In order to create vector logos and other designs, the artwork must be created using a special program. There are several good ones on the market, but Adobe Illustrator is generally considered the industry-leading software for creating vector-based graphics.So what's so special about vector artwork? The biggest advantage of a vector image (and it's a crucial one when it comes to logo design) is that vector artwork can be re-sized without affecting the quality of the image. If your logo is designed as a raster image (made up of tiny dots), you cannot enlarge the logo without causing it to look distorted, blurry, and just plain bad. On the other hand, vector artwork is composed of vectors (line art as opposed to pixels). This allows the image or logo to be scaled to any size and it will still look crisp, clean, and just as detailed as the smaller version. If you're planning on using your logo on marketing materials (like business cards, promotional products, brochures, trade show displays, t-shirts, etc.) you need to be able to change the size of your logo without affecting the quality of its appearance.
So how can you tell if your logo is in vector format? The easiest way to determine if you have a vector logo is to look at the file type. Some common examples of raster (non-vector) files would have file extensions such as .jpg, .gif, .tiff, .png, or .bmp, to name a few. Vector logos would have file extensions like .ai, .eps, .cdr, and .svg. Some .pdf files may contain vector artwork as well.
If you have a vector logo, congratulations! You can easily use it on marketing materials at any size. But if you don't have a vector version of your logo, no need to worry- a good graphic artist can take your raster logo and redraw it into vector format. Vector One Graphics is one such graphic design firm that can design new vector logos, or they can take your poor quality pixel-based raster logo and convert it into a high quality, beautiful vector logo. You can visit their vector logo design page for more information or to request a quote.
