Technology

The 5 Types of Logos and How to Use Them for Your Brand

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By Kaleem Bhatti

One of the major tasks to focus on while logo designing is picking up a perfect and suitable logotype for your brand. There are 5 broad categories that logotypes are classified into. Depending upon the need and demand of your brand, you must choose an appropriate logotype. The motive at last should be to create a stunning logo design that creates the perfect image of your brand in front of a target audience sharing brand values and messages. The major challenge will be to create an attractive logo that is distinctive enough for people to notice. So, try to create a recognizable and memorable logo using just your initials. Look at some examples of logo design online and broaden your horizon before starting the designing process.

You can take professional help in the logo designing process. Create your own logo design online by using apps like online logo maker. The type of logo that you pick will create a huge impact on how people perceive your brand and at end it will surely have an impact on your professional and market growth. 

So, read below to find out the 5 types of logos and how to use them for your brand. 

  • Wordmark

Wordmark logo design is a freestanding word or words. It is also known as the wordmark or logotype. Wordmark logos are used to cast only the company’s name in text. These are the most straightforward logo designs and can be based on handwriting, custom fonts, or less common yet distinctive fonts, or signatures. The most popular examples of wordmark logos are Disney, Facebook, Yahoo, Pinterest, Google, Sony, etc. 

For popular and big businesses, choosing a wordmark logo design can be a way of conveying their confidence, history, and stability. Not only big brands, but startups can also go for a wordmark logo for their company and create an identity with their company name. 

Wordmark logos are great for companies who want to showcase the uniqueness of their company name without any hesitation. If your company name has the power to convey your brand message, and mission and says it all, then the wordmark logo design can be a great choice for you. 

This logotype can be a uniquely texted logo that says the name of the company in an attractive font style. A wordmark logo is the name of the company set in a stylized font. While designing a logo the major focus will be on the font style and the color of your logo design. As you do not have any imagery to show your brand identity and message, you need to make sure the typeface and colors are capable of making the desired effect. 

With a wordmark logo, you would not have to face the problem of choosing the perfect icon or symbol that represents the company and is recognizable. However, in wordmark logos, if not done well, you might end up creating a generic and useless logo design. 

  • Lettermark

A lettermark logotype is also popularly known as the monogram logo. This logotype is also made of text but it consists only of the initials of the brand rather than the full name of the company. 

The best examples of lettermark logos are Cable News Network (CNN), Home Box Office (HBO), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). These popular examples suggest that if your company has a long name that can be hard to remember and recognize then it is a great option to get a lettermark logo design. 

So, the lettermark logo is a good choice for those companies that have hard names which might be difficult to remember or pronounce, or too long to work on branding or marketing materials. The major thing to keep in mind is whether your logo will look desirable when it is scaled down to print on a pen or business card. Now modern website design is considering the appropriate placement of the logo.

You can shorten the company name to its initials making it so easy for the audience to remember your logo design as well as the name of the company. This technique is quite useful in global markets as the majority of the audience can build a connection with the initials of your company. 

  • Brandmark 

Moving further, the brandmark logotype is also quite a popular one. You can find plenty of brand mark logo designs in the market. This logotype is also known as a pictorial mark. The most popular examples of brandmark logos are Apple, the Nike Swoosh, the WWF panda, etc. 

A pictorial logo design is one of the best ways of grabbing the attention of the target audience. You can create a business logo design that readily catches attention in the market. A brand mark is a great option to form a psychological connection with the brand and impress the audience. The human brain responds on a deeper level to an image than written text or even shapes. So, you can use this trick and choose an icon to create your brand logo design. 

The bird symbol of Twitter, the ghost symbol of Snapchat, and the camera icon of Instagram are distinctive and encourage people to share content on their websites without even thinking. 

Such logos can be understood everywhere in the world. This gives you the benefit of getting understood by the majority of the target audience and thus you can convey the brand message quite easily. 

  • Combination Mark

A combination mark is a combination of wordmark and symbol. The most popular brands which have combination marks as their logos are Adidas, Walmart, Microsoft, Lacoste, Doritos, etc. 

Combination marks are particularly beneficial for new businesses or startups. You can build your brand and create a memorable image using both a wordmark and a symbol. Once people start relating with your symbol and remember the name of the company, you can work with the symbol only as your business logo design. 

Combination mark is a great logotype as it helps you to create a visual idea about your brand as well as make the brand name clear to the target audience. Brands with complex names can add a symbol along with company names to make sure people create the right perception. 

With a combination mark, you can effectively create a positive impression with distinct logo design. 

  • Emblem 

Just like combination marks, an emblem also has a combination of text as well as symbols. However, in this case the text is included inside the symbol. The popular examples of brands that have an emblem logo type are Starbucks, Mastercard, Harley-Davidson, UPS, Burger King, etc. 

Emblem logo designs are a kind of flexible combination mark. The elements of this logotype are a little difficult to separate out. These logos are majorly used by schools, libraries, colleges, charities, sports teams, government agencies. 

Emblem logos are perfect for these organizations as it resembles a badge or seal. Also, Emblems look awesome as embroidered patches on uniforms. So, this logotype creates a sense of authority, authenticity and trust. 

The major disadvantage of having an emblem logo design is that sometimes it will not look as good as it is when scaled down. 

Conclusion 

While building your own brand, there are hundreds of things that you will need to focus on. But what needs to be done should be done. So, you need to make sure you pay proper attention while creating the brand logo design and choosing the logotype. Out of the above mentioned logotypes, you can pick out the best and suitable design for your brand depending on various factors.