
Our article on building a complete visual identity covers choosing Arabic and Latin typefaces that pair well.
Distinctive, and not tied to this year's trend
Put your logo next to your five closest competitors'. If it could swap with any of them, it is not doing its job. And be wary of this year's fashion; trends date fast, and a logo should last years.
Use this checklist before approving any final design:
- Readable at thumbnail size and in a circular crop
- Works in solid black and in solid white
- Delivered as vector artwork
- Arabic and English versions feel like one family
- Looks right on dark and photographic backgrounds
- Clearly different from competitors' logos
- Shown to you on real mockups, not just a white page
How the logo design process should run
- Brief. Questions about your business, customers, competitors and where the logo will appear.
- Research. What is overused in your sector, and where there is room to stand out.
- Sketching. Many rough ideas, filtered down to a few strong directions.
- Presentation. Usually two to four directions, each shown in context: a sign, a phone screen, a business card, a social profile.
- Refinement. An agreed number of revision rounds on the chosen direction.
- Final artwork and files. All versions, formats and colour specifications, delivered in an organised folder.
The files you should receive
A logo is only as useful as the files you hold. Agree these in writing before you start:
| Format | What it is | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| SVG | Vector, web-friendly | Websites and apps, sharp at any size |
| PDF (vector) | Vector, opens almost anywhere | Printers, signage, documents |
| AI or EPS | Editable source file | Future edits by any designer |
| PNG (transparent) | Pixels, several sizes | Social media, presentations, quick use |
| Favicon and app icon | Small square versions | Browser tabs and home screens |
Each should come in full colour, solid black and solid white, along with colour codes in HEX, RGB and CMYK.
What drives the cost of a logo
Logo prices vary enormously, and the reasons are almost always visible in the scope. Compare what each quote includes, not the totals:
- Experience and process. Research and testing take time that picking from a pre-made set does not.
- Number of concepts and revision rounds. More options and more rounds take more hours.
- Bilingual lettering. Designing a matching Arabic and English wordmark is significantly more work than setting one name in a font.
- Custom lettering versus a typeface. Drawing letters from scratch takes longer than adjusting an existing font, but the result is more distinctive.
- Deliverables. A logo alone, or a logo plus colours, type rules and a mini guideline.
- Rights. A full transfer of rights for commercial use is worth more than a limited licence, and quotes should say which one you are getting.
A very low price usually means little research, recycled ideas, no source files or unclear rights. Ask before you pay, as you would with any cheap website.
Ownership, copyright and trademarks
Paying for a logo does not automatically make you its owner. In Egypt, the Intellectual Property Law (Law No. 82 of 2002) requires any transfer of an author's economic rights to be in writing, naming each right transferred and its extent, purpose, duration and place of use. Rights that are not clearly transferred stay with the designer.
In practice, your agreement should say that all economic rights to the final logo pass to your business, for all media and territories, with no time limit, and that you receive the source files. For anything beyond that, especially in the Gulf, ask a lawyer.
Three more things to check:
- Fonts. If the logo uses a commercial font, confirm its licence allows use in a logo.
- Stock elements. Stock icons are available to anyone, so a logo built on one is hard to protect.
- Trademark registration. Copyright and trademarks are different. Registering your mark in each country where you trade is a separate step, best handled by a trademark lawyer.
Common logo mistakes
- Designing only on white. Most real uses sit on colour or photos.
- Deciding by committee. Ten opinions produce a logo that says ten things.
- Treating Arabic as a translation. It needs design attention of its own.
- Leaving without source files. You will pay again the first time you need an edit.
Questions people ask
Which logo type is best for a new business?
Usually a wordmark or a combination mark, because customers need to learn your name first. A symbol alone works once people know you.
How many logo concepts should I expect?
Two to four well-developed directions are common. The quality of thinking matters more than the count.
Can I design my logo with AI?
It is fine for exploring ideas. But the legal status of AI-generated images is still unsettled in many countries, which can make exclusive ownership harder to claim. Have a designer redraw the final mark as clean vector artwork.
Do I need to register my logo as a trademark?
If the brand matters to your business, yes, in each country where you sell. Copyright and trademark registration protect different things, so do both.
Should I refresh or completely redesign my old logo?
If people recognise your current logo, a refresh that keeps its core and fixes legibility and files is usually wiser than starting over.
Before your next step
A good logo is the start of the identity, not the end. Once it passes the tests above and you hold the files and the rights, it is ready to appear everywhere, starting with your website.
If you are planning a new site and want your logo and identity to work properly in both Arabic and English, you can book a short meeting or see how brands look across our recent work.