Most people think about logo design in terms of a letterhead or maybe a website design, a shop-front fascia board or perhaps the side of a delivery vehicle – but what about how your chosen logo works with your staff uniform?

There’s a good reason that multinational companies work with world class fashion designers to create workplace uniforms – it’s because it gives an immediate sense of the company’s aims and image through the clothing that staff wear. You can do the same by creating promotional clothing that gives a good impression of your business.

Start by choosing a logo that has relevance to your customers, rather than for you. If you want to be thought of as a speedy company, pick a logo with wings or a jet stream. If professionalism is your key desire, use a logo of a smartly uniformed man or a halo, which suggests saintly behaviour!

Make sure the logo appeals to your workforce – if you’re expecting your staff to wear your logo emblazoned in their work T-shirts or neatly embroidered into a monogrammed polo-shirt, then they need to have some investment in the clothing – if they don’t like it, they will resent wearing it and it will affect their work performance.

In design terms, make sure the image shape, colour and size are balanced and will work on a range of clothing – will it be suitable for summer T-shirts as well as winter jackets, can it be worn by both men and women? Make sure your image will translate into a range of sizes and can be reproduced by screen-printing, embroidery and dtg designs.

Finally, does the design work for a viewer – do they understand what the logo is supposed to express?

Get all these elements right and you have a logo that works for the long term.

There are many good reasons for choosing the humble T-shirt as your company uniform:

•    Purchase Cost – buying T-shirts is not expensive, compared to the cost of formal clothing like collared shirts, suits and business jackets
•    Maintenance Cost – this is really low: T-shirts can be hand-washed, washed in a machine, tumble-dried, line-dried, all of which means that the poorest part-time student worker or the most affluent Managing Director will pay about the same amount to wash a T-shirt – the student will do it by hand for pennies and the M.D.’s maid or au pair will shove it in his top of the range washing machine, but the cost per clothing item is about the same. Compare this to the cost of washing and ironing formal shirts or the dry-cleaning costs of jackets and business trousers and skirts, and you can see that the people at the bottom of your company will pay disproportionately more for maintaining their company uniform, because you can’t easily dry-clean your formal business wear at home, especially if you don’t have a washing machine
•    Communication – a lot of companies don’t think about this, and they should. If the T-shirt is your company uniform, you can budget for clothing that conveys a company message to both staff and visitors: a strong bright logo builds your brand image and helps people remember your name, and a slogan or business statement allows your staff to buy into the company ethos. You can’t get that on a business shirt
•    Brand support – it’s much easier to create a strong brand and to have promotional activity on posters, and as giveaways like branded bags, keyrings or other tiny items, if your brand has been strongly established through staff clothing
•    Staff turnover – if you have a degree of staff turnover, such as summer staff, it’s both cheaper and easier to outfit them with uniform because T-shirts come in all sizes and shapes and can easily be held in stock or swiftly re-ordered to meet company needs.

So when you’re planning a company uniform, think smart – think T-shirt!