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I have given money to a company to design a logo. The designer will be using Corel Draw, and he was saying that he will give me the cdr file.

Now I am confused about how many files he should give me. I have a few questions.

First of all , suppose this is the logo:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZiGIE.jpg

  1. I want to use this logo on black, white or colored backgrounds. How should I choose which color the designer should give me? The logo already looks good on a white background because the inner white color mixes with the white of the background. Now suppose I have to use this logo on a black background. What should I do?

  2. Should the logo be enclosed within any shape, like a circle or a square? I mean, should there be any boundary or border or not? Would this make them easy to insert somewhere?

Basically, I'm confused about whether the logo should be transparent, or if the inner white color should be part of logo.

3 Answers 3

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The most important file format he should give you is a vector format, typically in .eps, or vectorized .pdf. He should also give you some high resolution transparent png format as well. But if you have the .eps format, then you can make pngs in any size or resolution later. If he cannot or refuse to give you the logo in vector format, then you hired the wrong guy.

1) The logo should be on a transparent background. for example, this is how the logo(linked in your question) should look on a gray background:

enter image description here

2) no it shouldn't be enclosed in any shape.

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  • what about if i have complete black background, do i need to chnage the color of logo
    – Mirage
    Jul 17, 2011 at 10:48
  • @user1946 yes, you'd change the logo color to something else.
    – Jin
    Jul 17, 2011 at 23:45
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As Jin says, you need a vector file. EPS is the most versatile of the formats Corel Draw can export, so be sure to get that. (You can import EPS files into Word or Pages to roll your own stationery, besides sending one out to a printer.)

Based on long experience, you'll only ever use the .cdr file if you're sending to a designer who uses it or one of the small screen-printing/t-shirt places. Even in those cases, EPS will be fine.

Ask for a .png, too, just in case.

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Just to note that for logo projects, it's common practice to deliver a solid black and a solid white version of the logo as well as the normal colour one.

That should cover pretty much any eventuality. Assuming a reddish logo like yours, say you're given the opportunity to stick your logo on the door of a purple race car, you might use the white logo for best visibility; if it was an orange car the black logo might work better.

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