Do you need a logo for your brand?
Maybe you’re starting a whole new venture … or perhaps you feel that your current brand identity isn’t as strong or cohesive as it should be.
A typographic logo is a logo that is text-based, though it might incorporate symbols or imagery. If you’re not a designer yourself, it’s the simplest type of logo to create (though truly great typographic logos will have design expertise behind them).
At its simplest, a typographic logo could simply consist of your brand’s name, typed in a font that you like. You can go a lot further, though, in creating a typographic logo that really showcases your brand.
Designing a typographic logo is just one of many possible processes ongoing within a creative operation. With MerlinOne, you can easily manage the design process and automate workflows and approval processes. Put every creative asset at your team’s fingertips – and ensure that your team is using only approved, on-brand assets – with a robust digital asset management solution. Download our white paper, The Importance of Version Control in a DAM, to learn more about why version control is a must in a DAM.
The Importance of Version Control in a DAM
What Makes a Good Typographic Logo?
A good typographic logo needs to:
- Clearly show your brand’s name. If the font you’ve chosen is illegible, then it’s going to confuse potential customers.
- Tie in with other aspects of your brand. You might want to think about the brand identity prism and how the different aspects of it fit with your logo to ensure brand consistency.
- Use appropriate colors (and normally no more than two of them). Most typographic logos will use either one or two colors.
- Reproduce well at both large and small sizes. Ideally, you want your logo to be legible even if it’s displayed or printed in a tiny size.
- Adhere to copyright law. Be careful about the font(s) you choose for your logo – there may be restrictions on how they can be used.
Key Typographic Logo Design Considerations
When you’re trying out different possibilities for your logo, you’ll want to consider:
What Font Will Work Best for Your Logo
There are thousands of fonts out there … and choosing the perfect one for your logo can be surprisingly tricky. Once you’ve narrowed down roughly what you want (e.g., a font that looks “professional but modern”), then it’s worth listing some different possibilities to try out.
Keep in mind that some fonts may work better at different sizes, and you can potentially use more than one font within your logo.
Make sure the font you’ve chosen is legible – this can be a challenge with some handwriting-style fonts. Even if the font is a good brand fit, you may need to keep searching to find something that can also be easily read at a glance, not painstakingly deciphered.
Whether or Not to Use a Symbol
Using a symbol can potentially enhance your message and help solidify your brand. Some typographic logos will use a symbol within a key letter (the letter O is often a good option for this); others will have a symbol within or after the text of the logo itself.
Keep in mind that with a typographic logo, the symbol itself shouldn’t stand alone as a logo – it should instead be an integral complement to the text.
Important: If you’re redesigning a logo for an established company, it’s well worth following this checklist to make sure you go about doing so the right way – the last thing you want is a logo that’s a poor fit for your brand, or one that your customers hate.
Examples of Great Typographic Logos
As you come up with ideas for your logo, it can be helpful to see the range of different ways in which other companies have used typography. Here are four great typographic logos to inspire you:
Example #1: Disney
Screenshot via Disney
This instantly recognizable logo from Disney is notable for its:
- Hand-lettered style – it looks like it’s been drawn with permanent marker
- Thick, bold letters and simple coloring: just black on white
- Child-like mix of lowercase (i, y, and arguably s) and uppercase (D, N, E) letters
Example #2: Lidl
Screenshot via Lidl
Lidl’s logo is bright and easy to recognize. It’s notable for:
- Very thick type, with the “I” in lower case and offset to add visual interest
- Three different colors – the primary colors work well together, so this logo isn’t too “busy”
- The use of a prominent round yellow circle, rather like a discount price sticker – hinting at the store’s reputation for low price
Example #3: Google
Screenshot via Google
Google’s logo underwent a redesign back in 2015 to use a new font and slightly different colors – which met with criticism as well as approval. Their logo is:
- Fun and bold, with four different colors (hard to pull off!)
- Clear and simple – the letters are plain and unfussy
- Has a more contemporary, younger feel than the old version of their logo
Example #4: FedEx
Screenshot via FedEx
The strong, solid FedEx logo features:
- Two colors that work very well together: dark blue and orange
- Clear, bold letters that all tough one another – helping to give an impression of speed
- A clever hidden symbol (if you’ve not noticed this before, take a look at the space between the E and the x)
Typographic logos can be easy and straightforward to create … but also hugely memorable and powerful. Take inspiration from some of the great logos already out there … and use the tips above to make sure that yours works as well as possible.
For a brand logo to make the biggest impact, it must be used consistently across all brand communications and media. That often means multiple iterations of your logo for different use cases, such as social media profile images, company letterhead, digital and print advertising, and more.
Leveraging a DAM solution is the best way to ensure that your team has access to the most recent iterations of the right logo designs for every use case. A DAM like MerlinOne puts all your digital assets at your team’s fingertips, ensuring that any creative asset can be quickly located in seconds, rather than spending hours searching through an outdated collection of file folders and repositories. Schedule a demo today to learn more about how MerlinOne can transform your marketing and creative operations.