First impression is the last impression, when it comes to Digital businesses or businesses with a digital presence, logos are a great way to create that first impression in the mind of the users, it is also a great way to communicate your message to the customer, and to build a brand identity. Logos are a combination of typographic and visual elements that together represent an organization, a single person, or a group of people. In this article, we will discuss what Logos are, the types of Logos, and how to use them.
Types of Logos
What are Logos?
Logos are a combination of typographic and visual elements that together represent an organization, a single person, or a group of people. The purpose of a logo is to give a unique identity to your brand and to make a visual representative of your brand. Logos are a great way of creating a first impression in the minds of the users, it is also a great way to communicate your message to the customer and to build a brand identity.
Types of Logos
There are 7 types of Logos, following is the list of types of Logos:
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Wordmark logos: Workmark logos are characterized by text in a specific color and typeface. It can simply be considered as a Logo with text. Workmark logo are simple and easy to design logos where the text represents the company name.
Examples of Lettermark logos are logos of companies like Google, The New York Times, Coca-Cola etc.
Tip: For Wordmark logo, make sure to use a typeface (Serif or Sans-Serif) and Font that is representative of the type of company or business you can designing for. -
Lettermark (or monogram) logos: Lettermark Logos are a combination of text and colors where the text represents the company’s initials. Lettermark Logos are also known as monograms and are generally used for companies that have a lengthy name.
Examples of Lettermark logos are logos of companies like Hewlett-Packard (HP), International Business Machines (IBM), Home Box Office (HBO) etc.
Tip: Lettermark Logos are more easy to recognized and remember, you can use this type of logo to make your logo memorable. -
Pictorial logos: Pictorial mark logos also known as Brand mark logos are graphics or icons or a combination of both. Brandmark logos are mostly used as the graphic representation of the name of the company or the business.
Example of Brand mark logos are logos of companies like Apple, Twitter etc.
Tip: Brand mark Logos must be the graphic representation of the company’s name, so for a company named banana, the Brand mark must be a banana vector or image. -
Emblem logos: Emblem logos are the name suggests is essentially an emblem that represents a brand. It is a combination of graphics, text, symbols etc. that come together to represent a company or a brand.
Example of Emblem logos are logos of companies like Paramount, Starbucks, Harley Davidson etc.
Tip: Emblem logos are not only used by companies but also by Websites, communities, social media groups etc. -
Abstract logos: An Abstract logo is a unique graphic designed to connect with the viewers and make them feel a connection with the company or the product. Abstract logos are much more visually appealing than other logos and is very carefully designed to cater specific emotions in visitor’s mind.
Example of Abstract logos are logos of companies like Mastercard, Spotify, Adidas, Nike etc.
Tip: Abstract Logos must be visually appealing since they not only represent a brand but is also used in products under that brand (like Nike shoes have the same logo as the brand). -
Mascot logos: Mascot logos are the name suggests are have mascots in them. Mascots are cartoonish caricature graphics used to represent a company. Mascots look like cartoon characters with exaggerated emotions hence are mostly used to for logos of companies targeting younger audience.
Example of Mascot logos are logos of companies like KFC, Michelin etc.
Tip: When creating Mascots for mascot logos make sure that the emotions shown by the mascot is in accordance with the brand values. -
Combination logos: Combination logos are the combination of various elements that we can have in a logo – images, text, symbols etc. It can be considered as the combination of a Wordmark and Abstract logo the only difference being Combination logos are much more simpler than Abstract logos.
Example of Combination logos are logos of companies like Lays, Dove, Burger King, Amazon etc.
Tip: Combination logos is the go to choice when the brand is itself not sure about which type of logo they want from the designer.
Different Types of Logos
Best Practices
- The simpler the better: Contrary to popular belief, simpler logos perform better in capturing the user’s attention and are much well taken by the customers, most of the popular brands you see like Apple, Nike, Adidas, HP, etc. all have a simple logo. This retains the logo in the mind of the customers.
- Originality: One of the most important aspects of designing a logo is to have originality in your logo, originality makes your logo unique from others and makes it stand out in the sea of logos. Avoid the generic visuals everybody else is using and come up with an original design.
- Brand Perception: While designing the logo, you must research about the target audience you are designing for and make sure that the brand logo resonates with the work they are doing. Before start designing the Logo, research about the target audience’s demographics and you will get design insights from there.
- Versatile: Your logo design must be versatile, by this we mean that it should be able to work with different backgrounds. This helps when you may be changing themes of your application or your website. For creating a versatile logo, you can simply design your logo and test with in different backgrounds and iterate of the basis of the results,
- User feedback and iterating: The first iteration of your logo may not be perfect but taking feedback from the users can provide valuable insights about the logo design and what things should be improved. In order to continuously improve the Logo we have to that user feedback and iterate our design.
Conclusion
Logos are combination of typographic and visual elements that together represent a business organization, a single person or a group of people. Having is logo has now become an industry standard not just for digital businesses but for any business with an online presence. But logos are a double edged swords, while a good logo creates a lasting impression in the mind of the customer and can help you build a brand, and poorly designed logo can also harm your brand. Follow the points we discussed in the article in order to design a professional logo.