BARQ & A

Posted By: JDY

My company has a registered trademark for our product, let’s say it is “Zmere®”. I put the ® on the lower right of the logo and have subscripted it whenever it appears in text. Our president has made corrections to “fix the placement” on our literature in the text portion. I haven’t told him my reasoning, but is there a hard and fast rule that it must be superscripted?

BARQ’s response:

JDY:

When designing logos, we usually only subscript the TM or ® when the last character (or icon object) extends farther at the top, like the letters r, T, P, etc. — particularly because the symbol’s purpose is not to be noticed, but to protect the brand. Superscripting in those instances hangs the ® out far away from the word or symbol, and makes it more obvious (pronounced “distracting”).

Whether you write Zmere or ZMERE, there is no advantage to subscripting vs. superscripting — if anything the ® will tuck more tightly when superscripted next to a lower case e (since the word has no descending characters). To subscript the symbol in your case is unconventional, so you draw attention to it (especially by the president). That, in turn, draws some attention away from the brand name.

I’d choose to fight with the president on an issue with more marketing benefit than designer’s taste.

BARQ
SELMARQ Brands’ Best Friend®