Don’t you find it curious how some successful brands pick their logo shapes so efficiently? It may seem like an easy decision, but there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Your logo isn’t just the name of your brand; it’s also your brand’s entire identity, reflecting who you are and what you truly stand for.
Your logo shape is what makes you recognizable over time. Imagine a scenario where you see a logo on a speeding bus and do not have time to take in the letters or graphics on it. Just the shape and the brand color can remind consumers about the brand.
Here’s a little game to prove that shapes are enough to help decipher a logo. Can you name all these brands simply based on their color and shape?
While recognition is one thing, there’s psychology at play here too. Different shapes invoke a feeling, and successful brands work towards attracting these feelings when they design their logo.
Shape psychology is not only at work in logo creation but in every design in life. That’s why a triangle reminds you of an arrowhead and closed circles remind you of being cared for and protected.
Before you set out to pick the perfect shape for your brand’s logo, ask yourself a question. What do you want your customers to feel when they view your logo? Logos have a phenomenal ability to make these feelings come true through their representation.
Here are some of the most popular logo shapes you could explore for your brand.
Free of sharp edges and complete in themselves, circles are the most wholesome shapes in the world. Ellipses, ovals, or perfectly round, circular shapes make great placeholders for your brand. They symbolize infinite continuity, safety, reliability, completeness, and perfection.
Everything, from life-saving medication to a planetary body in the cosmos, is circular. This makes this one of the most popular logo types. Brands often combine multiple circles to symbolize different things.
Take the Olympics logo, for instance, which stands for different groups of individuals coming together in the spirit of sportsmanship.
Pfizer, on the other hand, uses a pill-shaped logo that has become one of the most recognizable emblems in the world of pharmaceuticals.
Because of their balanced nature and defined sides, rectangular logos of all shapes represent stability, balance, reliability, professionalism, boldness, robustness, and confidence.
Rectangular logos could be vertical elongated, horizontal elongated, squares, diagonally placed (like Domino’s Pizza), or even be represented in a 3D fashion.
The Dropbox logo employs multiple rectangles to get the message across. They create a 3D-like open box that symbolizes the storage capacity that the service offers.
The National Geographic logo uses yellow, which represents the sun, while the vertical rectangular frame depicts what the brand prides itself on: imagery. The rectangle reflects how National Geographic prioritizes and captures the preservation of the Earth’s resources and inhabitants.
Among the most emphasized logos, triangular logos represent a definitive target. They could stand for ambition, focus, mysticism, science, knowledge, wisdom, edginess, excellence, performance, and challenge.
A triangle could represent a graph, the way Adidas uses a design that speaks of performance. Or it could simply be a three-pointed star that Mercedes Benz has owned for generations. The German automaker almost uses it almost as a religious symbol to represent their mission of universal motorization.
Like every other logo, a triangle can be integrated with another shape. Take, for instance, the YouTube logo that puts a play button on a field of red. It makes you want to click it and enjoy the video content on the platform.
Logos that want you to feel secure, well-structured, powerfully grounded, stable, calm, and assured could contain horizontal lines. When you think of lined logos, you wonder how many logos use this technique. But it is incredible how many of them do.
Horizontal lines can also symbolize speed, as in the case of DHL. Being a logistics company, the horizontal lines on their logo have been used extensively, even on their vehicles.
Another fantastic example of a horizontal lined design is the AT&T logo. As a telecom provider, the lines wrap around the globe to assure consumers that they can be connected in any corner of the world.
Vertical lines in logos can be used to symbolize progress, performance, measurability, achievement, strength, assertion, and possibilities. Brands that use vertical lines in their logos are all about proving a point.
By making the font look like a racetrack, the Formula 1 logo uses both vertical and horizontal lines to show speed and acceleration.
Also known as organic logos, natural logos are a work of pure creativity. They simply represent what they need to without necessarily conforming to shapes and geometric discipline.
Natural logos are inspired by the geometry of the world we live in. They are governed by the design principles of naturally occurring elements, from animals to human faces. Take the Ferrari logo, for instance. It represents the speed of the racehorse on a field of yellow to represent the city of Modena.
The Disney logo cleverly uses horizontal lines to indicate the child-appropriateness of its content, while the logo is largely comprised of the shape of the actual park and has a fantastic allure for young minds.
Among the least frequently used in this list, spiral logos can be turned into works of art if done right. They are mystical, philosophical, scientific, religious, absorbing, energetic, hypnotic, and even calming.
Ubisoft has used this style of logo design to symbolize the madness and creativity that the brand is known for.
For brands that want to stand out, abstract logo shapes are the best option. They allow creators to be unique and create their very own shape and form.
While abstract logos may seem to be too intellectual to decode for some consumers, they always have a hidden meaning.
Among the most famous logos in the world is the Nike tick mark. Today, the tick mark is so recognizable that the brand doesn’t need to write its name with the logo. Nike is named after the Greek Goddess of Victory. The logo is said to represent the goddess’ wing.
While it may just look like a simple tick mark, there’s a lot of thought that has gone into it, which has finally led to its present, minimal rendition. It is today referred to as the Nike Swoosh.
Now that you are exposed to the various kinds of logo shapes and the effect that they can have on your customers, you need to set yourself up to choose wisely.
This is quite a basic question, but it gets lost in the bustle of creativity and options as you go about designing a logo that does the job best.
Always pick the logo you like and place it on a large canvas against your competition. Does it stand out? It needn’t be loud or garish but could also just be classy and authoritative without trying too hard.
You do not want to assign a funky logo to a pharmacy business or a geometric one to a kid’s play park. Pick your logo shape wisely.
The challenge with selecting logo shapes is that there is too much to choose from. Once you have the three fundamental questions answered, you will be closer to picking a logo that is more evocative, effective, and, above all, memorable.
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