Treatment Of Icons And Text In Logo Design

Last updated on November 18th, 2021

Memorable logos come in a wide range of designs. Many of them are in text only, mostly comprising the company’s name. Others prefer to have symbols or icons only. But there are some logos that combine both text and icon. Such a combination-logo design requires some special skills from the designers.

Icons and symbols are often used in logos for an effective brand message. Such logos have these imageries to sometimes convey something abstract that your organization wants to represent. When compared to text, we can say that symbols or icons tend to speak in an indirect language. Thus, there is a wide scope for interpreting the meaning behind a symbol.

But if you want your icon or symbol to be part of your company’s logo, make sure that it comes true to some parameters. First, such an icon should be recognizable. People should instantly recognize it. Secondly, it should be memorable as well. Thirdly, when produced in small sizes, it should be visible clearly. Then, it should be illustrative, even if it is abstractive.

Generally, icons represent a concept, an action or an idea. Icons are actually a graphic representation of an operation and convey it to the users. We see icons in applications and they are vital elements in UI/UX interface. Often, icons are used to depict an action in responsive website design. In that case, icons are useful for navigating through websites. For example, a house icon directs users to the homepage.

A logo is a symbol that businesses use as their visual representation in their target markets. The representation may be hidden, abstract, or direct. An aim of a logo designer is to create a logo for building a given public image of its brand. Such a logo reflects business values of its company. To convey its message quickly, therefore, a business logo design is kept simple, versatile, appropriate, and memorable.

When a logo design comprises of icons and text, the designer treats it in a special way. Many logos have both the company name and an icon. Most of such logos have a company name and an icon above it. One of the purposes of such company’s logos is that customers can know the company name right away at first glance. Thus, these logos become a good marketing tool for promoting a business. The people and potential customers can quickly know the company the logo represent.

Here Is How Text And Icons Should Be Treated In Logo Design

01. Select An Icon Carefully

First of all, when combining an icon and text in a logo, your choice of the icon must be perfectly clear. You must have some insight of the business that the logo intends to represent. Make sure that the icon is not a stock image. It should be unique and created by the designer especially for use in a logo. Note that not every icon is suitable to represent every brand.

[Source: View Case Study On Designhill]

02. Know Your Brand Message First

Before you start creating your logo or implement your best logo ideas, you must know your client’s brand message and brand identity. If the client has not provided the message in the design brief, ask the client about it. You should be researching the business to find out more about it. Such information helps in creating useful icons that go well with the text of your logo design.

[Source: View Case Study On Designhill]

03. Know Target Customers

Which are the customers that a logo intends to target? Answer that question precisely. Know more about the socio-economic backgrounds of your ideal customer. This information will help in picking the right icon for your logo. Such a logo will help you create your brand identity.

04. Keep Icon And Text Neatly Separated

Once you have selected a perfect icon and the text you want to go in your logo design, make sure that the two are neatly separated. If there is not a proper distance between the icon and text, it will turn out to be a bad design. So, keep a fair space between the two elements.

[Source: View Case Study On Designhill]

The designer should treat the elements as two distinct pieces of artwork. The two artworks must have an identity of their own. They should be designed in such a way that they are visible separately from each other. The two elements should never overlap each other.

Separating the icon from the text will help both of them stand out. This is particularly useful for logos that are to be used on blog headers and websites. So, as a designer, you should be careful while creating a logo incorporating an icon and company name for a concrete business message to the customers.

05. Use Brand Colors

When incorporating colors in your iconic logo design, selection of the right colors matters a lot. Make sure that the colors you choose are brand colors of the client’s business. So, it is better to first take a good look at your client’s website design to find out the colors used.

[Source: View Case Study On Designhill]

06. Pay Attention To Font Selection

Since the logo is a text-based design, picking a right typeface is important. There are many high-quality typefaces available free online to graphic designers today. But not all of them are equally good for a logo. Before you select a typeface, visit other graphic designs such as brochure design and see which are the typefaces that client uses frequently for marketing.

[Source: View Case Study On Designhill]

07. Icon And Logos Difference Blurring

While there has been a clear difference between an icon and a logo in the past, this is now blurring. In the modern marketing campaigns, the importance of icons is increasingly felt for branding purpose. Icons have entered the realm of branding. We can see many icons that are both application icons and also as a branding tool.

In the modern age of app icons, products and services are being recognized by a square-shaped icon on the home screens of smartphones, serving the purpose of logos.

[Source: View Case Study On Designhill]

Because of increasing use of icons, now logo designs are under the influence of the style in which icons are generally created. Logos are mimics.

For example – the quadratic shape of icons. So, despite the fact that icons and logos are two disciplines in graphic design services, many designers are using the icon designs in creating unique logos.

08. What Is An Icon Based Logo Design?

To understand an icon based logo design, you have to first know different types of logos. Logos are basically categories as wordmark logo, lettermark logo, brand mark logo, and iconic logo. A wordmark logo depends a lot on typeface, text and other typographic elements. Such logos depends on text to convey a brand identity.

These logos do not usually have any graphic elements. So they convey a message using text. The text is mostly the company name. Some of these logos will have text describing what the company does. Wordmark logos are best for advertisement of a company’s name and to build name recognition.

A lettermark logo design functions as a monogram for your company and business. A lettermark logo also depends heavily on text. But the logo uses only the initials of a company name and not the full name. So, lettermarks are actually a simple monogram. A glaring example of lettermark logo design is that of CNN logo. It has only the initial letters of the company’s full name, Cable News Network.

[Source: View Case Study On Designhill]

A brandmark logo has the use of strong graphics. Often, the graphic is abstract. A purpose here is to convey a message regarding a particular aspect of a product or service. An iconic logo uses the qualities of a brandmark logo and wordmark logo.

So, we can refer iconic logos as combination logos. The designer uses the elements taken from both the types of logo either separately or together. They can be closely tied or the designer can choose to keep them separate in a loose fashion.

One of the purposes of iconic logo design is to communicate what a company stands for and what it does. Famous examples of iconic logos are that of Mastercard Worldwide, Dunkin’ Donuts, and NBC’s peacock logo.

Iconic logos are particularly useful to small businesses and startups. These companies have small budgets. Therefore, having a company name in a logo means the logo can take the name to masses. People can instantly know the company name behind the logo. They can recognize the company and its business. Such a logo can effectively communicate a brand identity of a company.

So, these are some of the major consideration you should be making when creating a logo design with icons and text. Make sure that the logo is a unique but simple design that people can relate with easily.

If your small business needs an icon and text-based logo design, you should think of crowdsourcing the logo work to Designhill. It is a leading marketplace where hundreds of graphic designers look for work.

As you launch your logo design contest on the site, you get dozens of new design concepts from as many designers. This way, you can get new design concepts to choose from. Your cost of the logo at the site is affordable at the site. Designhill has 100% Money Back Guarantee policy, which means your investment for getting your customized logo from the site is entirely safe and secure.

Conclusion

Logos that have the use of icons and text are unique and attractive, especially for small businesses and startups. These logos have features of a wordmark logo and brandmark logo. The choice of icon and text should be based on the brand message and brand identity.

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