This is something I have been wondering about for a long time.
Let’s say your company has a logo that consists of simple geometric objects like straight lines and circles. To “define” the logo, all you have to do is determine the ratios for the lengths of each line, along with angles and colors. That way, when you need a sign made, or you need to print the logo on a metal panel, you simply need to provide the artist the ratios for the lengths of each line (along with colors and angles). The logo is “perfectly preserved” using math and anyone can reproduce it faithfully.
The Domino’s Pizza logo is a good example of a logo that is easily reproducible: two squares, each at a 45 degree angle, with two circles centered in the bottom square and one circle centered in the top square. The logo can be easily defined using ratios, angles, and colors, and thus the logo will be “perfect” anywhere it appears; there’s no loss of information.
But what if the logo is complicated and has lots of curves? Do you do polynomial curve fits to define the curves?
Take the McDonald’s logo, for example. When a new sign is made, or the logo is applied to a napkin, how is the artwork stored and transferred, from one generation to the next? Has McDonald’s come up with polynomial fits for the curves in the big, yellow “M”?
Probably just Postscript.
You draw it in something like Illustrator, and it figures out the Bezier to describe the curve.
After that, any sign maker can accept a PDF, and print directly from that.
Historically, logos didn’t need strict mathematical-only definitions. Large companies have stylebooks that show the logos and styles in different sizes and configurations with proportions and angles noted on the diagrams.
Anyone reproducing logos would have a copy of the style book. It can be done that way even now.
It’s up to the company how strictly they enforce their styles.
The New York Yankees and Deteoit Tigers for example are known for inconsistent logos.
I was working for Litton Industries when computer graphics was beginning to take off and, with its exceedingly simple logo, corporate sent out a memo asking folks not to draw one up on their own but please use one of the pre-rendered images at a particular location. The ground was not black but rather a shade of blue expressed, I’m sure, in terms of RGB, CMYK, or Pantone (most likely all three).
I think paper copies of the artwork have long been the standard, though digital versions have also become reliable in the last 20 years or so. I haven’t heard of anybody arguing about whether logos that are substantially identical to a casual inspection can still count as different because of visually minor differences.
It’s pretty much exactly as speculated upon in the OP. Most big companies will have a mathematical description of the logo stored in one of many vector file formats. For the more complicated ones they are indeed largely made up of polynomials, specifically Bezier Curves are very common.
It’s not uncommon especially for small-mid sized businesses to have commissioned a logo and either not held onto the original vector artwork or never obtained it in the first place. I worked in graphic design for a small advertising company for about 10 years doing small print ads mostly around western Canada and a little bit of the States. I’d estimate about 1/2 the companies we worked with provided some form of vector art for their logos. About 1/4 of them had high quality raster images. And the remaining 1/4 was the problem folk who had just a terribly low res image for the web or sometimes a scan or even fax of their business card or stationary.
The original question really encompasses several different things:
The master artwork is these days merely an Illustrator or PDF file (possibly a high-res image). Only the graphic designers’ computers ever see or cares about the mathematical description in terms of Bézier curves; the company lawyers don’t have some printout of the Illustrator PostScript code for the company logo in their files to allow it to be reconstructed by Martians. In the 1980s and before, the “original” was a large drawing or photostat carefully tucked away in the art department’s flat files. Photostats and negatives, in various sizes and versions (full-color, for grayscale, for black & white, reversed) were distributed to those who needed them.
The usage guidelines are these days a notebook or similar volume that tells the dos and don’ts (must be x distance from other elements, must never be printed over a photo, etc.). Some are quite elaborate, prepared by a high-priced branding agency. In the old days, maybe there was a memo saying never squeeze it or stretch it to fit the space.
The trademark registration includes neither of these. Instead, a simple clear black and white drawing, with various types of crosshatching indicating color usage if that’s part of the claim, is filed with the application and reproduced in the Register.
Arguing details like that are exactly what trademark lawyers do for a living. The standard for “too close” is when it’s likely to cause confusion for a consumer, though of course that requires a subjective judgement from a human.
along with the others’ comments … most modern logos probably contain vectors … those i have requested in the past all have (.eps, *.pdf, *.ai, .svg, etc). vector-images are preferred over raster-images … raster-images rely on pixels of a single color … vectors rely on mathematical formulae. vectors better define 'n control the output/display … by retaining crisp edges when enlarging.
as far as trademark and legalities … gotta’ be careful where you obtain the logo from. there are websites which host company logos … or, rather, a logo copied/generated/recreated by someone. easy enough to do … using either local software or online depots.
so … let’s say, i find a nice image of “mcdonalds” 3d sign … upload it to the online depot … the service converts the raster-image (.jpg, *.png, .bmp, etc.) into vector … and, voilà. however … upon closer scrutiny (often using lupe-glass) … one can easily notice artifacts and non-symmetrical curves/angles … which, the original artist would never have imposed. veritably … the difference would be substantial … online recreation vs something designed in a studio, from scratch, using vector software.
a few links offered below … one link (logo warehouse) offers example of “dish network”. keep in mind, this particular website does not utilize https:// protocol … so keep your guard up.
As has been stated, they’re stored (at least some) in vector files. If you have a jpeg, it’s a specific size. Once you start blowing it up past that size it’ll pixalate or show obvious signs of interpolating non existent data (ie it’ll look blurry).
Vector files do what you were asking, essentially telling the giving the computer directions for drawing the picture on the fly instead of being the actual picture. My jpeg logo for my store only gets big enough to put on flyers or websites. My AI (vector) file can be adjusted to go on a 1 inch magnet or a bill board without any loss in quality.
As for colors, that’s what Pantone is for. Again, with my logo, if I send you the AI file, it has multiple versions all on one page. A full color version, black and white, grayscale and a few others for specific uses. It also has a section with a swatch of each color used and the Pantone number. That way, at least in theory, the person that makes the bill boards, the company that silk screens the t-shirts and the two person shop that embroiders the hats all make them identical.
That’s theory though, mistakes can, and do happen. Over the years we’ve noticed that we’ve somehow ended up with logos that have slightly different colors because someone, somewhere at some point punched in a wrong pantone number.
I have buddy that’s a mechanic and a while back sent me his logo because I could get it printed on something for him (nothing that I do, he just wanted a product that I had and I forwarded the logo). When he got the preview back, he asked why the blue background was white inside one of the box wrenches on his logo. I looked at the original file and found the area he was talking about was, in fact, white when it should have been transparent. It was kinda funny as we looked at other things around his shop and it turns out he just never noticed how many items contained the mistake. You don’t see it on a pad of paper or a white magnet, you might not even notice it on a small logo, but once you see it, it’s really obvious, say, on the back of a black jacket.
PS, having said all that, when I need to send someone my logo I usually ask them what format they want it in, if they seem confused or if I ask if they want the Illustrator file and they don’t know what that means, it’s typically not a good sign, or at least a sign that I’m going to get something blurry back.
SVG files are really interesting. You can turn any logo into a series of numbers that a browser can reinterpret into a graphic at any scale. Have a go at putting this into an html page (copy and paste it into a text file, but save it as index.htm and then drag it into your browser).
Back in ye olde days, if a company created a unique typeface for a logo, it* literally *created the typeface – designed and carved in clay, then cast in lead type. Then the company would run off bunch of photostats in different sizes and those would be the guide for reproduction.
Everywhere I’ve ever worked, there have been pretty strict and detailed guidelines about corporate logos- official images in several different sizes and color combinations, and sometimes with different business unit names at the bottom, etc… So if you needed a large one for the first page of a presentation, they had one, but if you needed a little one to print on a mailing label, they had a different one of an appropriate size.
I’m not sure how exactly the “master” copies are kept, but for general use, they were almost always JPG or GIF files. There was also a set of style guidelines for public communications- fonts, font sizes, official colors - RGB and Pantone, for use on things like powerpoints and printed documents alongside the logo images.
In my 20 years of web development I’ve been consistently amazed at how well companies DON’T keep track of their logos and have no vector versions of it. I’ve had to purchase the aforementioned Vector Magic (I’m not a graphic designer, just a coder) just to do stuff like make a logo slightly larger so as not to be pixelated on a new web site, or to have something digital at all. Especially in the earlier days of the web when companies were still just getting online for the first time, it wasn’t uncommon for a small company to only have a scanned PDF of a printed flyer they once did from which I was expected to extract a logo. And then the companies would choose some completely non-logo-related color scheme for their sites.
Logo design isn’t cheap! When you get it done, be sure to get a nice vector copy from the designer before you completely forget their name.
Yes, get a copy of the vector file. However, if you don’t have the ability to work with a vector file, ask them (in addition to the vector file) for a large, high-res PDF and JPG of it. At least this way when you need it for yourself (ie using it on your website or getting something made online (like using vistaprint), you can use the big one and make it smaller. It’s a lot easier than trying to make the small one bigger.
