6 Different Types of Logo – Which One?
Having a strong logo is an essential part of any brand. Usually your logo is the first piece of branding that your customers will interact with, so it needs to be right.
For the likes of Coca Cola, the logo has gained its own value, with the brand being worth an estimated $71 million dollars*.
Most business owners appreciate the need for a logo but do they really understand the range of styles available and the reasoning behind each option?
In this blog we detail 6 different types of logos and look at which one suits your brand or business best based on the brief.
1. WORDMARK
Wordmark logo’s are the text-only option. They tend to be popular with big brands, such as Google, as they are simple to use and make it very easy to remember the brand name. Another positive is they often require less variation when it comes to rebranding as demonstrated below.
2. LETTERMARK
Similar to wordmarks, lettermarks consist only of letters and usually the company’s initials are used – this type of logo is regularly referred to as a monogram.
Lettermarks are all about simplifying and creating a memorable brand, which is why they are a great solution when designing for a company with long names. For example its much easy to remember BBC over British Broadcasting Corporation.
3. ABSTRACT MARK
The terms ‘abstract’ is used because it isn’t always obvious how the mark is associated with the brand. Instead of being a recognisable shape, like the Twitter bird, its an abstract/geometric form that represents the brand. The Pepsi or BP logo is a good example of these.
The advantages of using a symbol like this is that you leave all cultural or political connections associated with a specific image or symbol out of the equation.
4. EMBLEM
You could say emblems are the oldest type of logo around. Crests were used to represent family names and universities, while sporting teams have been using these since at least the 1850s. One of the most famous ‘high street’ brands using an emblem would be Starbucks – their design shows how emblems can fit into 21st century design.
As emblem designs are often detail intensive, they give a brand a formal and unwavering appearance. This does however make these kind of logos less versatile.
5. PICTORIAL (or LOGO SYMBOLS)
We said previously that abstract marks don’t make an obvious association with the brand – well pictorial marks are the opposite. A pictorial mark is an icon or graphic based logo that is a literal visual description of the name.
When choosing the image, it’s important to consider broader associations of this logo and decide if this image will stand the test of time as there isn’t much flexibility once something has been designed and marketed.
Famous pictorial logos examples are Apple and Twitter.
6. COMBINATION
A combination logo is a logo comprised of either a lettermark or wordmark and either an abstract or a pictorial symbol.
There aren’t really any hard set rules with combination logos, its just crucial that these aren’t too busy as all logos need to be simple and memorable. The text can be on top of the mark, stacked on top or sit below.
Combination logos are very versatile as you have the option to use the text and mark separately, therefore you essentially have two memorable marks.
To summarise, it is very important to discuss your brand identity with a professional. Giving them a clear understanding of what your goals are and who you would like to reach so that they can assist you in creating the right logo type that would suit your brand or business and give people a clear and memorable understanding of who and what you are.
If you are looking to get a new logo designed or looking to update your current one, please give us a shout.