While building this website, I decided to show logos for the technologies I can use and the services I normally rely on.
At first I thought I could just grab logos, place them, and be done. I was completely wrong.
Logos Belong To Companies
Company logos are often protected by copyright and trademark rights, so they are not something you can freely use however you like. I fully understand why commercial use in particular should be handled carefully.
That said, on a technical portfolio, I thought adding a logo next to explanations like "I can use TypeScript," "I use Cloudflare," or "I develop on GitHub" should be acceptable. Naturally, I assumed each company had brand guidelines or a brand kit prepared for that kind of use.
They did not.
Every Company Has Different Rules
I checked logos for nearly forty companies, and the rules were genuinely all over the place.
Some companies allow use as long as
- it is not illegal or fraudulent
- the colors are not changed
- sufficient clear space is preserved
which is relatively relaxed.
On the other hand, other companies define much stricter rules, such as
- do not use the logo and wordmark together
- only use the standalone logo
- icons only
- only specified combinations are allowed
and so on.
And some companies require prior written permission to use the logo at all.
For a portfolio, going that far was not realistic, so I gave up on showing some logos and used text instead.
I Could Not Even Find Some Brand Kits
This was the most frustrating part.
Even when I searched for famous companies that surely had one,
- there was no brand kit at all
- only partner-facing materials existed
- the guideline page did not load correctly
- I could not tell where to navigate from
and so on.
For services used around the world, I think it is a problem when logo usage instructions are hard to find.
You Cannot Just Leave It To AI
Because this is a legal matter, it is dangerous if AI gives a careless answer.
In the end, I had to manually go through the work for each company:
- find the guidelines
- read the original text
- check whether portfolio use is acceptable
It was painful.
Examples That Actually Troubled Me
A few memorable examples:
- OpenAI has restrictions on combined logo and wordmark usage.
- Cloudflare required written permission for logo use, so I gave up on displaying it.
- While searching for Slack's brand kit, I somehow kept landing on Salesforce-related pages.
- Notion's guideline page loaded forever, so I eventually gave up on confirming it.
- Lark did not seem to have a public brand kit, so I gave up.
Of course, companies have their own circumstances.
Protecting a brand matters, and trademarks should be managed properly.
But for services used around the world, I would be happy if guidelines were a little better maintained.
Closing
What was supposed to be just lining up company logos turned into hours of reading brand kits and media guidelines. I do not want to do it again.
To all famous companies: please maintain your brand kits.
So I am publishing my own brand kit too! My logo requires my written permission before use! You can download the logo here.
