A logo lockup is the fixed, proportional arrangement of a brand’s symbol and wordmark that ensures consistent identity across every use. It locks the relationship between the pieces in place so nobody can stretch, reshuffle or crowd them later. The rest of this guide shows you how to build one properly, space it correctly and avoid the mistakes that make brands look amateurish.
TL;DR:
- Commission all three versions together; use horizontal formats for wide placements, stacked formats for square or tall spaces, and icons alone after recognition.
- Derive unit X from the wordmark’s cap height or a stable symbol width, then express clear space and the symbol gap as multiples of X.
- Export web files as SVG, print files as PDFs with embedded fonts, and PNGs for social platforms; label folders by variant and format.
- Group the symbol, wordmark, and tagline in one file to prevent independent resizing, and document minimum sizes for print and screen before handoff.
Table of Contents
- What makes up a logo lockup
- Horizontal, stacked or symbol-only: which lockup do you need?
- How much clear space does a logo lockup need?
- The responsive asset set every brand should have ready
- How to build a logo lockup step by step
- What a decade of lockup work has taught us
- Where lockups go wrong, and the quick fix for each
- Get a lockup built properly, once
- FAQ
- Sources
What makes up a logo lockup
A lockup is a system, not a single picture. Three parts usually sit inside it: the logomark (the symbol or icon), the logotype (the brand name set in type) and, sometimes, a tagline. Treat these as fixed components with a defined relationship to one another, not as elements a vendor can rearrange on a whim.
This matters because inconsistency creeps in fast once a logo leaves your hands. A printer resizes the symbol without the wordmark, a social media manager squashes the whole thing into a square avatar, and suddenly your brand looks like three different companies.
- Logomark: the standalone symbol or icon, often usable on its own once recognition builds.
- Logotype: the brand name rendered in a specific typeface, sometimes called a wordmark.
- Tagline: an optional line of supporting text, locked at a fixed size relative to the logotype.
A lockup fixes how these sit together so a vendor receiving the file reproduces it exactly, every time.
Horizontal, stacked or symbol-only: which lockup do you need?
Most brands need at least two lockup variations from day one, because no single layout fits every space. A horizontal lockup places the symbol beside the wordmark and suits wide formats like website headers and email signatures. A stacked lockup sits the symbol above the wordmark and fits square or vertical spaces such as social avatars and signage columns. A symbol-only mark drops the wordmark entirely and works once customers already recognise the icon, ideal for favicons or app tiles.
Deciding which to design first comes down to where the logo will actually appear.
- List every surface the logo must sit on: website header, social profile, packaging, signage, invoices.
- Match each surface to a shape: wide surfaces take horizontal, square or tall surfaces take stacked.
- Check whether any surface is too small for a wordmark at all; if so, you need the symbol-only version.
- Commission all three variants together so none get bolted on later as an afterthought.
Packaging and merchandise often demand a hybrid approach, where the horizontal lockup appears on the front panel and the symbol-only mark repeats as a small brand mark elsewhere. Deciding this upfront saves a scramble when a print deadline lands.
How much clear space does a logo lockup need?
Clear space and gaps inside a lockup should scale with the logo itself, not sit at a fixed pixel count that breaks the moment the logo shrinks or grows. The standard practice is to define a unit, usually written as X, derived from something inside the logo itself: the cap-height of the wordmark, the x-height of the lower-case letters, or a stable width inside the symbol. Every spacing rule then gets written as a multiple of that unit.
Professionals define lockup geometry relative to the logo’s own anatomy, deriving a scalable unit X from cap-height or symbol width so spacing and clear space scale proportionally from a business card to a billboard.
The GOV.UK brand design system sets out exactly this approach: clear space and the gap between symbol and wordmark are both expressed in multiples of X, so the rule stays valid no matter how large or small the lockup appears. This removes the guesswork that causes vendors to crowd a logo against a background image or another graphic element.
The Design Council brand guidelines specify clear space as a fraction of logo width, alongside minimum-size rules and placement guidance for portrait and landscape layouts. Setting a minimum size matters just as much as clear space. Below a certain point, fine details in a symbol blur or a tagline becomes illegible, so every lockup needs a stated minimum width in millimetres for print and pixels for screens. Our guide to logo clear space and pixel minimums covers practical minimums for on-screen use if you want numbers to start from.
The responsive asset set every brand should have ready
A lockup only earns its keep once it exists in every format a vendor might ask for. Building the full set once, rather than exporting files ad hoc each time someone asks, saves repeated back-and-forth later.
- Primary horizontal lockup: your main combination, exported in full colour and reversed versions.
- Stacked lockup: the vertical alternative for square and tall spaces.
- Symbol-only mark: for favicons, app icons and small-space placements.
- Favicon: a simplified symbol optimised for browser tabs.
- Video bug: a small watermark version sized for on-screen overlay.
Export web files as SVG so they scale without quality loss, print files as PDF with embedded fonts, and raster files as PNG at a handful of fixed pixel sizes for social platforms. Our breakdown of logo file formats explains which format suits which use if you are building this set for the first time. Name folders clearly by variant and format so a vendor opening the hand-off package never has to guess which file to use.
How to build a logo lockup step by step
Building a lockup properly takes three stages, and skipping any of them is how inconsistent brands happen.
- Derive your unit X and fix clear space. Measure the cap-height or a stable symbol width, call that X, and state clear space as a multiple of it (commonly 1X to 2X) around the entire lockup.
- Align baselines and optical centres, then set the gap. Line up the wordmark’s baseline with the visual centre of the symbol, not its mathematical centre, and set the symbol-to-word mark gap as a fraction of X so it holds at any scale.
- Set a minimum size, export every variant, and test in context. Place the lockup on a mock business card, a website header and a social avatar before calling it finished.
Pro Tip: Test every lockup against a busy photo background before signing it off; clear-space rules fail fastest on real-world imagery, not on a plain white page.
What a decade of lockup work has taught us
Over more than ten years designing brand identities, we have built lockups for businesses ranging from first-time start-ups to established companies refreshing a tired mark. Projects for brands including Trendco and SW1 Automotive involved exactly this process: deriving a unit from the symbol’s own geometry, then building horizontal, stacked and symbol-only variants that hold their proportions across packaging, signage and digital headers alike. The pattern holds regardless of industry: a lockup built on proportional spacing from day one survives a resize, a rebrand refresh or a new vendor far better than one built by eye.
Where lockups go wrong, and the quick fix for each
Three mistakes show up again and again in brand hand-offs.
- Inadequate clear space: text or imagery crowds the logo. Fix it by stating clear space as a multiple of X in writing, not just showing an example image.
- Improper scaling: someone stretches the symbol independently of the wordmark. Fix it by locking the lockup as a single grouped file, never separate layers.
- Missing responsive assets: no stacked or symbol-only version exists when one is needed urgently. Fix it by building the full asset set before launch, not after a vendor asks.
Keep one source-of-truth folder for every variant and nobody downstream has to guess which file is correct. Getting the balance between elements right also comes down to how negative space is handled around the mark, which our piece on negative space in logo design covers in more depth. Brand consistency built this way pays off commercially too: research on brand consistency and growth points to steadier recognition as one of the clearer returns on getting these details right early.
— Kukoo
Get a lockup built properly, once
A lockup only works if someone builds it with the discipline above baked in from the first sketch, and that is exactly what our logo design and visual identity service delivers. Every project includes horizontal, stacked and symbol-only variants, written clear-space and minimum-size specs, and full export files ready to hand to any vendor, with unlimited revisions until the balance feels right.
Our logo-only service and full visual identity packages are offered as one-off projects, with current prices available on our pricing page. If you are ready to start, fill in our logo design brief and we will take it from there.
FAQ
What does logotype mean?
A logotype is the brand name rendered in a specific typeface, distinct from the symbol or icon that sits alongside it in a lockup. Some brands use the logotype alone as their primary mark, with no separate symbol at all.
How do you keep a logo lockup safe from misuse?
Lock the symbol, wordmark and any tagline into a single grouped file so nobody can resize or reposition one piece independently. Pair that file with written clear-space and minimum-size rules so every vendor applies the same standard.
How do you create a custom logotype?
Start by choosing or customising a typeface that reflects the brand’s tone, then adjust letter spacing and weight until it reads clearly at both large and small sizes. Test it stacked and alongside the symbol before finalising, since a logotype that works alone can crowd a lockup badly.
What are logo lockups?
A logo lockup is the fixed, proportional combination of a symbol and wordmark, built so the relationship between the pieces never changes across uses. Brands typically need horizontal, stacked and symbol-only versions to cover every application from a website header to a social avatar.