Wordmark, symbol or both: which logo your company actually needs

When a client says “we need a logo”, they usually mean something to put on the website, in the email signature and on a business card. A designer hears several different jobs in that sentence. Before you talk about colors and typefaces, decide which kind of mark you need and in how many versions.

Five kinds of marks

• Wordmark. The company name set in a specific way: a chosen or drawn typeface, spacing, sometimes one altered letter. Google and FedEx work like this. A wordmark tells people your name straight away.
• Symbol. A graphic mark without the name: a shape, an icon, an abstract form. The best-known example is Apple’s apple.
• Lettermark. An abbreviation or an initial designed as a mark. IBM and HBO are lettermarks people read as names.
• Combination mark. A symbol and a wordmark used together in a fixed arrangement. The most common choice, because it gives you both the name and a symbol for small formats.
• Emblem. The name set inside a shape, like a seal or a crest. It looks good on packaging or a sign, less so at icon size.

Which one to choose

A symbol on its own only works once people already know the brand. Mastercard now shows just the two circles on much of its material, but it did so after decades of using them together with the name. A company few people have heard of loses the most valuable thing on a symbol alone: the name the customer is supposed to remember.

A few rules that hold up in practice:

• A new or little-known company: a wordmark or a combination mark. The name has to be visible.
• A long name: a combination mark or a lettermark for small formats, because a twenty-character name at icon size becomes unreadable.
• A digital product: you need a form that fits in a square. The favicon, the app icon and the profile picture on social media are all places where a full wordmark doesn’t fit.
• A brand with a physical presence: an emblem makes sense on packaging, a sign or a label, but you’ll still want a simplified version for the web.

One logo isn’t enough

The most common problem we see in companies a few years in isn’t an ugly logo. It’s a single logo. One PNG on a white background, stretched for a banner, pasted onto dark photos and shrunk to favicon size. That’s why a mark should arrive as a system:

1. A primary version, usually horizontal, for the website and documents.
2. A stacked or compact version for square formats.
3. The symbol or lettermark alone for icons and avatars.
4. Color versions: full color, one color and a reversed version for dark backgrounds.
5. A minimum size and clear space: from how many pixels the mark is legible and how much empty space surrounds it.
6. Files: SVG and PDF for scaling, PNG for tools that don’t accept vectors.

Five tests before you sign off

Before you approve a design, check it outside the presentation:

• 16 pixels. Shrink the mark to favicon size. If nothing is visible, you need a simplified version.
• One color. Print it in black. A good mark doesn’t need a gradient to be recognizable.
• A dark background and a photo. Place it on a photo from your industry and on a dark page background.
• In company. Put it in a row of partner logos or on a client list. Can you still see it?
• Name recall. Show it to someone for two seconds and ask them to write down the name.

How we do it

We design a logo as part of an identity system, together with colors, typography and the places where the brand actually shows up. We start with positioning rather than sketches, because only then is it clear whether the brand needs a strong symbol or a well-set name. Read more about how we work on branding.