The Top 5 Logo Trends This Year [With Deep Dive Examples]
.avif)
Logo trends can be a great way to keep up to date with what your competitors are doing — or they can be a lens through which to identify what to deliberately avoid if you're trying to cause disruption. At Huddle, we look at logo trends not to follow them but to understand the market context our clients' identities will live in. A logo that looks like every other firm in a sector is a missed opportunity, regardless of how well it's executing the trend.
Recent years have seen powerfully innovative logo design refreshes and rebrands. Most notably, the Facebook Group rebranded to Meta and melted their capital F into a sideways infinity symbol, signifying the constant connection that their three main sub brands — WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook — all offer. Keeping the infinity sign in their original navy blue helped to retain audience awareness while signalling transformation.
On a much more subtle note, Burger King underwent a rebrand and rather than look to the future, it decided to nod to the past. Burger King reintroduced itself with a flatter, minimalistic and nostalgic new logo with a colour scheme that draws on dominating colours and fonts of the seventies — most notably tangerine orange and lime green, all in flowery, peace and love style fonts.
So, if you're considering a brand refresh or an entire rebrand, here are the enduring logo design trends that are shaping professional brand identities right now — with analysis of what works, and why.
Why is a logo important?
Your logo is important because it is the face of your company. It's what consumers see when they first encounter your brand, and it's the important component that communicates the brand identity perception in the minds of a consumer.
In fact, some graphic designers argue that a logo design is a brand's most valuable asset because of everything it needs to communicate in one quick glance. It tells your consumers who you are, what you do, and how your business ties into the product or service they're searching for — all while serving as a foundation for the narrative that your brand is built upon.
Every choice you make in branding is determined by the narrative that drives your brand: its origin story, its USP, and why it should be a consumer's first choice. Your logo is the first sentence your entire brand identity speaks on this journey, and those elements will translate from your logo across everything — branding materials like letterheads and business cards, to digital assets like landing pages and social media.
Think the Rolling Stones logo, which has nothing to do with rolling, stones, or music — but it is entirely memorable, does communicate the brand archetype (rebel) and has taken on an entire marketable brand identity that is independent of the band's music. That's what great logo design does. That's the standard to aim for.
But creating truly unique logo design ideas is not an easy task — graphic designers, branding experts and professional logo designers all face the same challenges when it comes to designing something communicative, original, and memorable. That's why understanding the landscape of what's trending, and what's becoming clichéd, matters so much.
5 Logo Trends Worth Knowing
1. Minimalism
Minimalism in logo design is fast becoming not just a trend but a recommended principle and best practice. Simplification of logo design has been trending upward for several years now, demonstrated by the Meta rebrand and Burger King's nostalgic simplification. The direction of travel across most sectors is toward less.
A formula for success in minimalist logo design follows three pillars: Practicality, Comfort, and Aesthetics. Practicality is the most important of the three — minimalistic is fine, but unexplainable is not. Whilst you might be able to trim a lot of the unnecessary design from your logo, removing too much risks alienating consumer awareness.
Comfort and aesthetics go hand in hand: your design needs to be aesthetically pleasing, sleek and unique, but it also needs to feel comfortable. If it's not going to fit your business values, or ethos, or even be adaptable as your business grows, it's soon going to become uncomfortable — no matter how aesthetically appealing it might look.
Notable minimalist examples include JotForm, which ditched their Clipart pencil imagery for a new minimal look — the pencil stays, but it's broken down into simplistic lines. The imagery can also be separated away from the full name of the business, giving it flexible use across multiple channels. And Udemy, which dropped the handwritten U in favour of a purple arrow symbolising growth — a subtle and powerful minimalist choice that uses colour semiotics to reinforce brand proposition.
At Huddle, minimalism is something we approach case by case. A highly simplified mark works brilliantly for a firm with high brand recognition or a distinctive name. For an emerging firm, stripping too much can leave a logo doing no communicative work at all. The question to ask is: if someone saw this logo in isolation, without the name, without context — what would they understand about who we are?
2. Experimental Typography
Typography, and especially experimental typography, has become one of the most dynamic areas of logo design. Though traditional typography has always been a staple of logo design, experimental typography promotes freedom, creativity and expression throughout traditional forms of type. Most commonly seen in wordmark logos, designers love to challenge themselves and go against the rules of design with typography.
It is important for brands to maintain a fine balance when experimenting with nontraditional forms of typography. Venturing too far into creative territory risks undermining the logo's purpose, and losing the brand messaging. At their heart, logos should evoke emotional responses from their audiences — connection and identification of the brand as a relevant or intriguing solution to their needs.
The Inter Milan FC rebrand is a useful example: the previous logo lost the lettering almost entirely, but the recent update makes the I and M much more identifiable — white on blue, easily legible against different backgrounds. The annual Tribeca Festival went further, having their lettering literally jump up and down, creating a joyful, flexible design that works against a variety of backgrounds. The font itself stays clear, which is what keeps it on the right side of the experimental line.
3. Negative White Space
In logo design, any white space within the type and symbol design is known as negative space. Negative space has always been a powerful logo design component because it can do a multitude of different things: it can create a focal point for your logo, balance colour composition, and even communicate a brand value like openness or purity.
Modern uses of negative white space go further — using graphic elements like images or symbols to temporarily fill areas of white space, allowing the logo to adapt to different background settings, like seasons, gradients or colour schemes. The nature collective Bany de Bosc Vidra did this brilliantly: their logo features white space that fits stencil-like against backgrounds representing different seasons, perfectly communicating their commitment to nature. And Pfizer's 2021 rebrand plays on plenty of white space to give the brand a cleaner, modern and more sophisticated look — with dark blue invoking trust and sincerity, tying perfectly to their brand proposition.
4. Lowercase Logos
The vast majority of branding agencies, graphic designers and logo designers know that lowercase lettering promotes friendliness and approachability. It's got something to do with the omission of imposing capital letters, which often represent professionalism and are mostly reserved for institutions like banks (HSBC, NatWest) or newspapers (The Guardian, BBC News) that rely on capturing an air of authoritativeness and trust.
So it comes as no surprise that lowercase lettering is a design trend that has been trending strongly. Brands are actively trying to promote their friendliness — and looking laid back and approachable is not a bad move in a market where buyers are increasingly choosing firms on cultural fit as much as capability.
For a brand to pull off an entirely lowercase logo, the letters will need to fit together in a form of visual harmony. Mastercard's move to lowercase back in 2016 turned out to be prescient — dropping the corporate branding in favour of a friendlier, minimalist look, they retained brand awareness while becoming more approachable.
Discord's rebrand from solid capitals to a bubbly lowercase font similarly moved it from information-technological to fun and friendly — perfectly capturing its brand personality.
5. Gradient Logos
Gradients are on the rise across web UI designs, logo designs, and entire rebrand designs. Multicolour gradients can greatly enhance logo design — they add depth, volume and dynamics, but straying too far the other way can lead to colour clashes and potentially detract from the overall cohesiveness of the design. A good rule of thumb is to test the gradient against different backgrounds, sizes, and placements first.
Freeview combined several trends well: their addition of a fiery orange gradient instead of a solid colour background looks cleaner, fresher and more modernised. The lowercase element makes the brand look approachable, whilst the multicolour F retains brand awareness.
Payoneer's rainbow gradient in a circle showcases connectivity and innovation — a huge step away from the burnt orange of before, and a spot-on rebrand for their eCommerce payment platform.
To summarise
Top logo design trends are a great reference point for keeping up with what your competitors are doing — or for finding ways to innovate by choosing something completely left-field. Whichever you choose, ensure that your brand logo always remains true to your brand's visual identity and personality, so that you retain necessary brand authenticity and awareness.
At Huddle, we've been trusted with brand refreshes and rebrands for years, and we know a thing or two about what makes a logo great — and what doesn't. If you're curious where your current brand stands, start with a Blandscape™ audit.
To find out more about our experience, visit our work, or brief us to discuss what a rebrand or refresh could do for you.