This article was written in 2013. It might or it might not be outdated. And it could be that the layout breaks. If that’s the case please let me know.

Where should the logo be?

I don’t really understand why the logo needs to be in the top left corner of every single page on the web. I consider this to be a waste of very valuable space. I propose a different solution. Not a new solution, it’s actually a very old idea I remember from the days I worked in paper design (those were really just a few days).

When you designed a style for a company back then, one of the most important items was the paper on which letters were written. There were actually two different sheets of papers you had to design. The first was used in every letter, since it was the start of every letter. It always had the logo in the top left corner. The second page was used if the letter didn’t fit on one single page. On this page the logo was, if present, a part of the footer, and usually very small. This was a logical pattern. On every following page there was much more room for the actual letter, for actual content.

How can we translate this to the web? We could only show the logo on the homepage and put it in the footer on all other pages. This would work if everybody started visiting our site on the homepage. But we know people don’t do that. So we need a different solution.

If a user visits your site for the first time, the logo will be on the top of the page. If the user navigates to a next page, the logo will be at the bottom of the page.

You can put the logo up top on every new session, you could also try to find out if someone is a regular visitor. I’m not sure what the formula would be to determine if someone knows and remembers your site. But it shouldn’t be too hard to find out.