diff --git a/uffd/__init__.py b/uffd/__init__.py
index ab98f736b3035cccf545fa662345a73edeb5e49b..a933db827553cf3909ef715e216b37b830708946 100644
--- a/uffd/__init__.py
+++ b/uffd/__init__.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ def create_app(test_config=None):
 	app.config.from_mapping(
 		SECRET_KEY=secrets.token_hex(128),
 		SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI="sqlite:///{}".format(os.path.join(app.instance_path, 'uffd.sqlit3')),
+		BRANDING_LOGO_URL=url_for("static", filename="empty.png")
 	)
 	app.config.from_pyfile('default_config.cfg')
 
diff --git a/uffd/default_config.cfg b/uffd/default_config.cfg
index 6988eb94499564608c7c32d9a4b9fdef5cfd4fee..f33010a2b392addff773204a9d30b04f9cc4e03e 100644
--- a/uffd/default_config.cfg
+++ b/uffd/default_config.cfg
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ SERVICES=[
 # Enable the service overview page for users who are not logged in
 SERVICES_PUBLIC=True
 
-BRANDING_LOGO_URL=''
+#BRANDING_LOGO_URL='https://example.com/logo.svg'
 
 # do NOT set in production
 
diff --git a/uffd/static/empty.png b/uffd/static/empty.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6f8f96911216dc473ccfa5153d511cc069da1165
Binary files /dev/null and b/uffd/static/empty.png differ