What makes a logo special? Do we judge its effectiveness based on utility? Is its value determined by how well-received it is? If you want your logo to feel remarkable and relevant, you need to keep an eye on how logo design trends are evolving.
Predicting which logo design trends will dominate the terrain ahead means appreciating what’s come before them. Now more than ever designers are willing to look at past trends while pushing the boundaries with new styles. In 2019, we’re seeing a fierce appreciation for color, storytelling and design-defying experimentation. The interesting new ways designers are elevating logo design by playing with familiar styles and clever use of color are going to make 2019 an electrifying year in logo design.
1. Variable logo design
Designers are working in an era where brands are hyper-aware of the fact that their logo will be viewed on a multiplicity of platforms. We covered a similar trend last year, but brands are no longer just concerned with how well a logo translates across platforms, they’re also asking how it can help them build a stronger personal connection with different groups of customers. How can my logo speak equally well to millennials and families? Enter, variable logos that adjust depending on which group you’re talking to.
In 2019, this trend admonishes any one-size-fits-all approach to logo design. Variable design individualizes the relationship between customer and client because these logos embrace the challenge of adaptability. Specialized iconography, dynamic typography and thoughtful customization help frame genuine connections to an audience’s specific needs.New age geometry
2. New Age geometry
Once certain trends become recognizable, we subconsciously limit their potential. Case in point: geometric design styles, which have fallen prey to a distinction for being overtly mathematical, cold and even authoritarian. Although it’s easy to define geometric logos as such, in 2019 there is an upward trend where designers are pushing that ceiling by deliberately pairing their creations with vibrant colors and friendlier compositions to offset its reputation.
3. Logos that trick the eye
The French term “trompe l’oeil” translates to “deceive the eye” and that’s exactly what this logo trend is all about. When you’re accustomed to cycling through ideas day in and day out, playing with visual tricks keeps your enthusiasm for logo design alive. This innovative practice that designers are turning to in order to reenergize their creative juices is also a trend that will dominate logo design in 2019: logo designs that play off tricking the eye—more explicitly, the art of perspective and distortion. Fragmented, warped or visually broken… it’s all good here.
4. Purposeful Colour
Storytelling through color is an inventive method for designers to help brands shape authentic relationships. It doesn’t take an expert in color theory to understand that a color like red evokes passion, vigor and desire. Where this trend can get complicated, however, is when a brand’s message relies heavily on color selection to express its identity. That make or break moment depends on whether the right palette is in play.
Picking the right colors helps brands communicate more effectively. Rather than using random colors simply to attract attention, in 2019 the meaning of logo color is paramount. We’re seeing logo designers focus more strongly on using color in a purposeful way, placing color more intentionally than ever and conveying meaning with each careful decision.Shift in minimalism.
5. Elevated negative space
Lindon Leader’s design for FedEx is arguably the world’s most celebrated negative space logo. The ingenious arrow hidden between the E and X is not only clever, it’s a logical representation of what the delivery service is known for—delivering packages!
But even without a history that includes FedEx, negative space is an engrossing design trend that designers are pushing to its limits in 2019. When you take something away from a design, you are, as a result, pushing that area into a more assertive role in your presentation. These designs are created best by those who are believers in dispensing with everything until the point is reached beyond which the design breaks down entirely. Logos created in those moments leverage negative space in voraciously dexterous ways and are elevating the category.Logos with pedigree.
6. Overlapping elements
This year we will see more creatives embrace the overlapping elements trend, where designers utilize opacity and stimulating shapes to construct eye-catching pictorial marks, wordmarks and more. This trend will also pull from other trends on this year’s list; expect to see overlapping designs making use of geometry, meaningful color, and negative space.
Have you been using any of these styles in your own work?
By Shelby Jordan
