Which Logo is Right for Your Business?

When it comes to logo design, there are in essence three different categories that they can fall into. These are Illustrative, Iconic, and Typographical. All of these have different applications, and are suitable for different purposes. The type of logo that you opt for depends on your business, the existing (if any) branding, as well as any currently-used imagery.

If you’ve done some research into logo design, you will probably have come across three other terms, which are Logotype, Icon (or Symbol) Mark, and Combination Mark. These are categorisations that outline what the logo contains.

For example, a Logotype is a logo that uses a typeface as its main element. These types of logos don’t draw upon any illustrative elements, instead opting for the type to do the work. These would fall into the category of a Typographical logo.

The tricky aspect of a type-based logo is ensuring that it’s memorable enough to stick in people’s minds, as well as being instantly recognisable as your logo. A great way of doing this is using an existing typeface as the basis of the logo, then making tweaks to the individual letters. This transforms the standard font into something unique to your brand.

Then we have Icon (or Symbol) Marks. These types of logo draw upon a symbol, usually something unique to the brand. They’ll also tend to draw on something from the brand itself, be that its history, what it does, or some other aspect of the culture. These types of logos typically fall into the Illustrative category.

And finally, we have the Combination Mark. I’m sure you can guess what the combination is based on what you’ve just read. A Combination Mark is the combination of both Illustrative and Typographical elements to create a complete logo.

These have a lot of power when it comes to brand recognition, due to the fact that both a unique symbol AND the brand’s name is visible all within one, neat package. A huge benefit to a Combination Mark logo is that you can separate the two, using one as an Icon Mark and one as a Logotype. This effectively gives you three logos for your brand work with!

So, now that you have an understanding of the different types of logos you can pick from, you can start to think about which style you want to go with! Do you want a simple, straight-to-the-point Logotype, or do you want something fancy and illustrated? Or both?

If you’re in need of a logo for your project, be that a Logotype, Icon (or Symbol) Mark, or Combination Mark, I’m here to help! Please feel free to get in touch today to discuss how we can create something unique for your business!