It’s Pride Month, and like many businesses, we’ve changed our logo to show our support for the LGTBQ+ community. This action – the changing of your logo and other branding for events, movements, and organizations – is a cornerstone of social media branding, but when executed poorly or for the wrong reasons can cause a backlash – especially by those you’re trying to support. Today we’re going to dive deep into the dos and don’ts of marketing in these situations because if you’re going to change your logo for events, you need to understand why beyond “big brands are doing it.”

Logo Changes as Marketing Your Culture

Changing your logo or any other kind of event branding should be marketing the culture of your company, not marketing your products or services for profit. Let me repeat that: do not do event marketing – including changing your logo – for the express intent of trying to sell stuff to that target demographic. There are, of course, exceptions, such as if your organization typically supports these movements, is a small business owned/operated by this demographic, or is donating 100% of the profits to a charity.

Instead, you need to view this as allyship – focus your time and energy on showing you stand with this group and lifting up businesses, organizations, and charities within that space to show to your audience.

Preparing for a Logo Change (It’s Not Just a Logo Change)

So, you want to get involved and show your support. What do you need to do? Using Pride Month as an example, follow what my organization did.

• Talk to your team. First, we had a team meeting to make a plan. This included what we wanted to do, who needed to review it, and any questions or concerns.
• Do your research. We looked at local businesses and organizations to highlight, and we picked the pride flag to use in our logo (Progressive vs. Rainbow).
• Build a marketing calendar. We decided what social media posts we were going to do for the month, what the blog topic would be (this one), and who was responsible for what.

How to Change Your Logo for Events

Okay, now that you’ve made the plan, it’s time to execute the logo change. Here’s a step-by-step with all my thought processes as a graphic designer:

1. Collect your files: First, it’s time to unearth the original file of your logo. This should be a vector file. Most likely it will be an .AI, .EPS, or .PDF file if it was professionally designed.
2. Think about the design elements: When it comes to altering your logo, you need to think like a graphic designer. Are you changing all the elements? Just a section? What about a different background?
3. Build multiple logo versions. Not only useful for comparing logo versions, but you’ll also need icons to fit different social media platforms – not all logos will look “right” on all platforms due to formatting.
4. Be diligent in your file saving. Keep versions backed up for future years with a folder hierarchy you can remember. If you undergo a full rebrand, keep the raw files stored properly.
5. Coordinate the logo swap-out. Make sure a day and time have been picked to change the logos on your various social media and other platforms. A smooth rollout (with accompanying social media statuses) is key.

If you’d like to know more about getting into graphic design for your marketing, check out my Business Bootcamp on the subject: Creating Your First Social Media Graphics in Canva. If you’d like to learn more about event branding, make sure to check out our blog, Local and National Event Branding for Your Business. If you have any questions or want to know more, please get in touch with us here or on any of our social media platforms.