The author logo: usually your name, set well.
Most nonfiction authors who search for a logo need something simpler than they expect: their name in one typeface and one color, used the same way everywhere. Here is how to decide whether you need more than that, how to match the mark to your book cover, which files to ask for, and a brief you can hand a designer.
Do you need an author logo at all?
A company needs a logo because people have to recognize it without a face attached. An author has a face and a name. Readers, event planners and podcast hosts look for a person: they search your name, they see your headshot next to your book cover, and they remember what you promise to help them do.
What does help is consistency. When your name appears in the same typeface and color on the website header, the title slide of a talk, the top of your media kit and the bottom of your emails, everything you put out looks like it came from one person. That consistent treatment of your name is a logo. Designers call it a wordmark, and for most nonfiction authors it is the whole job.
The short answer: you need a wordmark (your name, set well), and you probably do not need a symbol. Spend the money and attention on the cover, the headshot and the words first.
Wordmark, monogram or symbol
There are three kinds of mark an author might use. They are often combined, so it helps to know what each one is for.
| Kind | What it is | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wordmark | Your full name in a chosen typeface and color, sometimes with one small detail such as a rule underneath | Almost every nonfiction author. It says your name every time it is seen. | A typeface that is hard to read when small, or one that clashes with the cover |
| Monogram | Your initials, often inside a shape | Small square spaces: a website tab icon, a social profile badge, a slide corner, an embossed notebook | Initials mean nothing to someone who does not know you yet, so use it beside the wordmark, never instead of it |
| Symbol | A picture or abstract shape that stands for you or your idea | A company, a training program or a named method that will be sold or licensed separately from you | Cost, time to design, and a shape people have to learn before it means anything |
A decision rule
Answer three questions in order and stop at the first yes.
Is there a business or method that must be recognized without your name?
If you run a firm with staff, or you license a framework that other people teach, that business may need its own symbol. Give it one, and keep your personal wordmark separate. The firm and the author are two brands that point at each other.
Will the mark often appear in a small square?
If you post often on social platforms, run a podcast with cover art, or want a website tab icon that is not a blank page, add a monogram made from the same typeface as the wordmark.
Otherwise
Use a wordmark only. Set your name in the cover typeface, pick one color from the cover, and use it the same way everywhere. Review it when your second book comes out.
One caution in the other direction: do not build the logo around the title of your first book. You will speak, consult and probably write again, and your name is what carries across all of it. The book title keeps its own treatment on the cover.
Take the typeface and color from the cover
Your book cover is usually the most carefully designed thing you own, and it is the thing people will see most often next to your name. The simplest way to make the logo fit is to borrow from it. The photo and look guide gives the same advice for your website and slides: two colors and one typeface, taken from the cover. The Scribe Method has a chapter on getting a great book cover if yours is not finished yet.
Typeface
- Start with the font on the cover, where your name appears. If the cover sets your name in a particular typeface, that is the strongest candidate for the wordmark.
- If the cover font is a decorative display face, pick a calmer relative from the same family or a similar style.
- Test it small and on dark. Shrink the wordmark to the height of a line of email text and put it on a dark background. If you cannot read your name at a glance, choose another face.
- Check the license. A font comes with a license that sets where you may use it. Ask your cover designer which font was used and whether the license covers web and print use for a logo, or ask the logo designer to choose one that does.
Color
- Use one main color for the wordmark, usually the darkest strong color on the cover, plus black and white versions.
- Keep an accent color for details, such as a rule under the name or the monogram's circle, and use it sparingly.
- Write the color codes down. Ask for each color as a hex code for screens and a print value for your printer, so the color matches on the website and on a printed one-sheet.
- Check contrast. If the cover's main color is pale, use it for the accent and set the name in a darker color.
Where the mark is used
Before you approve a design, picture it in each place it will live. Most of them are small.
| Place | Which version | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Website header | Wordmark, full color | Links to the home page. The headline below it states your promise, so the wordmark does not have to. |
| Website tab icon and social profile badge | Monogram, if you have one | Square and tiny. A full name will not read here. |
| Slides | Wordmark on the title and closing slides, small or absent elsewhere | Use the white version on dark slides. Do not put it on every slide. |
| Media kit and speaker one-sheet | Wordmark at the top | Next to your headshot and the cover image. |
| Back cover or inside flap | Only if your publisher and cover designer agree it fits | The cover already sets your name in its own type. A logo there can compete with it. Ask the designer. |
| Email signature | Small wordmark image, or your name typed in plain text | If the image does not load, the text beside it should still say who you are. |
| Video and podcast art | Wordmark or monogram, white version | Usually placed over a photo, so the one-color version matters most. |
The words around the mark matter as much as the mark. The consistency checklist covers what each of these places should say.
The files to ask a designer for
Agree on the files in writing before the work starts. The usual problem shows up later, when a conference asks for a version on a transparent background and nobody can find one.
- SVG. A vector file, which means it is drawn from shapes instead of pixels and stays sharp at any size. Use it on your website and send it to anyone printing banners or signs.
- PNG with a transparent background, in a few widths (small for email, medium for slides, large for print). Transparent means the area around the letters is empty, so the mark sits cleanly on any color or photo.
- One-color versions: all black, and all white for dark backgrounds and photos.
- Horizontal and stacked layouts, if your name is long. A stacked version puts the first and last name on two lines for square spaces.
- The monogram on its own, if you chose one, including a square version for tab icons and profile badges.
- The source file from the design program, so another designer can make changes later.
- A one-page style note: the typeface name and license, the color codes, and the minimum size and clear space around the mark.
- Ownership in writing. Confirmation that the final design is yours to use and change.
Name the files plainly so you can find them in two years: firstname-lastname-wordmark-color.svg, firstname-lastname-wordmark-white.png, and so on.
A brief for a designer
A clear brief fits on one page. It tells the designer who will see the mark, where it will be used and what to borrow from. Fill in the brackets.
What I need: a wordmark of my name, [Full Name as it appears on the book]. [Optional: a monogram from my initials for small square spaces.] No symbol unless you think one is needed, and tell me why.
Who I am: [your one-line promise].
Who will see it: [your reader], plus event planners and podcast hosts.
Three words I want them to think: [word], [word], [word]. (Use the same three words you gave your photographer.)
Match it to: my book cover, attached. The cover uses [typeface] and [colors]. Please stay close to them.
Where it will be used: website header, slides, media kit, email signature, podcast and video art. [Add any others.]
Must work: at email-signature size, in white on a dark photo, and in one color.
Avoid: [anything you dislike, for example script fonts, gradients, clip-art book or pen icons].
Files: SVG; transparent PNG in small, medium and large; black and white one-color versions; horizontal and stacked layouts; source file; a one-page style note with font, license and color codes.
Rights: I own the final design and can change it.
Rounds: [number] rounds of revisions on [number] first concepts.
Before you send it, check the words. The promise and your name should match what is on your website and in your bio. If you do not have a current bio, the free bio builder drafts a short, a medium and a long version from one set of facts.
Three hypothetical authors
Say you are a leadership coach with one book, a website and a talk. Your cover sets your name in a clean serif in deep green, with an orange accent. The decision rule gives no, no and otherwise, so you need a wordmark: your name in that serif, deep green, with a thin orange rule under it. You get it in color, black and white, and use it on the website, the title slide and the media kit.
Say you are a financial planner who posts on LinkedIn every week and hosts a short podcast. The podcast art and your profile badge are small squares where a full name will not read. You answer yes to the second question, so you add a monogram: your two initials in the same typeface as the wordmark, inside a simple circle. The wordmark stays on the website and slides. The monogram goes on the podcast art, the website tab and the badge.
Say you are an operations consultant who runs a firm of twelve people and licenses a five-step method to other consultants. The firm is sold without you in the room, so it gets a symbol and a company wordmark. Your author wordmark stays separate and plain.
The checklist
- You ran the three-question decision rule and wrote down which marks you need
- The wordmark uses your name as it appears on the book, with no book title in it
- The typeface comes from, or sits close to, the cover typeface, with a license that covers web and print
- One main color from the cover, plus black and white versions, with hex and print codes written down
- The name reads clearly at email-signature size and in white on a dark photo
- You have SVG, transparent PNG in three sizes, one-color versions, the source file and a style note
- You own the final design, in writing
- The same mark is on your website header, slides, media kit, email signature and podcast or video art
- The words next to the mark match your current bio and promise
- A date in your calendar to review it when the next book or a new cover arrives
Get the words right before the mark
The bio builder drafts a short, a medium and a long bio plus a host introduction from one set of facts, in your browser.
Sources: The Scribe Method, How to get a great book cover. Jordan Avery and the three authors in the examples are invented.