Logo Design Basics: The Five Types of Marks

39 Responses to “Logo Design Basics: The Five Types of Marks”

1. 

   David Sparks
   April 10th, 2008 at 10:28 am

   Logo work is not at all my strong suit. I can manage but I’m not to good at it.
   however for a massive collection of logos and if you’re in need of inspiration check out logopond.com.

   I’m there quite often.

   good post

2. 

   Zinni
   April 10th, 2008 at 10:32 am

   David,

   I have not been doing any identity work for a while, however it is my favorite type of design. Nothing else you can design has as much impact on a business or product than it’s identity.

   This post was part of me making sure that I do not loose touch with the practice. Once again, thanks for the comment!

3. 

   Joram Oudenaarde
   April 10th, 2008 at 12:44 pm

   Nice post, and thank you for using my logo as an example as well :)

4. 

   Zinni
   April 10th, 2008 at 1:06 pm

   Sure thing Joram, it is a solid concept :)

5. 

   kristarella
   April 10th, 2008 at 9:35 pm

   Nice post!

   I’ve never heard logos discussed in this way before.

   I’ve been trying to come up with a logo for myself, my blog and photoblog. Without much success so far, my sketches haven’t grabbed me… but I’ll keep at it.

6. 

   Sarah
   April 11th, 2008 at 4:42 am

   Great post! You have classified logo in a very interesting way. I like that. Good job

7. 

   Ben Field
   April 11th, 2008 at 10:27 am

   Zinni, thanks for this. If it interests you, I think it would be helpful for others to hear what the strengths are of these different types of marks. When watching companies develop an identity, I’ve found the process is often to follow the direction most apparent to the mind of the designer — but that may not be the best direction. I bet these have different strengths that could be better exploited consciously. What is your experience on this?

8. 

   Zinni
   April 11th, 2008 at 10:46 am

   Ben I believe you are correct. There are certain types of marks that have typically met the needs of certain types of industries. For example it is very common to see restaurants effectively use an emblem. This was my original idea, however it was too long for one post. Hint: I may be breaking these up into a series of articles ;)

9. 

   David
   April 11th, 2008 at 10:11 pm

   I love your helpful breakdown of logos. One minor question. Could you include more recognizable and international logos in your future discussions? i.e. IBM, Google, Starbucks, Nike, VW, et al.

10. 

    George M
    April 12th, 2008 at 6:54 am

    So a logotype is now called a wordmark and an icon is now called a mark?

11. 

    Fubiz
    April 14th, 2008 at 5:56 am

    Very good article. Thanks a lot.

12. 

    David
    April 14th, 2008 at 7:34 am

    you should also check out logopond.com (where most of these logos where posted first :)

13. 

    Craig
    April 18th, 2008 at 6:29 pm

    The Fondant logo suggest that there’s probably a sixth category: coffee stains … Lucent … Morning Joe on MSNBC …

14. 

    Will Sherwood
    April 21st, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    Well done! Keep up the good work.

    BTW, if you have a moment, I’d like your opinion on my blog listed above?

15. 

    Anush
    April 23rd, 2008 at 9:55 am

    I’m 100% agree with your blog idea. But main thing is what ever you design should be creative to handle the company brand.
    Even its made of Simple lines but should be creatively aligned

16. 

    projectautomatika
    January 9th, 2009 at 11:02 am

    Great article!