The Pendulum of Logo Design
Whenever you take a closer look at trends, you notice that there is a pendulum that swings. Trends are evolutionary.
The current trend is starting to swing from clean, contemporary aesthetics towards curvy, retro designs. Designs that reflect a new attitude through colour and embellishments.
Simply Mo created by Creative Imagineering
Typography of Logo Design
Over the last three years in particular, from a typography standpoint, the Logo Design Report has seen a transition toward very austere sans serif logo designs. Google flipped from a serif font to a sans serif, and other major brands like Verizon, Calvin Klein, and Century 21 did the same. This shift in design is to clarify messaging and convey transparency. This simplification can strip brands of personality and they can become too sterile. Designers then counter this sterility with embellishments.
Retro Logo Designs Make A Comeback
Very expressive logos are making a comeback. There is a nostalgic influence on past decades – popular in the ’70s, ’80s, and early ’90s. Letters with big, expressive serifs, similar to a man having a mustache. It’s an added embellishment that changes the viewer’s perspective, perhaps recalling a different time period, but done in a uniquely new way, with modern influences. This resurgence of retro is being attributed to Millennials with examples such as tiki bars and speakeasies.
“By going backward, you can be selective as to what you want to bring forward and blend it with contemporary aesthetics.”
Neovintage
Colour Of Logo Design
These days colour mainly lives on-screen which has led to greater intensity in colour range. Instagram has been a big influence.Colours are merging and blending. Gradients are now being part of the colour palette. Most gradients are very subtle like red shifting toward red-orange, in essence making a new colour. People now recognize gradients as colours. This is a trend that will continue to shift and grow. The Instagram logo is a case in point.
5 Logo Design Trends in Motion
Outline
Over the last year, there has been an uptick of logos encased with a mono-weight outline. An astral aura if you will, exuding a rich karmic energy. Some see it as a stylistic pop of embellishment that allows an otherwise unremarkable marks to capture additional attention and project a bit of its own graphic energy.
Outline
Cut
Designers take their letterforms and font’s pretty seriously. So, when designers embellish a letterform, they are seen to be improving it. However, if they start removing a stroke here or there, this is considered ‘disruption.’ It’s a trend that’s capturing the attention of the consumer. With Slate’s new wordmark, the A is no less legible, and it helps convey the journalistic editing and overlapping of content that’s a part of their process. When crafted with wit and prudence, these solutions earn honours in disruption 101.
Cut
Linear Fade
The simpler the design the more effective these read. Adding channels doubles the complexity of any design so brevity of strokes is essential.
Linearfade
Gold
The use of gold used to carry some ‘cringe-factor.’ There has been a notable swell in the number of logo’s that now features a subtle gold gradient. Gold, used properly, still carries a 14K level of prestige, elegance, and sophistication like no other colour.
Gold
Punctuation
Logo design is such a succinct practice exactly because a logo has to completely speak for itself. There’s no space to attach a preamble or an explanation as a sidecar on a symbol. Yet, the last year has been notable for the refresh and creation of numerous brands punctuated into an alternate state of meaning. These periods, commas, colons, and more are opening a previously unconsidered dialogue with consumers.
Punctuation
What’s in a Trend?
A trend doesn’t imply ‘trendy’ as in here today, gone tomorrow. We all live by trends—whether it’s fashion, food, or design. We like them, and we adopt them because they make life more diverse and fun, even as they evolve and change. The key takeaway from this is not to imitate, but to find a way to push these ideas forward and make them your own.
2018 marks the 16th year of this report conducted by Logo Lounge. It offers the opportunity to review thousands upon thousands of logos one at a time looking for the nuances and artifacts of emerging trends.
Considering a logo refresh or a new logo? Email us
Original Article & Images: Logo Lounge
Thanks for sharing your insights on logo designing. While working with Ionva, I also learned a lot about packaging design. But your information had given me new insights thank you!
It’s our pleasure Bruce – we are thrilled you received some new insights – thank you for sharing.