# Your logo needs a one-colour version > The gradient mark from the pitch deck is not the garment mark. Every brand that puts its logo on cloth ends up making a solid single-colour reduction — usually badly, and usually late. August 17, 2026 · https://justog.club/stories/company-logo-on-a-shirt The sheet in the picture has the same logo twice. On the left, the version from the website: a fine line with a gradient running through it. On the right, the same mark as one solid colour. The shirt has the second one, and it isn't a compromise. It's the mark that was always going to be needed. ## Why can't the normal logo go on the shirt? Because most modern logos are designed for a screen, and a screen has properties fabric doesn't. Gradients, thin hairlines, drop shadows, transparency, and colours picked for a white background all belong to a display. On a dark garment, a mark built from those either disappears or turns into a smudge — and the parts that survive are the parts that were solid shapes anyway. Which is why the reduction isn't a downgrade. **A single-colour version is the mark's structure with everything decorative removed**, and if the structure doesn't hold, that's information about the logo rather than about the shirt. ## What does making one involve? Four decisions, and they're all about what to throw away. - **Flatten to one colour.** Every gradient becomes a single fill. If two colours were carrying meaning, one of them has to go. - **Thicken the thin parts.** Hairlines that read at 200px on a screen vanish at chest size in ink. The mark keeps its proportions, not its stroke weights. - **Close the small counters.** Tiny gaps inside letterforms fill in. They get opened up, or removed. - **Decide the reversed version.** The mark in white on dark is not just an inverted file — it usually needs slightly different weights to look the same. That last one is the step people skip, and it's why so many company shirts have a logo that looks subtly heavy. ## How big should it be? Smaller than instinct suggests. The conventional left-chest size is a few inches wide, and it's conventional for a reason. A logo blown across a whole chest reads as a uniform issued by a company. The same logo at pocket scale reads as a garment somebody chose. Since the point of a staff or team shirt is usually that people wear it voluntarily, the small version wins on the only metric that matters. The exception is when the mark is genuinely good and the company is genuinely liked — then large is a flex rather than a uniform. That's a judgement about your own brand, not a design rule. ## Should the company name be spelled out? Only if the mark isn't recognisable on its own — which, for most companies, it isn't. A symbol with no name attached is an aspiration held by companies with marketing budgets. For everyone else, a mark plus a small wordmark is the honest version, and it does the actual job: someone sees the shirt, reads the name, and can search for it. Set the name in the brand's typeface at a size that's legible at conversational distance rather than across a car park. It's a label, not a headline. ## What if we don't have a logo? Then a shirt is a cheap way to find out whether you need one. Plenty of small companies get further with a **mark that isn't a logo** — a symbol, an animal, an object from the work — precisely because it doesn't have to be a brand identity yet. [A mascot does a different job from a wordmark](/stories/team-mascot-design): the wordmark is correct and forgettable, the mascot has an attitude. For a company of four, the second one is usually the better object and the cheaper decision. ## Where does it go on the garment? Left chest, centre chest, back, or sleeve — and each says something different. Left chest is the workwear convention: it reads as staff, in the good sense. Centre chest at small size reads as a brand rather than a uniform. A full back print with the mark large is closer to a band shirt. A sleeve hit is the most discreet and works when the front carries something else, which is the arrangement [a booth or event shirt usually wants](/stories/conference-booth-swag). Current placement here is a single statement area front or back, so the practical choice is between a small mark and a large one in that zone. ## Can we do different colourways? Yes, and it's the easiest way to make a company shirt feel like clothing. One mark, printed on five garment colours, lets people pick — which converts a uniform into [a set](/stories/family-reunion-shirts). It costs nothing extra when there's no minimum per colour, and it noticeably increases how often the thing gets worn. The mark itself should stay identical across all of them. That's what makes it a set rather than five different shirts. ## How do I get one made? Upload the logo at [JustOG](/) — the flat version if you have one — and say it should be a single-colour print. Pick a direction, drag the crop frame, see it composited on the real garment, and it's made to order and shipped. Designs other people have published are in the [shop](/shop). If the mark doesn't survive being one colour, the shirt isn't the thing that failed.