This is a quick lesson in logo types. The purpose of this lesson is to help you consider the three main types of logo you could choose from if you were having a logo designed or updated. Hopefully, this will help you decide what logo type is right for your business and to some extent will help you decide the tone of the logo – i.e. what kind of image you want the logo to project.
Type 1: The font-only logo
As the above title would suggest, the first type of logo only includes lettering. It is perfectly acceptable (and common) to have a logo that is recognisable purely by the font used. In some respects, this is the hardest logo type to choose because there is less about the logo that makes it distinctive, so often the font-based logo becomes just one part of an overall ‘brand style’ that makes the company recognisable. Some very obvious fonts would include Coca Cola, Google and Harry Potter – these fonts would probably be recognisable even if they were used for a completely different word. But there are also slightly less individual fonts that are equally recognisable when seen in context, such as facebook, Yahoo! or Nokia.
A font-based logo can be ideal if you are looking to project a minimalistic or possibly ‘exclusive’ style. Many exclusive hotels adopt a font-based logo and use colour and subtle design to support the logo in creating an overall brand style.
Type 2: The abstract-icon logo
Next is the abstract-icon logo. This logo may or may not have text as part of it, but it will show some form of motif that makes the logo identifiable. The perfect example is Nike. The Nike tick is abstract and is recognisable with or without the Nike name. This is also a common approach with car manufacturers, such as Audi, Mercedes and Renault. All have abstract icons, and in their cases, because they are so established, their icons are also recognised without any brand text accompanying them.
One of the benefits of an abstract logo is that it helps add individuality to the design and therefore can be more easily recognisable – especially for a business that doesn’t have a huge budget to build widespread brand recognition. Another benefit is that the abstract icon can then be used separately from the logo in other design areas (e.g. the icon shape could be faded onto the background of brochure pages or elements of the website) this helps the logo fit more coherently with its surroundings.
Type 3: The descriptive-icon logo
The descriptive-icon logo is exactly the same as the abstract icon logo, but in this case, the icon portrays something about the business, such as the business name, the nature of the business or a benefit of the business. So, rather than being completely abstract, the icon has a visual link with the company. One well know example would be Apple. Most of the well known brands that adopt this approach, use their icon as a visual link to their name (e.g. Jaguar Cars use an icon depicting a Jaguar and The World Wildlife Fund use the image of a panda).
It is often more difficult to use an icon that expresses the nature of a business without making the logo too complex and messy, so this type of descriptive icon is used less and less these days. However, some examples include Lamborghini’s bull icon that reinforces the ‘power’ of their cars and BP’s use of a slightly abstract flower symbol as a way to challenge perceptions of their business being less than eco-friendly (and after the recent oil spillage, they’ll need a lot more than a flower icon in their logo to change perceptions).
And finally, an emerging logo type?
Perhaps a forth type of logo starting to emerge is what I would call the ‘non-logo’. These types of logos are starting to appear on some online-only businesses where a ‘fancy’ logo detracts from the prime real estate that is the ‘top of the page’. This means that some logos are moving towards being almost indistinguishable font-based logos at the top of the web page. One of several examples is allaboutsymbian.com that gets over 1.5m visitors each month, and yet (without trying to be rude) the logo looks more like it was created in 2 minutes in Microsoft Word!
Design, Logos
