What Logo Files Should Be Included in a Professional Brand Kit?
You’ve invested in a professional logo. Awesome.
Then someone asks:
“Can you send me the logo?”
And suddenly you’re staring at a folder full of SVGs, PNGs, PDFs, EPS files, RGB versions, CMYK versions and something called brand-logo-alt-colour.svg
So which one do you actually use?
A professional brand kit shouldn’t just give you a logo. It should give you the right version of your logo for wherever your brand needs to show up — from a tiny browser favicon to a website, social profile, presentation, embroidered shirt, vehicle wrap or enormous sign.
Here’s what should be included.
1. Start with the right logo configurations
Before we even get into file types, your logo should usually be supplied in a few different layouts.
Primary Logo
This is your main logo and the version you’ll use most often.
It usually includes your brand name and brand mark together in the preferred arrangement.
Secondary Logo
An alternative layout designed for spaces where your primary logo doesn’t fit comfortably.
For example, your primary logo might be horizontal while your secondary version is stacked or more compact.
Brand Mark
The standalone symbol, monogram or icon from your identity.
This is particularly useful for:
social media profile images
favicons
app icons
small spaces
branded graphics
merchandise
Wordmark
The name of the business without the accompanying symbol or icon.
A wordmark can be useful where horizontal space is available but height is limited, or where the brand symbol simply isn’t required.
Not every brand needs all four versions, but a good logo system should give you enough flexibility to stay recognisable without squeezing the same logo into every possible space.
2. Digital logos and print logos are different
One of the most important distinctions in your brand kit is whether a file has been prepared for screens or print.
Digital
Digital files are generally supplied in RGB, which is the colour system used by screens.
Think:
websites
social media
email
Canva
presentations
digital advertising
video
For digital logo files, pixel dimensions matter more than DPI.
If your PNG is 3000 pixels wide, it contains 3000 pixels across regardless of whether the file says 72 DPI or 300 DPI.
Professional print files are generally supplied in CMYK, the colour system commonly used in commercial printing.
Think:
business cards
brochures
stationery
uniforms
packaging
signage
vehicle graphics
Where possible, professional printers should be supplied with a vector logo rather than a raster image.
Vector artwork can be scaled from a business card to the side of a building without becoming blurry.
Which is exactly what we want.
3. The logo file formats worth having
Here’s where all those mysterious file extensions start making sense.
SVG — your digital superstar
SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphic.
It’s one of the best formats for websites and digital applications because it can be resized without losing quality.
Use SVG for:
website logos
online graphics
developers
Canva
digital presentations
high-resolution screens
If your software accepts SVG, it’s usually my first choice for digital use.
PNG — your everyday workhorse
PNG files are raster images, but they can have a transparent background, which makes them incredibly practical.
Use PNG for:
email signatures
presentations
Word documents
Google Docs
social graphics
Canva
internal templates
I generally like to supply several useful sizes rather than making clients resize one giant file themselves.
For example:
Large — 3000 px wide
For maximum flexibility.
Medium — 1500 px wide
For presentations, documents and everyday marketing.
Small — around 750 px wide
For email signatures and smaller digital applications.
PDF — your print-friendly friend
A properly created PDF can retain all the vector information within your logo.
This makes it extremely useful for:
commercial printers
signwriters
signage
packaging suppliers
professional production
It’s also easy for almost anyone to preview without needing specialist design software.
EPS — for specialist production
EPS is an older vector format, but plenty of printers, signwriters, embroiderers and production suppliers still ask for it.
You may not personally use it very often, but it can be handy to have tucked away in your brand kit.
AI — the master artwork
Adobe Illustrator files are generally the original editable vector artwork created by your designer.
These are particularly useful for future professional design work.
Depending on the designer and licensing arrangement, the editable AI master may be supplied to the client or retained as the designer’s production master.
At JÜBE, I always keep an organised master version so your identity can be properly reproduced down the track.
JPG — useful, but not your hero file
JPGs don’t support transparency, so they’re not normally my first choice for logos.
They can still be useful when you need a logo sitting on a fixed white or coloured background and the software you’re using prefers JPG.
4. Don’t forget the colour versions
Having one logo file isn’t enough.
Your logo needs to work across light backgrounds, dark backgrounds, photography and one-colour production.
A professional brand kit will generally include variations such as:
Full Colour
Your main brand colours.
This is usually the preferred version wherever possible.
Reversed
A version designed specifically for dark backgrounds.
This might include white typography with selected brand colours retained in the symbol.
Black
A single-colour black version for situations where colour isn’t available or appropriate.
Useful for some printing, invoices, embroidery and production applications.
White
A completely white version for dark colours, photography or bold brand backgrounds.
The trick is not simply having lots of versions.
It’s knowing when to use each one.
That’s where your brand guidelines come in.
5. Don't forget your social icon and favicon
Your beautiful horizontal logo probably isn’t going to look particularly beautiful squashed into a tiny Instagram circle.
This is where your brand mark earns its keep.
I generally recommend creating a dedicated:
Social profile image — 1080 × 1080 px
and a:
Favicon master — 512 × 512 px
The favicon can then be exported into smaller formats such as 32 × 32 pixels when required.
At that scale, simpler is nearly always better.
6. How your logo files should be organised
The best brand kits don’t simply dump 63 mysterious files into Dropbox and wish you luck.
They organise everything according to how you'll actually use it.
Something like:
DIGITAL
Logo
Alternate logo
Brand mark
Wordmark
Colour
Black
White
SVG
PNG
JPG
CMYK logo files
PDF
EPS
Black
White
SOCIAL + WEB
Avatar (profile image)
Brand mark
Favicon
And ideally, there’s a simple brand guide telling you exactly which version to grab.
Because the goal isn’t to turn you into a graphic designer.
The goal is to make using your brand ridiculously easy.
So, which logo file should you use?
Here’s the simplest rule to remember:
For digital → start with SVG.
For professional printing → send a vector PDF.
If your software won't accept SVG → use a transparent PNG.
And if a printer, signwriter or embroiderer specifically asks for an EPS file, send them the EPS.
Easy.
Your brand should be easy to use
A professional identity isn't simply a beautiful logo sitting inside an Illustrator file.
It needs to work.
On your website.
On social media.
On a proposal.
On a uniform.
On a sign.
On the side of a vehicle.
And it needs to be easy for you, your team and the people working with your business to use it correctly.
That’s why every JÜBE identity is designed as a brand system, not simply a logo, with your assets organised inside an Online Brand Kit so everything stays together in one easy-to-find place.
Because nobody should be digging through an old email from three years ago looking for logo-white-transparent-final.png.
On-brand should also mean easy.
