I never really thought about his until today, but in retrospect it seems like nearly all of the logos I see online are more of a rectangular shape (e.g. Yahoo, Google, SitePoint, FaceBook, etc)
Well, my client has a logo that his friend created that is a perfect square, and that seems to really screw up the layout I was going to use for the header and main menu…
Am I being unreasonable here?
For my last client, I had the company name - with a rectangular aspect ratio - and then below it was the main menu. And I prefer that because it keeps the header “lean” and not big and boxy like a lot of poorly designed I have seen lately.
But what the logo looks like itself really shouldn’t matter. I was just asking in general if it is good or bad to have a square logo on your website.
Personally, I think my client’s logo sucks, and want to redesign it regardless.
Maybe my bias, but I think rectangular logos are better in the header of a website, and then if you want a larger, or square, or odd-shaped logo elsewhere (e.g. signs, business cards, etc) then I think that is okay.
Maybe if you are Coca-Cola then you have one and only one logo, but I think it is okay to have a couple of similar logos but with different aspect-ratios.
In that case your client has chosen the friend’s logo, right or wrong, the client is the boss and you’re not the graphics designer so no need for you to bother about it, just do what you’re getting paid to do.
I’d say yes. If your job is to design the website, then you need to design it around whatever content the client has - including the logo.
It seems a bit odd to me that you say your client has chosen the logo, but you think you have the freedom to redesign it along with the rest of the site, even though
[quote=“mikey_w, post:3, topic:117682”]
Then again, I am not a graphic designer!
[/quote]If you really feel the logo design will make a poor impression on the site (rather than just make it impossible for you to use your favourite layout), then I suggest you talk to the client about it. Explain that you feel a rectangular aspect would be more aesthetically-pleasing, and ask if he and his designer friend would be open to redesigning the logo in a different aspect.
Asking here for opinions on a logo when you’re not prepared to post either the logo or the layout is a bit pointless.
Um, I’m getting paid to redesign the entire website - including the logo if I so choose…
Web designing is totally different as compare to graphic designing… If you get this project to redesign entirely than you have full ownership to out source the logo design project and get something inspiring… If you want suggestions from the members of this community than you should add the screenshot of the client website as well as logo and ask members to help to get some creative ideas about it…
If you’re talking about the logo, two of those actually are square. The square for Facebook is square, as is the SitePoint logo (there is some negative space, and the icon is tilted 45 degrees). There’s also Home Depot, Slack (also turned 45 degrees) and Nikon off the top of my head.
And don’t forget that there’s a big difference between web design and branding.
So the issue, primarily, is the unwieldy… space beside a square logo, that, if it was rectangular (long/rectangular/included business name or tagline out to the side/etc) would be somewhat mitigated?
How about the factor that English is not my client’s first language, and his Logo and Tagline don’t even make sense in English?! (They are grammatically wrong, and it’s embarrassing…)
Obviously.
However, the OP was focused on whether a square logo is odd for the header on a website…
I wasn’t asking anyone if I have a right to propose a new logo, because I do have that right and I will propose it. But even if I win that battle, maybe he likes a square logo… And thus my question…
As mentioned above, most logos that I’ve seen in the header of a webpage have more rectangular aspect-ratios. Presumably this is because you don’t want your logo taking up too much space…
Errrm, a square is a rectangle (but not an oblong rectangle)
Thanks for the screen capture
To me it doesn’t look bad. The logo and navigation “tabs” are both rectangular and both are aligned left on the same axis.
And the vertical spacing looks good.
Of course a lot may depend on what’s in the space to the right of the logo.
If only a nice background image I think it would likely look OK.
If there is “non-blocky” font there, maybe not so much.
