5 Basic Logo Types | How Many Types of Logos are there?

A logo is a symbol that an organization uses to identify their business. Did you know that there are 5 basic logo types categories? Logos can be categorized into wordmarks, lettermarks, brandmarks, combination marks and emblems. If you are uncertain as to what your logo should be, you should probably understand what style of logo is suitable for your company branding.

Basic Logo Types & How to use them

Wordmark

A wordmark is one of the Basic Logo Types. It is a simple logo using only the company name in text. Google is a rather great example of a wordmark logo. As a result this type of logo use is best to use when the company has a quirky name that is often memorable. In order to create a solid brand recognition various famous brands have made use of script fonts, custom fonts and regular fonts and some based on handwriting. Think Disney, Fedex. Smaller companies that are just starting out can as a result greatly benefit from a wordmark logo. Photography businesses come to mind in this example. This is consequently an effective strategy to keep a company name in the minds of consumers.

Lettermarks

You’ve no doubt seen the lettermark logo. Facebook, McDonalds, Hewlett Packard to name a few logos. Firstly the lettermark logo is also text based. But in contrast only initials are used. Additionally lettermark logos are often called monogram logos. Sometimes companies have long names and they wish to shorten the name to become more memorable and identifiable.  Also modern logos need to be scalable to small sizes to accommodate viewing on mobile devices. Finally lettermark logos are more memorable then their longer name counterparts. How many of you remember what IBM stands for? The trick to making this type of logo work is the ability to choose a font that matches your company brand and make it unique enough to stand out while retaining scalabilty.

Brandmark

A Brandmark logo is also known as a logo symbol or pictorial mark. Think Nike, Apple, and the Twitter bird. These companies are similarly able to invoke emotions from consumers based on an image. Brandmark logos are above all instantly recognizable. Companies that use these logotypes are similarly well established. Due to this nature it can be difficult for new companies to utilize this brand strategy. It can also be challenging to determine what mark to choose for your brand that will explain what you do and have a deep connection to your audience.

Combination Marks

Combination marks as you might have guessed are part text and part symbol or icon. Mastercard and Adidas are likewise famous examples of this logo type. Many smaller and mid-sized company’s use this logo type for their branding. For the reason that it is easy to remember and correlate the logo with the brand. Due to the complexity of the combination mark logo type it can in some circumstances be difficult to scale. It can also take more creative consideration during the design process. However these logo types can be split apart into their icon or text form when the use becomes necessary.

Emblem Logo

The Emblem basic logo types have text and symbol. But the difference is that the text is inside the emblem. These are consistent of badge logos or seals. Gold’s Gym is a badge logo and private schools as well as government organizations sometimes use seals. Logo types are connected in a way that as a result can’t really be made separate. These types of logos can be modern or classic. They can have a sense of authority. However these logo types are difficult to scale for printing.

There’s a look at the 5 basic types of logos. A lot goes into the logo design process!