The single most common call I get from clients six months after a brand delivery goes something like this: “The printer is asking for a vector file. Which one do I send?” Or: “The sign company needs an EPS. Do I have one?” Or, the one that hurts: “I gave them the JPG off the website and it came out blurry on the billboard.”
This is a Creative & Design post about a small, unglamorous detail that ends up mattering a lot: the files your brand actually gets delivered on, and what each one is for. A beautifully designed identity that’s delivered in the wrong formats is still going to fail at the moment it meets a real production job.
Vector vs. Raster
Every brand asset you own lives in one of two categories. Vector files — .ai, .svg, .pdf, .eps — are mathematical, not pixel-based. They scale infinitely without losing quality, which means the same file can print on a business card or on the side of a bus, sharp both ways. Raster files — .jpg, .png — are pixel-based. They’re fine at the size they were exported. Blow them up and you’ll see the pixels.
Logos belong in vector. Full stop. If your designer only gave you raster versions, you don’t have a complete brand package. That’s the first test.
Why JPG Is the Wrong Default for a Logo
JPG is the most common image format in the world, which is why most non-designers reach for it first. For logos, it’s the wrong choice, and the reasons are worth understanding.
First, JPG is a lossy format. Every time it’s re-saved, it loses a little quality. Over time, after enough re-uses, the logo that looked crisp in year one looks muddy in year three.
Second, JPG has no transparency. Your logo gets a white box around it, which looks fine on a white page and terrible on anything else. PNG is the correct raster format because it supports transparency — the logo floats cleanly on whatever background it lands on.
Use JPG for photographs. Use PNG, SVG, or PDF for logos. Don’t mix them up.
The Master File Is the One You Can’t Open
Most clients aren’t going to have Adobe Illustrator, which means the .ai file a designer delivers can’t be opened on their laptop. That’s fine. That file is not for you to open. It’s the source file — the DNA — and any professional designer or printer you ever work with after me will need it.
Keep it. Back it up. Don’t delete it because you can’t open it. Someday, when you need to create merchandise, or update a color, or tweak the mark for a new product line, the .ai file is what every future designer is going to ask for first. Without it, they’re reverse-engineering your logo from a PNG, and you’re paying for that.
The Minimum Delivery
Here’s the minimum file set I’d expect a brand package to contain, and what each format is for.
- PNG — transparent background, for web, social media, digital presentations. The format your marketing team will use day-to-day.
- SVG — scalable vector, for web use at any size. Modern websites should display logos as SVG because they stay sharp on any screen, including high-resolution displays.
- AI — the master editable file. Not for you to open; for the next designer or printer to work from.
- PDF — a portable vector format. Easy to send, easy to print, opens on anything. This is often the file a sign company or printer will actually ask for by name.
And you should have these in more than one layout. Horizontal and vertical lockups. Primary and secondary marks. Wordmark-only versions. Icon-only versions. Full-color, black-only, white-only. You won’t need all of them on day one. You’ll need most of them inside the first eighteen months.
Why This Unsexy Detail Actually Matters
I’ve seen carefully built brand identities deteriorate inside a year because the files were incomplete, the wrong formats got sent to vendors, or the team lost track of which version of the logo was the “real” one. None of this is the designer’s fault, strictly speaking. But a good designer prevents it by delivering a complete, organized, well-documented file package, with guidelines the client can actually follow.
The design is the glamorous part. The files are the infrastructure underneath. You don’t see the infrastructure until it fails — and then it’s all you see.
Get the files right, and the brand survives every application you’ll ever throw at it.
