Emblematic success
Logo designs are meant to embody the very spirit of the company they represent. Some logos remain unchanged after decades of use, while many are updated periodically to reflect a more modern look and feel. When it comes to creating a successful logo for your brand, it seems simplicity is the key.
Udemy, an education marketplace, examined 50 brands’ logos on Fortune's 2015 World's Most Admired Companies list to figure out what unites the strongest labels.
The study breaks the designs down by color, typeface, shape and a few other criteria. As turned out from the inquiry, simple design is preferred in most cases as it facilitates consumers to understand the message.
Some logos are so iconic that their color is almost as important as their content. The color range is abundant; however most successful companies use only one or two colors in their labels. Of those firms, more than half choose blue or red as the primary logo color. The certain impact triggered by these colors is likely the reason. Red is said to represent passion and aggression, whereas blue is said to constitute comfort and trust (thus blue is mostly used by financial institutions).
And here are some key findings: of the 50 logos analyzed - for brands including Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Facebook and Walt Disney - red and blue were the most popular colors. Also, 43 of the top companies use no more than two colors in their designs.
Another important component of logo design is shape and flatness. Logos with a rectangular shape are by far the most common, while logos with no overall shape are rare. Regardless of the structure, there is a rapidly increasing prevalence of flat logos as they look better on mobile devices (apps and websites).
While most companies share the opinion that flat, single-color logos are ideal for showing a modern and innovative approach to businesses, there are characteristics that have fewer accords. Font styles and cases are categories where usage is more variable. Calligraphic fonts are the least common, as are logos with mixed-type cases. Sans serif fonts (typefaces without accented edges) are overused nowadays; a switch to a more longhand-type font utilization would be interesting to witness.
Most companies use several logo versions in different situations. Common logo variants include: brand name only, brand name with icon, and icon only. Coca-Cola, Facebook, and McDonald's are just a few popular examples.
With all the time, money, and effort that go into creating the perfect logo, designs are still subject to consumer preference. A recent survey launched shows that the flat logo trend is spot on, representing 90 percent of the respondents' most preferred logos. For logos that have a defined shape, round is universally favorite.
The statistics demonstrate specific design trends in utilization, and in many cases, these details are meant for the target audience. They say there is no accounting for taste, a fact that is made clear by the overall top three logos in consumer preference survey; these logos - Amazon, Apple and Starbucks - differ a lot. Perhaps in the world of corporate logos, the targeted audience is biased by the success of a company.
