With hundreds and hundreds of logo animations under our belt we have some insight into this question. Here are some guiding questions as you try and settle on an approximate time:

1) How many times will a typical viewer watch the same animation?

If your viewers are going to be watching your logo animation over and over again then consider making it short and quality enough so they aren’t tempted to skip past it. We have all skipped past some logo animations haven’t we? Are people going to binge watch your content? Then you better have a very good reason to go with a medium or longer length.

2) How long are the video productions that your animation will be added to?

If your video content is less than 60 seconds on average then maybe a 5 second or less length would be best. If your productions are minutes in length then maybe 5-10 seconds might be better. If your content is hours long then perhaps 10-30 seconds might be a good fit.

3) What do you want to accomplish with the logo animation?

Are you helping to explain your business through the animation? This can help communicate more about your products, services, or cause. That might also justify a longer length.

4) How much can you invest into this to make it look awesome?

The longer the duration the less forgiving an audience will be for low quality work especially if you are going past about 10 seconds.

 So on the short end of the scale a .5-1 second logo animation would only fit for content like a vine, or a movie trailer, but this short length should be rare. Equally rare a 30 second animation might only fit for the start of a feature film or something similar. The sweet spot seems to be about 4-6 seconds and is probably safest for 95% of the people out there.

Let me know if you have any questions.

If you found this helpful… please leave a quick comment!

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Daniel K Johnson, Creative Director

Panda Motion ::creative media
Spin My Logo ::brand motion