The aspect ratio of your logo is the relationship between the height and width, and the 'footprint' (the physical boundaries that are required for reproduction) of the design. A logo that is too tall and skinny, or too wide and short, is not visually pleasing, and you'll end up with all sorts of layout issues when it comes to setting up your logo in artwork, especially when combined with other graphic elements (ie: business card, web sites, etc). Horizontal aspect ratios are handy when it comes to reproducing a logo as part of a web banner. A logo that is closer to a 'golden mean' (almost the aspect relationship of a business card) is much more pleasing and more adaptable to working in other artwork. Circle logos are very strong visually due to their 'square aspect ratio'.



It is also important to keep in mind 'trailing elements' of your logo - that is, parts of your logo that extend beyond the main image area. Take a look at the Links logo above. This logo features a large trailing element (the star) that extends beyond the main area of the logo. This trailing element affects the logo's footprint and aspect ratio quite dramatically and affects the size of the logo when used in artwork where the width of the logo is a factor (as it happens, this logo was designed for a very specific sign usage so the aspect ratio and footprint were considered quite deliberately). Let's take a look at another logo, this one with square aspect ratio and more orthodox footprint.

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As we can see, the Sight Effects logo can reproduce at a much larger size when width is the determining factor on the size of the logo. As the footprint of this logo is practically, square, it is extremely adaptable for most uses.