Logo Guidelines

Launching a private label brand requires navigating potential design pitfalls. Drawing on years of industry experience and thousands of reviewed logos, we've outlined the essential design best practices to ensure your brand stands out in the market.

 

Simple is best

Less is more when it comes to logo design. Too many elements quickly make a brand look cluttered and unprofessional. Keep the scale of cosmetic packaging in mind—eyeliner pencils and lip gloss tubes leave very little room for branding. Choose a simple, bold design that stays clear and legible even on tiny surfaces.

This logo below is too complicated!  🙁  When the logo is printed on a small product, all of the details of the logo are lost and it just looks like a black circle.

🙁 Bad!

Here is a simple logo.  It is bold and simple and it will print well even on small products.

 

Avoid thin lines in your logo, as demonstrated by the bold design of the MBC logo. Digital mockups on high-resolution screens can be deceiving; fine lines that look clear on a monitor often blur, break, or become unprintable when scaled down for small cosmetic components.

Here are some recognizable beauty brands.  What do their logos have in common?

Answer: They are all simple text logos

Tip: Be bold!  Avoid thin lines!

 

 Logo Shape

If you already have a bold, streamlined logo, the next crucial step is shape adaptability. Because cosmetic containers vary dramatically in scale and form—from tall, slender bottles to compact jars—your logo's layout must be flexible enough to work seamlessly across your entire product line.

Example

Here is a logo to consider

This logo will fit well when it is on a pencil

Shrinking a wide horizontal logo to fit a foundation bottle leaves it far too small to read. To solve this, design a stacked secondary layout—placing the words on separate lines—to maximize brand visibility across taller, wider packaging.

🙁 Bad!	🙂 Good!

 

Tip: To get the best results, your brand needs a flexible logo suite. A wide horizontal logo works best on slender items like pencils, while a stacked or square version fits broader packaging like foundation bottles. That’s why we provide at least five size and shape variations with every design mockup—ensuring your brand looks seamless on every product.

 

Colors

Color choice is another critical factor in package design. Because many cosmetic products use clear containers, the product's color directly impacts your logo’s readability. Look at the example below: the black logo pops against the product, while the purple logo gets completely washed out.

🙂 Good!	🙁 Bad!

 

Tip: In our experience, simple black and white logos will work the best.  We will print black on clear and white surfaces.  White ink will be used on black surfaces.  The vast majority of our clients choose to go with black/white logos.

While we are able to print multicolor logos, we are not able to print logos with color gradients. In cases like this, we will convert the color gradient to a solid color. 

Tip: Choose a solid bold color.  Pale colors will not show well on certain surfaces because the ink color will blend in with the background.

 

File format (Vector vs Raster)

To ensure your packaging prints crisp and sharp, we require your logo in a vector file format.

* Supported Vector Formats: .AI, .EPS, .SVG, or vector .PDF

* Unsupported Formats: PNG, JPG, and GIF

If a graphic designer created your logo, ask them for the vector master files. If you used an online tool, check your download options for a vector export.

Vector graphics are completely resolution-independent, meaning they can be scaled to any size—from a tiny lip liner to a giant billboard—without blurring or pixelating. They are also fully editable, making it simple to adjust, resize, rearrange, or recolor individual elements without degrading quality.

Got more questions?  Reach out to us on our contact page and we would be happy to help.