What makes a product successful? This simply is determined by factors that nobody else than the brand-owner can decide. That being said, some things definitely give a hint that you’re on the right track, for instance; high number of sales, mentions in the news, and the emotional factor – how lovable is your brand?
No matter which way you look at it, it’s likely that none of the above can be achieved if your brand does not meet the simple entry requirement: is it being recognized? This brand recognition is crucial for even being able to start building a simple relationship. Think of your brand as a human being, if you don’t know they exist how will you ever be able to have any relationship with them? With brands one of the most simplistic and iconic building blocks is the logo, often paired with the brand icon. Think of Nike, Apple or Coca-Cola
Businesses open and close, fashion comes and goes, the whole world changes every day. However, if a company’s logo is eye-catching, it can be easily memorable and may even leave its mark in history forever.
There are a lot of examples of famous brands changing their logos. Why would they do that if the brands were established, well-known and customers recognized them at the very first sight? The answer is simple – changing logo trends. No business wants to have an outdated look, especially among young and new competing brands.
In this article, we will dive into the main 2019 logo trends to find out how to be on top of the branding game.
Simplicity and Minimalism
There is a common belief that life nowadays is very complicated. That’s why we use so many gadgets that are supposed to make our daily routine easier. We are overwhelmed with information which is one of the reasons why even logos aim to keep things simple.
This is often what we refer to as ‘iconisation’. This means that we eliminate all the unneeded items, until the most simplistic and stripped back version remains. If your brand is still recognised in this ‘bare basic’ form, congratulations!
These simple lines and fonts are a new trend. Icons become as flat as possible and they take limited space. Sometimes brands go as far as deleting any words in the logo to leave only a simple symbol. It’s a rather wise trend considering that our brains prefer visualization to text, as they are easier to process, and the eyes don’t need to see the full item in order to create a full picture. This means the full brand actually lives in your mind!
One of the modern trends in logo design is the use of handwritten typography, also called script, this completely deviatiates from classic serif fonts. This makes the product appear as more personal to the client as it resembles his or her own handwriting of the brand’s name.
Make It Bold
If your logo has a recognizable icon – the next steps are really simple: remove all the words, make the icon as flat as you can and voila: your design is trendy!
But what if your logo doesn’t have any graphic symbols and consists of words only? In such a case, you should make everything go bold, just like Google did.
Think of it this way- a bold logo doesn’t just shout to the world about its existence, it also shows the world that it’s proud and confident. Think of your logo as a person and you will think of a bold logo as a tall person standing with straight shoulders, ready to take on the world.
A Beautiful Mind
In spite of the tendency to incorporate simplicity, very simple logo design may create an opposite effect – the logo may appear uncreative and… boring. The solution? Optical illusions and eye teasing pictures.
Let your logo design play a little bit with the customer’s imagination. Who doesn’t like riddles? Once a person figures out the meaning behind your logo, he or she will never forget your icon. Moreover, any similar images will probably remind them of your brand!
Paint It Up!
Modern life is not that bright, especially for those who spend most of their day in an office. Therefore, everybody wants to see more colors around which is one of the reasons why colorful logos are trendy in 2019.
Have you ever thought, why McDonald’s logo features yellow and, for example, Google has multiple colors? According to various psychological surveys, each color has a different influence on a person. The mentioned yellow stands for “happiness” while multiple colors make us think of diversity.
Think of it this way, the shape determines the brand & makes it recognizable, whereas the color adds emotion! It’s up to you to decide which emotion you would like to create for your brand!
Old but Gold
The word “rebranding” may sound like a sentence used only by well-established companies operating for a relatively long time. Although the primary goal of rebranding may seem to be about money, it’s more than that. The brand’s logo (which is usually the first one to be refreshed) has the biggest influence on the brand’s recognition and, if used for a long time, is recognizable among people from multiple generations. Therefore, update your logo design but do not change it too much, this is what we often refer to as an ‘evolutionary redesign’. You don’t want to lose the recognition you’ve worked so long for!
Logos of companies with rich and long histories can look like royal emblems and in that way make customers feel that the brand is trustworthy.
However, if your product is a newbie on the market, the job to make your audience perceive you as trustworthy is more difficult. You still have a chance to achieve this by incorporating vintage style, which is another 2019 trend!
It may happen that vintage style doesn’t really suit the nature of your product. Modern logo design trends bring back the 80’s and the 90’s fashion of bright colors, neon lights and sharp edges. Allowing your logo to share some sense of nostalgia will definitely make your brand logo cool!
A Touch of Humor
A bit of fun isn’t odd unless your brand tries to present a very serious look and fun is inappropriate. If that isn’t the case, don’t be too serious as current logo design trends offer you a possibility to create something fun and lively.
A good sense of humor is often a key to win someone’s heart. Therefore, fun logos not only create a good impression but also make people feel comfortable and joyful.
Trends, including the ones in graphic design, are as changeable as the weather in London. You can never guess what is going to be the trend next year or next season. An excellent logo design must represent your brand’s character as well as be your business card for the long term. Therefore, it should be created by a professional designer.
Our team of professional, highly-qualified designers here at DesignBro is always ready to help you make your ideas come true and create a logo according to all the latest branding trends.
Besides having grown up in the design Industry, Christiaan has advised some of the world’s largest companies on their branding & packaging designs. Has been the resident judge for design awards, and has spoken at numerous global design & marketing events. Christiaan founded the London office of the award-winning Cartils agency, and has founded the DesignBro.com platform.
