Bef

Humans have been creating visual identities since the first cave drawings. What follows is only a small fraction of what could be shared.

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To keep this as crisp, we're going to share best practices from both a strategic and practical standpoint.  

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Part One — Strategy

A great design rarely starts with design. It starts with identity. 

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To express your identity visually, you have to know who you are. As a club, knowing "who you are" requires creating alignment among members, and secondarily, from staff. Members need to drive the philosophical foundation and staff should have input on the executional application. 

 

One piece of advice: have fun. If it's drudgery, you either have the wrong people at the table, or the wrong design partner.  

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The principles we've outlined below come from our perspective, but also are in sync with some of the best firms in the world — Pentagram, Landor, Wolff Olins. 

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01. The logo comes last, not first.

Assuming you're not launching a new club, you probably already have a logo. Begin the discussion by asking what's changed since the existing logo was created, and follow it up with what should never change. The answer may simply be that the design style is dated, but it could also be that the club is getting younger.

 

The change should reflect something fundamental rather than temporary—something significant enough that it has changed who your club is. What will never change is often expressed through the club's values. 

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The mark is the answer to those questions, not the starting point. 

 

"The best identities aren't invented. They're uncovered." — Pentagram

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02. Nobody redesigns as much as you'd think.

The instinct is to assume a "redesign" means starting over. It rarely does. Mastercard simplified. Coca-Cola refined. For some of the clubs we've worked with, we went through a very disciplined process that revealed we needed to clean up the typeface and change the thickness of certain lines. Don't be afraid to simplify.

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The bar isn't "does this look new," it's "does this still work" — and sometimes the answer is: refine it, don't replace it.

 

03. A logo is not a system.

This is the part we emphasize, even if it's not conventional. Design a family of marks: a heritage version, an everyday version, a small-space version, a monogram, a mark for milestones. Colors must work in different settings – including paint colors for your facility. Your typefaces should feel distinctive—not like something selected from a dropdown menu in Microsoft Word. A system enables different departments to always "get it right." 

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Most organizations don't succeed because they have one great logo. They succeed because they have a coherent identity that works consistently across every touchpoint.

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04. Test it on a polo, not a slide.

A logo that only works in a PDF isn't finished. The real test is a hat, a tee marker, an email newsletter, a menu. Print it big, print it tiny. See it in the real places it will appear. If it falls apart in any of those, it's not done yet.

 

05. The best designs add to the story.

A successful redesign doesn’t ask people to forget what came before. It gives the brand new ways to express itself while preserving the marks that already carry meaning. The Heritage Logo remains the foundation. New marks, monograms, and secondary logos expand the system, making it more useful without erasing its history.

This is how strong brands evolve. They build on their equity rather than starting over.

 

Part Two — Standards​

The five ideas above are strategy. These are the fundamentals — the technical rules that keep a good mark from falling apart the first time it meets a hat, a hex code, or an intern with Photoshop. Remember standards aren't only for design.

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The Hardest — but Most Important — Practical Rules

• It is super difficult to design by committee, which is can be in direct opposition to club governance best practices. This means you need to select a group of individuals who work well together, aren't afraid to express opinions, and are confident enough to change them when presented with a better idea.

• Avoid generic marks: if you can, don't use an icon that any other club could use – a tree, any golf object, a mountain, a laurel... If your logo could be placed on another club's scorecard and people wouldn't notice the difference, you're not there yet.

• Don't expect your logo to tell your entire story. It needs to communicate quickly. If you want to tell a richer story, create a crest — but don't make the crest your primary logo. 

• Don't try to please everyone. Impossible. If you have to lean towards a certain group of members, lean younger. They'll live with it the longest. 

• Hire a design firm and work with a senior-level team. You want someone who's done this many times before. Senior designers are better equipped to see the broader strategic picture. They can appreciate subtlety, navigate committee politics, and take you through a better process. 

 

Color

• Two colors, three at most. If it needs a legend, it isn't a logo yet.

• Every mark needs a one-color version — solid black, solid white. If it doesn't survive being flattened to one color, it isn't finished.

• No gradients, drop shadows, bevels, or glow. They don't survive embroidery, engraving, vinyl, or a black-and-white copier.

• Lock in exact values. Pantone for print and thread, CMYK for offset, RGB and hex for screens. If a vendor has to guess the color, it drifts a little more every year.

 

Size & Clear Space

• If detail disappears below one inch, the mark has too much detail for its job.

• Give it breathing room. Build generous clear space into the identity standards and apply it consistently.

• Test it small before you approve it big. A logo that only works at eight inches isn't done.

 

Format

• Get it in vector — AI, EPS, or SVG — not a JPG pulled off the website. Vector is what lets it scale from a business card to a flagpole without going soft.

• Keep a real library: full color, one-color black, one-color white for dark backgrounds, and a transparent PNG for everyday use. Four files, not one.

 

What Not To Do

• Don't stretch it, squish it, rotate it, or recolor it because it's "close enough."

• Don't place it on a busy photo without checking contrast first.

• Don't let departments make their own version "just for now." That's how a club ends up with fourteen unofficial logos and no idea which one is real.

 

Going Deeper

Hopefully this gives you a useful starting point. If your board is starting to have this conversation, we're happy to share how other clubs have approached it — without turning it into unnecessary controversy.

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