One of the first items I require from a new client in order to do any work for them is their logo, of course. But you would be surprised how many of them cannot just shoot it right back to me. They have to go digging for it and usually end up sending me a .jpg they've pulled from their website that's an inch big at 72 dpi.

That's all they have and I can't do a darn thing with it. What shame - what a loss - that at some point they've hired someone to create a logo for their business (the face of their business) and they don't have access to it. There is nothing I can do for someone at that point. They either have to track down the designer who created it for them, or I have to do my best to recreate it, which essentially involves paying me for something they've already paid for.

Go look for your company's logo. Did you hire a professional designer to create it for you? If so, they should have provided it to you in various file formats like an .eps, .jpg, .tif, .psd, .gif and .png. The .eps file is "gold" so to speak. It's vector (a line illustration) that can be resized to any size or resolution without degradation (unlike .psd/.tif/.jpg/.gif/.png files that are created with pixels. The resolution of those files is translated into dpi, or dots per inch. See the example of my logo below). .Eps files can go from a brochure to a billboard and continue to look as brilliant as you are. Another designer can also take that .eps file and convert it into any of the other file formats you or they may need in order to get your job done.

[Side note: If your cousin's neighbor's high school son designed it for you, it's quite possible that the art you paid for was not created in professional design software, and therefore will not be adequate for most print applications. I fully encourage the hiring of creative up-and-comers for these types of endeavors, but be sure they're capable of providing you with usable files.]

Here are the instructions I provide to my clients when I send them their newly-created logo:

I will always have your logos saved in my archive. But to protect your investment in your logo and your brand, I suggest to all of my clients that these files are saved in various locations. Save them to a few discs that you can give to vendors (i.e. screenprinters, designers, etc.) that you won't worry about getting back. Save them in a few locations at work, whether on hard drives or on discs, so that your company will always have access to quality logo files.

Your homework: Find your logo. Stat. It should be the first item on your priority list. Make sure you have, at the very least, the "gold" .eps file. If you don't have it, or if you only have a .gif or a .jpg of your logo, contact the designer immediately and get the files. Then, save the logo in various locations as described above so it's available to a few trusted co-workers. Nobody wants to get hit by a bus, but it happens. And if you need assistance figuring out if the files you have are sufficient for the print/web applications your company may need in the future, don't want until you're scrambling to get your project done - shoot me an email now and I'm happy to take a look.

My logo looks awful here, doesn't it? I took my .eps file and resized it to 1" @ 72dpi .jpg. I then increased its size to 5", still at 72dpi. You can see what happened to it. For print applications, you need your logo at 300dpi. So imagine how crummy this thing would look if I did that? If there is anything on your print materials that should look brilliant - it's your company's logo.