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Designing a logo icon / figure - different approaches

Metaphorical approach

• Lufthansa - the crane in the logo-icon is a symbol of caution and sleepless watchfulness.

• Hermes (logistics) - uses metaphor in both word and icon (Hermes - Greek messenger of gods; the icon is depicting the wing)

• Hermès Paris - icon depicts safety and tradition

Different types of metaphors

Nature metaphor - A, A1 (meteorological), A2 (creatures)

Colour metaphor - B (Greepeace)

Mineralogical metaphor - C (Lincoln)

Cosmological metaphor - D (Saturn)

Body part metaphor - (Skoda - head of an Indian)

Nautical metaphor - F

Mythological metaphor - G (Nike - goodess of victory)

Object metaphor - H (citi - umbrella) - or the Shaastra logo (IIT Madras)

Metonymy approach

Instead of a metaphor, show a literal representative via the icon / word-mark. Three kinds of relationships can typically be shown.

Causal relationship

Cause may be stated while effect is meant or vice-versa.

• Xerox - invention represents the company

• Bosch - founder represents the company (likewise Ford)

• FSB - product represents the company

• At&t

Spatial relationship

• Jacobs (coffee) - both the vessel and the content are visualized

• Texas instrument - state is the vessel

• Casa da musica - house is the vessel

• Intuit (uses body as the vessel)

• Amazon - rainforest is the vessel (variety of species)

• Porsche - city emblem of Stuttgart

• Time warner cable (eye and ear)

• Tchibo (coffee bean)

• at&t - earth is the vessel

• CoreVoice - a “core” can be seen

Temporal relationship

In a temporal relationship, the time period represents the people in the respective era; objects are visualized in a way that they exhibit characteristic of a certain era in the logo.

Example:

• Quaker (oats)

• Deutsche Post

Synecdoche approach

The wordmark or the icon contains an object that features a part of the overall product / service.

• Hochtief (part represents the whole)

• Mercedes Benz (part represents the whole)

• Finish (logo shows a part of the activities)

• Deutsche Bank (stock price index - a part of banking)

Below is a useful journal paper to understand metaphorical-metonymy-synecdoche rhetoric

Onomatopoeia approach 🔈

Words are phonetically presented the way they occur in nature.

• English National Opera

• Gutersloh Boys Choir

Emphasis approach

Special accentuation of a word or sentence.

• Northern Ireland tourist board - emphasis is the choice of colour

• Esade university - different font & size (same for WOHNFLEX and FPKPA)

Euphemism approach

An image that vividly illustrates something positive (or created to trigger a strong positive emotion - especially when the actual context may be grim)

Hyperbole approach

Exaggeration of the wordmark

Alliteration

a logo made up of first letter (or key letters) of the wordmark (like CoreVoice logo)

Anaphora

First letters of the wordmark or the whole word is repeated

Polyptoton - repeat elements

Repetition of some element

Diaphora - repeat letters

Like Polyptoton but instead of an element, a letter is repeated.

Climax & anti-climax ⧡

When individual elements are gradually increased or decreased (like the 3MS logo).

[Parenthesis]

Additional letters, shapes or colours are integrated into the wordmark of logo (CoreVoice logo has a V inside C for example).

Anastrophe (twist the letters)

When letters are twisted or mirrored.

Ellipsis (using negative space)

When letters or parts of letters are omitted / negative space creates context (see the egg in MAMA Shelter or the arrow in Fedex, or the M in Multicanal or the three balls inside a big ball in Turno or the play button in 3MS logo)

Visual design approaches

• Geometric

  • Angular (L shape) - RealMe, Dell, Bajaj

  • Arrow - FedEx, RealMe, Amazon

  • Basic Geometric Forms - Swiggy, Instagram, CV, Budweiser, Motorola, Slack, Chargebee, Atlassian, JBL, Boat, PwC, Myntra, Ather, Hero, Godox, Figma, Ericsson, NXP, Mitsubishi, Taj

  • Circle - CV, OpenAI, HP, Walmart, Huawei, Wipro, Pepsi, Canva, BMW, Ariel, Walmart, Vodafone, Philips, AT&T, Broadcom, LG, Starbucks

  • Cross - 1+

  • Dots - Indigo Airlines, Nothing, Wipro

  • Figurative - Swiggy, Apple, Penguin Books, Mindgrove, Instagram, Nike, Quantas, Indigo Airlines, Tesla, Huawei, Shopify, Salesforce, Zoom, Boat, Hermès, Ralph Lauren, Bajaj, Reliance, TVS, AT&T, Starbucks, Nestle

  • Lines - Lodha, Mindgrove, threada, Chara, IBM, Walmart, Philips, Cisco, Broadcom

  • Skewed - threada, Nike, Dell, HP, TVS

  • Round - Tata, Samsung, Instagram, McDonalds, Toyota, Honda, BYD

  • Square - Nvidia, 1+, Microsoft, Adobe, HDFC, Zoho

  • Triangle - Adidas, Adobe, ITC, Mitsubishi

• Effect

  • Cut-off - NXP

  • Split - Adidas, Microsoft, Pepsi, Philips

  • Duplication - OpenAI, Microsoft, Honor, Motorola, Atlassian, PwC, Myntra, Sugar, Bajaj, HDFC, BMW, Ariel, Figma, Ericsson, Mitsubishi, PayPal, Cisco, Taj, Zoho, Wipro

  • Grid - Nothing, IBM

  • Reflection (symmetry) - Meta, Toyota, Honor, Motorola, Huawei, Slack, Chargebee, Myntra, Sugar, Bajaj, HDFC, ITC, Honda, BMW, NXP, Cisco, Taj

  • Outline - RealMe, Meta, 1+, Toyota, Honor, Nokia, LG, Zoho, Nestle

  • Overlay - Chara, Toyota, Budweiser, LV, BCG, Myntra, PayPal, Zoho

  • +ve / -ve - Tata, FedEx, RealMe, Nvidia, Adobe, Boat, Sugar, Reliance, Hero, Philips, AT&T, Broadcom

  • Rotation - OpenAI, Chara, Walmart, Slack, Chargebee, Mitsubishi, Taj

  • 3D - Pfizer, Hero, Telenor, AT&T

  • Light on Dark - Tata, Swiggy, Samsung, Instagram, Spotify, Quantas, Budweiser, HP, Motorola, Shopify, Sugar, Jio, Canva, Maggi, Broadcom, Xiaomi, Kotak, LG

• Typographic

  • 1 letter - Swiggy, RealMe, Meta, Chara, Uniliver, Adidas, McDonalds, 1+, Toyota, Tesla, Motorola, Shopify, Atlassian, Adobe, Myntra, Sugar, Bajaj, Reliance, Ather, Honda, Hero, Figma, Ericsson, Kotak

    • Opened-up Letters - Nokia, Xiaomi, Atlassian, Adobe, Sugar, Ather, Hero, Ericsson

  • Character / Number - Kotak, 1+

  • Two Letters - CV, HP, Chargebee, LV, PayPal, Xiaomi, LG

  • 3 Letters - IBM, JBL, PwC, BCG, Jio, ITC, TCS, TVS, IFB, NXP, BYD

  • Words - Sony, Zomato, Coke, Tata, FedEx, threada, RealMe, Samsung, Google, Nike, Dell, Budweiser, Amazon, Honor, Nothing, IKEA, intel, Stripe, Mckinsey & Company, blinkit, FabIndia, Mamaearth, Nykaa, Nokia, Canva, Wework, Godox, Canon, Bisleri

Evaluating a logo

A logo may be rated on the following

• visual stimulation

• concrete effects

• expression and attitude

• modes of persuasion and rhetorical appeal

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Story99.com is a Branding & Storytelling Consultancy for B2B, Tech & Deeptech