Your client's logo file isn't a usable brand kit
A 45 KB JPEG arrives with the message “Here’s our logo.” You still don’t know whether it will work on a dark header, which blue belongs in the buttons, or what font the website should use. To collect usable logos and brand assets from clients, ask for the existing logo package, confirmed digital colors, and font names with their web-use details before design starts.
File delivery is only the beginning. You need enough information to choose the right version without quietly redesigning the client’s identity.
What brand assets should you request for a website?
Start with the brand guide, if one exists, and ask whether it still represents the business. A polished PDF from before a rebrand can be less useful than a current designer’s export folder.
Then request the items below. Clients don’t need to create every missing variation before they can respond; they need to show you what exists and identify what doesn’t.
| Asset | What to ask the client for | What your agency needs to establish |
|---|---|---|
| Current logo package | Original designer’s folder or download link, including SVG, AI, EPS, or PDF files they already have | Which artwork is current and suitable for preparing website exports |
| Logo variations | Available horizontal, stacked, symbol-only, light, and dark versions | Which version belongs in the header, footer, and small icon placements |
| Digital color palette | HEX or RGB values, with primary, secondary, and background roles if defined | Which values to use without sampling a screenshot |
| Typography | Exact family names, weights, foundry or provider links, and existing web-font setup | Which typefaces are intended for headings and body text, and how they’ll be supplied |
| Usage rules | Clear space, minimum size, prohibited backgrounds, and any restrictions on changing the artwork | Which layout choices would conflict with the identity |
| Supporting graphics | Patterns, illustrations, or other graphics already used by the brand, with their intended purpose | Which assets belong in this website rather than simply existing in the folder |
Keep the request proportional. A local business site may only need a confirmed wordmark, a palette, and one type family. You don’t need a full identity manual to begin, but you do need decisions where that manual would otherwise guide the work.
Which logo file formats are actually useful?
Ask for the original package rather than instructing a client to convert whatever file they can find. A filename ending in .svg doesn’t prove that the artwork is a clean vector logo. SVG can contain raster images, as the MDN reference for SVG images documents.
Your designer should inspect the file. Renaming a JPEG or placing it inside an SVG won’t restore missing detail.
For collection purposes, distinguish the source artwork from the file you’ll eventually publish:
- SVG: Often useful for a website logo when it contains suitable vector artwork. Check the actual contents and appearance before preparing it for production.
- AI, EPS, or PDF: Useful source candidates for your designer to inspect and export from. A PDF can contain a vector logo, a bitmap, or a mixture; its extension alone doesn’t settle the question.
- PNG: Useful when transparency and sufficient pixel dimensions are available. It can be adequate for a specific placement even when no vector original survives.
- JPEG: Useful as a reference or, in some cases, a constrained fallback. It doesn’t support a transparent background, so a logo on a white rectangle won’t disappear into a colored header.
Don’t use file size as the acceptance test. That 45 KB JPEG could be unsuitable, while a smaller vector file could be exactly what you need. Inspect pixel dimensions for raster files and compare them with the intended display size.
As a practical example, if a raster wordmark will appear at 240 CSS pixels wide, request at least 480 pixels of usable artwork width for a 2× display target. Count the logo itself, excluding broad empty margins. This is a placement-specific target, not a universal minimum for every logo on the site.
Ask which logo version goes on which background
“We have the logo” can mean you have one dark wordmark on a transparent background. That may work in the navigation and disappear in the footer.
Imagine a fictional music rehearsal venue called Switchyard Rooms. Its supplied folder contains a charcoal wordmark and an older white version with a retired tagline. Your proposed footer is charcoal. Simply choosing the white file would put an obsolete business message on every page.
Ask the client to identify the current artwork and the approved version for each background. If no suitable variation exists, record the decision that follows: use a light background, ask the original designer for a current export, or agree on creating an additional version.
Don’t silently recolor the mark. Even a change that seems obvious can conflict with the client’s usage rules.
A symbol-only version is a separate question. Ask whether the brand has an approved compact mark for a favicon or other small placement. Shrinking a long wordmark into a square doesn’t make the lettering readable. If a new simplified mark is needed, identify that design task before promising to produce it as a routine export.
Collect color values with their intended roles
A client’s answer of “navy and lime” tells you the direction, not the specification. Request the HEX or RGB values used for digital work and ask what each color does.
For Switchyard Rooms, a sample response might say that #25313D is the primary dark color, #D2EC50 is an accent, and the accent is used for highlights rather than long passages of text. These are fictional values, not a recommendation for a particular accessible pairing.
The roles matter. A palette doesn’t establish that every combination works for body text, buttons, or focus states. Check the actual combinations during website design rather than treating “brand approved” as an accessibility result.
If the client only has print specifications, request the original guide or source file and have your designer prepare a digital palette for confirmation. Don’t present a color picked from a photographed business card as the definitive web value.
Where sources disagree, show the conflict once: “The guide and current brochure use different blues. Which should the new website follow?” Record the selected source beside the values so a later developer doesn’t choose from the rejected brochure.
Request font information before asking for font files
Start with names. Ask for the exact family, the weights in use, the provider, and whether the typeface is for the logo, headings, body text, or more than one of those jobs. “The font in our logo” isn’t a specification for the website’s paragraphs.
Then establish the intended web delivery method and who maintains it. A font file found on someone’s laptop doesn’t by itself tell you how that typeface can be deployed on a website. Keep the provider’s applicable web-use information with the request, and ask for files only when that arrangement allows them to be supplied.
For a specific example, Adobe’s web-font guidance says Adobe Fonts must use its embed service; self-hosting requires a separate license from the foundry or an authorized reseller. It also says a client’s website must load fonts through the client’s own Creative Cloud subscription. Record the account owner and hosting arrangement before implementation.
For another provider, check that provider’s instructions. Your useful output is a confirmed family and delivery plan, not a ZIP full of unexplained font files.
If the original typeface can’t be identified or used for the project, propose a substitute explicitly. Show it in the relevant heading and body styles so the client approves the visual change rather than discovering it in a finished page.
Copy this brand asset request to your client
Use this after you’ve checked what the client already supplied. Remove items that are settled and add the actual upload destination.
Subject: Logo, colors, and fonts for your new website
Hi [name],
Send the brand files you already have through [upload link]. You don’t need to convert them or create missing versions.
- Logo package: Upload the original folder from your logo designer, or share its download link. Include the available source files and versions for light and dark backgrounds. Tell us which logo is current and whether any included tagline is out of date.
- Colors: Share your brand guide or confirmed HEX/RGB values. If you don’t have those, identify an existing digital design that accurately represents the colors you want us to follow.
- Fonts: List the family names, weights, and provider links you know. Tell us who manages any existing web-font account. We’ll confirm the delivery method before requesting files.
- Usage rules: Include any rules about backgrounds, spacing, or changes to the logo, plus supporting graphics intended for this site.
If something is missing, write “not available” beside that item and tell us who might have the original. We’ll review what you’ve sent and return a specific list of remaining decisions.
Who should confirm the final logo version and palette for the website?
Keep global brand assets together when you collect client material through a shared folder or a content collection request for brand files. Put the chosen header and footer versions beside their intended uses, so the build doesn’t depend on someone remembering an email attachment.
For the remaining page copy and photographs, use a separate page-by-page website content template. The brand request shouldn’t become an open-ended assignment to supply everything the website might need.
What if the client only has a small JPEG?
Ask where the logo came from. The original designer, a previous agency, or a sign supplier may still have usable artwork. Have the client request the original package directly, or introduce you to the person who holds it.
Meanwhile, test the supplied image against the planned placement. A small raster file might be acceptable at a limited size on its existing background. It might also force a visibly poor result. Show the actual constraint instead of treating “higher resolution” as an answer the client already knows how to produce.
If the original can’t be recovered, agree on the next piece of work: a constrained temporary placement, recreation of the existing mark, or a broader identity change. Record its cost and approval point before starting. Automatic tracing can produce shapes, but it doesn’t establish that the result faithfully reproduces the lettering and spacing.
The missing file is now a defined decision. It no longer sits in the tracker as a vague request for a better logo.
When are the brand assets ready for design?
Close the request when you can identify the current mark, use suitable versions on the planned backgrounds, work from confirmed digital colors, and implement the selected fonts through an established delivery method. Note any remaining replacement work separately.
Keep the original uploads and the selected website exports distinguishable. A filename such as switchyard-wordmark-light-current.svg helps, but the client’s confirmation of that version is what resolves the choice.
You should be able to hand the package to another designer without explaining which attachment to ignore. That’s when “logo received” becomes “brand assets ready.”