Logos, Icons and Avatars (Part 4)

Logo Types and Color choices

Logos are important and they do have serious business implications but I guess you know that already, especially if you’ve read any article in this series. Let’s go over a few stuff again

Great logos are simple, meaningful, relevant, memorable, distinct, scalable, and versatile, and making the right logo choice for your organization or product will require that you to understand the meaning of every element in the logo and be sure that it communicates your brand ideology to your audience. To do that, you have to

1. Define your brand identity

2. Look around you

3. Pick the style that mostly represents your brand persona

4. Choose the right logo type

5. And the right colors

Though this article is about the last two, you can read more about the first three here

Logo Types and choosing the right one

There are seven major types of logo

1. Monogram

2. Wordmark

3. Pictorial mark

4. Abstract logo mark

5. Emblem

6. Mascot

7. Combination Mark (or hybrid)

Monogram

Also called lettermark, is a typography-based logo, usually made with the company’s initials or a few letters, like CNN, BBC, HBO. This is especially useful for companies or products with a long name

Wordmark

Also called logotype is a simple name logo like google and coca-cola, mostly with a custom font. Wordmarks work well for companies or products with short names, like Visa. They are great especially if you want your name to be all out, and, if you decide to use a wordmark, you have to pay great attention to the typography because, asides from the name, the typography is your chance to communicate your idea.

Wordmarks are really great for names whose intrinsic meaning matches the brand ideology.

Pictorial mark

A few great examples would be Twitter, Apple, and Puma.

A pictorial mark as the name implies is a graphic or image-based logo. They are iconographic images that are easily recognizable and represent your brand with an image (99designs).

The major decision here is the image to use and how it will resonate with your audience.

The main thing about a pictorial mark is that the image is recognizable.

Abstract mark

Similar but unlike the pictorial mark, the image of an abstract mark is not recognizable (like an apple or a bird). It could be a couple of shapes and lines coming together, like Pepsi, Mistubishi, Olympics, and Spotify.

Abstract marks are great because you are able to combine many ideas and form a symbol or icon that communicates your brand uniquely and are better left to designers who understand how colors, shape, and structure come together to make meaning. You should actually hire a brand agency like Pentagram or Dominant Brand Intelligence

Emblem

Seen Starbucks logo? They rock! And yes, that’s an emblem. It’s a combination of text in an icon or symbol. Academic institutions and government mostly use emblems because it goes well with seals, badges, and crests. There are great modern emblem logo designs too, like Harley Davidson Motorcycles and Starbucks.

The downside is, emblems are not as versatile so they might be limited in application. Remember one of the qualities of a great logo is versatility. Emblems may look too small and unreadable when scaled down; they may not go very well on shirts as they would on paper. The hack is to keep your emblem as simple and uncomplicated as possible and you’ll be just fine.

Mascots

Seen KFC logo? Yeah, that’s a mascot.

A mascot is an illustrated character that is symbolic or that represents your business. For KFC, it’s the founder. Mascots are great for communicating fun, appealing to kids and families. They are also great for games

Combination mark

A combination mark is simply a hybrid of two or more of the types aforementioned. You can get by with a wordmark + pictorial mark or any combination you think communicates your idea more. Most logos in the world today are combination marks; they are easier because you don’t have to stick to a principle, so, get creative.

Burger King is a great example!

Choose the right colors.

Colors are known to influence mood. For example, blue can be calming, corporate, and mature, red can get you excited and passionate, black symbolizes luxury and sleekness.

Colors can mean different things in different cultures too, and the combination of colors that you choose is important to how well your logo resonates with your audience. Colors are strongly associated with feelings and I see them as my opportunity to set the right mood for a logo.

When choosing or reviewing the colors for your logo,

1. Be sure that the meaning of the color communicates your idea to your audience (in their culture)
2. Keep it minimal; two to three colors at most. If you choose to use more colors, you better know what you are doing.

If you get stuck or you can’t afford a brand agency, use blue. You may not be right but you can never go wrong with blue. Scientists say blue is the world's most preferred color.

Communicate. Your goal has to be to communicate, not to pour out yourself (on the design) but to communicate. The idea is that the choice you make is what best communicates your idea, not just to you but to your audience.

Share this article with someone if it helped.

Finally, it’s time to write about icons. I hope you read the next article