The Full Anatomy of a Logo

The anatomy of a logo involves several components that work together to create a distinctive and memorable image. Often, these include typography, iconography, colors, taglines, layout, and more.

While a logo may appear deceptively simple, comprehending its entirety can be a more intricate task than one might anticipate. This is primarily because each element of a logo, be it the font, colors, layout, or more, carries equal weight and significance.

For example, many logos incorporate hidden symbols or messages. Take FedEx, for instance; their logo has an arrow hidden between the "E" and the "x," symbolizing speed and precision. Similarly, the Amazon logo has an arrow that points from the letter 'A' to 'Z ', indicating that they sell everything from 'A' to 'Z '. These hidden symbols add depth and meaning to the logo design.

Color psychology is also a potent force in logo design. As you're likely aware, specific colors can evoke distinct emotions and associations. For instance, blue often conveys trust and professionalism (as seen in brands like Facebook and LinkedIn), while red can stir up excitement and passion (as used by brands like Coca-Cola and YouTube).

So, to help you achieve the best logo design, we’ll walk you through the complete anatomy of a logo.

Rest assured, you're in good hands with the LogoMe Team. With our experience in creating hundreds of logos, we've gained valuable insights into what constitutes a successful logo design.

Sound good? Great! Let's dive in! 

Logomark (Image In Logo)

A logomark is the graphic element, icon, or pictogram showcased in your logo's design. It's supposed to condense your brand's message into a single image and plays a crucial part in brand recognition, so it's essential to get this right.

Sometimes, in certain contexts, the logomark acts as an avatar, representing the brand, while other elements of the full logo are omitted. 

The idea behind avatars more broadly is to forge a deeper and more emotional connection with customers, as avatars can evoke feelings such as loyalty, trust, and empathy.

When designing your logomark, there are several things to consider:

• Symbol
• Shape
• Color
• Design

Each of the above subliminally communicates to the customer what your brand represents, so let's explore each in turn:

Logo Symbol

Symbols have a long history; for example, nature-based symbols, such as animals, were used in medieval heraldry, with owls symbolizing wisdom and lions associated with royalty. Today symbols still have meanings assigned to them. For example, the heart symbol signifies love, a fire symbol can signify rage, danger, or rebirth, and the sun represents nurture, growth, warmth, sunshine, and happiness. Examples of brands that use the latter well include Sunny Delight, Sunkist, and Sunny Hotels.

A symbol can often have a more complex meaning than just a single word, not least because they help us visualize a meaning, provide context about your brand, and are often used as metaphors to convey a deeper concept. 

Elsewhere, we have floral symbols; for example, roses are associated with love, and three and four-leaf clovers with luck.

In the context of logo creation, let's take a look at some real-life examples:

• Duolingo uses an owl to symbolize learning, wisdom and knowledge.
• Airbnb and Habitat both use a heart symbol as their logo symbol to symbolize belonging and home. 
• The flame or fire symbol are used by a range of organizations including the American Heart Association, Better Business Bureau and Doritos. This is because the flame or fire logo symbolizes power, passion, energy and transformation.

Logo Shape

Designers often reuse or repurpose common shapes we all recognize and incorporate them into logos to be subliminally recognized. For example, BMW, Starbucks, Google Chrome, Spotify, Mastercard, and many others have circle-shaped logos, the circle representing perfection, wholeness, unity, strength, and so on. 

Elsewhere, squares signify stability and order, while triangles are often associated with power, momentum, energy, and strength. For example, consider the Qantas airline logo with an inverted triangle or Microsoft’s square symbols. 

Other shapes commonly used in logos and their meanings include:

• Horizontal lines can convey a range of messages, such as speed, continuity, calm, and tranquility. Examples of brands using these include DHL, IBM, and Adidas. 
• Vertical lines can convey strength, progress, valor, and dominance. Examples of brands that use these include HP, SoundCloud, and Cisco.  
• Abstract shapes convey a sense of uniqueness and modernity. Brands that use these include Slack, Squarespace, and Chase Bank. 

Logo Color

A quick browse of our dive into Spring color palettes tells you that different colors have different meanings and expressions of feeling. Warm colors are associated with action, energy, and brightness. In contrast, cool colors tend to evoke feelings of serenity, positivity, calm, and peace.

Using colors that work well together make for a more interesting design, rather than one that’s bland and dull.

But, how are colors organized - and why is it important to keep these principles in mind when designing your logo? 

In short, by knowing how colors are organized, you’re better positioned to create harmonious designs that use colors that compliment each other and increase each other’s intensity when put together. 

With that said, colors are organized in the following way:

1. Primary: red, yellow, blue
2. Secondary: colors created when you mix primary colors together, e.g., red + blue= purple, yellow + blue = green, and red + yellow = orange. 
3. Tertiary: These are colors made from primary and secondary colors, e.g., blue greens or violet reds. 

A color wheel is a diagram used in design. It represents all the colors and how they relate to each other. They’re arranged in a circle shape, with each color in the circle falling into one of the above 3 categories. 

If you look at the color wheel and draw a straight line through its center, you’ll see warm colors (red, yellow, and orange) and cool colors (green, blue, and purple). 

Understanding the color wheel is one of the foundations of good design. After all, once you know how colors work together your designs are more likely to flow. Without a firm grasp of color theory, you risk creating a logo that uses jarring shades. The result? A logo that could prompt potential customers to form a negative association with your brand. 

Logo Design

Seven design principles apply to logo creation; including: emphasis, balance and alignment, contrast, repetition, proportion, movement, and white space. 

Suffice it to say that these principles need to be followed if you want your logo to look balanced, equally weighted, and attractive.

So, with that said, let’s explore each principle in more detail below:

1. Emphasis

By emphasis, we mean, what’s the main thing you want your logo design to communicate.

Imagine, for example, that you’re designing a logo for your brand collateral. What’s the emphasis going to be so your audience gets the message? 

In other words,  be clear about what you want to communicate and then make that the focal point of your design. For example, think about the “who,” i.e. who you are and what you stand for. 

There are different ways to do this, for example, with colors, shapes and so on. Whichever element you emphasize is the one that conveys your message the strongest. For example, the Apple logo with the bitten apple; the emphasis here is on taking a bite of the Apple as a way of symbolizing a byte, or biting into knowledge. 

2. Balance and Alignment

In logo design, balance and alignment refer to how each design element is arranged symmetrically, asymmetrically or radially. It’s important to remember that every element of your design has a visual weight. Put simply, this means that some aspects of a design appear more significant or are more noticeable to the eye, so you’ll need to ensure your design is balanced. 

So, when designing our aforementioned logo, your aim is to strike an attractive balance of colors and fonts so that the eye doesn’t wander off the page. 

3. Contrast

In logo design, ‘contrast’ is just a fancy way of describing how the colors interact with each other. For example, two intense colors close together, like red and yellow, can feel stressful if not broken apart by a cool color or white. 

Ideally, you should use contrast to make your design “pop” or jump out at your audience and grab their attention. One way to achieve this is to make your background color significantly different from the other colors used in the foreground. This is a great style hack for leading the eye to the information you want to convey. A good example of a brand that does this well is NBC.

4. Repetition

Logo designers often repeat design elements to create balance and consistency. Done well, repetition in your logo can strengthen, solidify and unify your design. Let’s take Mastercard as an example. The bank uses a circle twice to convey solidity and consistency. Also, Cisco uses a series of vertical lines above the brand name to convey movement. 

5. Proportion

Proportion refers to the visual weight and size of each element in your logo design. Needless to say, how big or small different design elements are can completely change the look of your logo.

For example, you might have a few small elements in your design, and by grouping them all together, you give them importance and emphasis. An example of a well-proportioned brand logo is the Chanel logo, with its intertwined letter Cs representing Coco Chanel.

6. Movement

Movement in logo design relates to how the eye moves from one design element to another to create a sense of rhythm. Ideally, you want the eye to move from one part of your design to the next so that every aspect of your narrative is conveyed to your audience. If any of your elements are too big, bold, or off-center, this will happen - so be sure to keep an eye out for that in your own designs!

7. White Space

Before we go any further, let’s clarify what we mean by white or negative space. First off, white space doesn’t have to be white. Feel free to use any color or shade that fits with your brand palette. In other words, white space is the area between the different elements of your overall logo design. 

With that said, white space is an essential tool in any designer’s box of tricks. It allows room for you to communicate multiple ideas in one design by creating a sense of hierarchy and organization. 

Having lots of white space with your design on top may sound and look simple, but don’t be fooled. Your logo and white space have to belong together and be united. 

That said, it’s important that your logo doesn’t look lost against the white space or look like some random graphic with a white space background that says nothing. That said, when used well, white space is used as a means of improving visual communication and balance.

NBC and Carrefour are examples of successful uses of negative space. As is the Toblerone logo, with its large white background and mountain design and incorporation of a bear in the foreground. In each of these cases, the simple logo design is combined with white space to create a simple and effective logo. 

Wordmark

A wordmark is your logo text displaying your brand name. It clearly identifies your brand and is, therefore, as important as your logomark. In some cases, you’ll find that the wordmark is the entire logo. For example, Coca-Cola. 

There are a couple of aspects that contribute to the success of a wordmark:

1. The typographic style
2. Clarity, i.e., a wordmark must be legible in different sizes and distances.

Some companies have custom fonts designed for their logos, such as Apple (San Francisco) and Airbnb (Airbnb Cereal).

However, most brands opt for ready-established fonts, such as script fonts like Barbie and Disney.

Building on the above, here are a few examples of fonts used by famous brands:

• Helvetica: BMW, General Motors, Harley Davidson, Target
• Proxima Nova: NBC, Wired, BuzzFeed, Mic
• Futura: PayPal, FedEx, Nike, Calvin Klein
• Garamond: Neutrogena, Rolex, Abercrombie and Fitch, American Eagle

Ultimately, the font you choose for your wordmark depends on the mood and message you want to convey with your logo and branding. So, with that said, it’s worth exploring the different fonts that are best for logo design before diving in. 

Having said that, here are a few tips for picking the right typography for your brand:

• Know your brand: its mission, target audience, values, and personality
• Decide your objectives: what do you want the font to convey, what emotions, how can it appeal to your target audience, and so on.
• Your brand personality: Are you an exclusive brand? If so, a more classic font may be better suited. Or, if you think your brand is more playful, you might want an offbeat, quirky font. 
• Research: Look at what other brands do, especially your competitors, but also look at online resources to find fonts that match your brand. For example, Typewolf and Fonts in Use.
• Learn about the 4 font classifications and what each conveys:

1. Serif: Formality and tradition e.g. Vogue, Honda, Sony
2. Sans Serif: Simplicity and modernity e.g. Netflix, Facebook, Spotify
3. Display: Luxury, decorative, eye-catching e.g. Disney, Lego, McDonald's
4. Script: elegance e.g. Coca Cola, Cadillac, Instagram

• Scalability: Make sure your font is readable in all sizes and mediums
• Test your fonts: What does your font look like in different applications, devices, and browsers? Do they look good across the board?
• Trends: Try to avoid them. What is cool and current now may not be so next season
• The legals: Don’t use a font that’s been customized for another brand. In addition, be aware of font licensing terms that outline what capacities fonts can be used in. 
• Get help: If this isn’t your area of expertise, consider hiring a freelance brand designer to create a font for you. 

Whatever font you choose, make sure to use it across all your branding. This includes all aspects of your internal and external communication materials to give your audience a positive and clear experience about your brand. It also strengthens your brand recognition and makes your business more readily identifiable and reliable.

Tagline

A tagline is a phrase used in your logo that explains what your business does and/or what it aims to convey. It's all about the emotion you want to evoke with your overall logo design. 

Think about how Nike does this with their “just do it” tagline. It doesn’t scream sports clothes and equipment, but it does suggest possibility, motivation, and achievement. Alternatively, some brands use qualifying words in their tagline to describe what their brand is or does. For example, De Beers, “A Diamond is Forever.”

You might use a smaller and less pronounced typographical style when showcasing your tagline, as customers don’t always need to see your tagline from a distance.

Sometimes, a brand might skip using its tagline in some of its adverts or other marketing materials. This is typically because the brand believes that its logo and brand name are recognizable and strong enough on its own without needing a tagline to help convey its message. Famous examples of this include Apple.

But, if you’re a startup and have yet to build a loyal following, it’s wise to use your tagline to provide an insight into what your brand does, who you are, and what you offer.

In other words, think of your tagline as an opportunity to reach past your brand name (wordmark) and the evocative imagery (logomark) to set the scene. 

Establishment Date and Location

Striving for brand authenticity and trust when creating your logo is essential, which is why offering customers your establishment data and/or location may be worth considering. It gives a sense of history and truth to your brand, and it’s also helpful if you’re looking for a more vintage feel.

For example, the Jack Daniels logo. Here the brand name is written above the logo in the shape of an arch. Below that, to convey a greater sense of history and vintage are the words “Old No.7 BRAND” and an oval shape with a spiral patterned outline with the establishment location “Lynchburg, Tenn, USA.”

Elsewhere, brands will incorporate their location into their logo because it gives a family feel (for example, KFC), which again, adds authenticity to the product. Similarly, you may want to include your location if one of your unique selling points is, for example, sourcing fresh produce close to home or organically sourced products. 

From a design perspective, where you place your brand establishment date and location is essential because you don’t want it to drown out every other component of your logo. In particular, your tagline size needs to take precedence. Look through famous examples of where this has been done. You’ll see that your establishment date will typically be above your wordmark, running from left to right, with the location centrally under the wordmark. That way, it looks nice and balanced.

A good example of this is the Stella Artois beer logo that has its establishment date (1366) in an arc above the brand name. Underneath this you’ll see “Belgium” as its location.

However, some brands only incorporate their establishment date or location into their logo - not both. For example, Twinings of London (first used in 1787) or Dos Equis Beer.

That said, as a modern startup that may be looking for contemporary logo trends instead, you might prefer a more streamlined logo design without any added information (tagline aside). If that sounds like you, you may prefer to gloss over this design component if you feel it isn’t a good fit with your brand. 

Framing

Some logo creators use a frame to encase their logo or use decorative lines to underscore some of its more important elements. This is a way of adding emphasis, but it’s optional. Some brands, like Lego or the BBC, use a simple box around their logo.

If you want to use framing in your logo design, consider how heavy the lines will be. For example, will you opt for solid colors or something finer and more detailed? Remember, frames don’t have to be box-shaped. For instance, the DHL logo is framed with a series of three parallel landscape lines that run from the left and right of the wordmark. 

Alternatively, sometimes, an ornamental frame is used. For example, if you want a logo with a vintage feel or if you want to use lines to frame your logo to give it a sense of elegance and sophistication. That said, it’s important not to over-embellish your logo. Ideally, your frame design shouldn’t look so complex that the eye doesn’t know where to focus. 

Background

Your logo background could be any color or it could also include an image or have a sense of texture. Remember, your logo isn’t just going to appear in a two-dimensional context, such as your website and social media. It may also appear 3D on your products, such as apparel or homewares. 

Real-life examples of this include the Apple logo, which is found not only on its website and in online stores but also on all its products. Also, Nike’s logo. It’s on all its marketing yet also printed on all its footwear and apparel, visible when the wearer moves. 

With that said, it’s worth setting your logo against different backgrounds when you first design it to ensure that it works in all environments. 

Composition Principles

Lastly, it’s worth familiarizing yourself with a few design composition best practices. Adhering to these principles will help ensure that you place every logo element in a way that’s appealing to the eye. Below we’ll explore the following best practices: the grid, emphasis, balance, the rule of thirds, and the rule of odds. 

Let’s take a look at each in turn:

The Grid

All designers work off an invisible grid. This ‘grid’ is a system that helps you create a design that’s cleaner, simpler, and well-organized. The aim is to use your grid to create a sense of symmetry and balance in your design. 

There are lots of different types of grids and while we won’t go into them all in this guide, here are a few standard examples:

• Circular grid: A geometric pattern of overlapping circles that can help you form letter shapes and curves in your logo design. 
• Modular grid: You add rows to the column grid (see below). The rows and columns intersect, thereby creating modules to help ensure that all elements are aligned and aesthetically pleasing. If you’re adding text and other elements to your logo design, you might use this. 
• Pixel grid: You’ll see this when you zone in on digital pictures, millions of tiny squares or pixels. They enable you to edit images pixel-by-pixel. 
• Baseline grid: These are a series of dense horizontal lines that are equally spaced. This is typically used to decide where text will be placed and can be combined with column grids (see below) to ensure lines of text in each column are aligned to make them more readable. These are often used in ruled paper like the kind you have at school. 
• Column grid: This is where a page or screen is split into a number of vertical lines or columns. These are often used by newspapers and magazines.

However, using an invisible grid is more complex than it seems with different designers choosing different grid systems and it’s worth you researching the grid system before diving in as there’s a lot to learn. 

Emphasis

As mentioned earlier, when looking at a logo, remember that the eyes need somewhere to focus and rest—this is the part of your logo you want to emphasize. If not, they’ll just move on. The purpose of a design is to bring attention to it in a positive way and communicate your brand message. Examples of brands that have successfully used emphasis to their advantage in their logos include Rolex and Chanel. 

Balance

Again, as mentioned earlier, your logo design needs to look harmonious, not a set of elements randomly put on the same page. Creating a harmonious design with white space gives you the room to provide the eyes with a path to follow through your design, while simultaneously ensuring your design doesn’t feel cluttered or cramped. 

Rule of Thirds

The ‘rule of thirds’ is a simple rule where you divide your design into three rows and three columns. Where each of the lines meets, that's where you should place your main subject (logomark) and its supporting elements. 

For example, the Lyceum Insurance Service Logo successfully adopts this principle. The logo is in the horizontal middle third section, while the upper and bottom areas are white space. 

Rule of Odds

Lastly, the ‘rule of odds’ is where you have an odd number of elements in the foreground of your design. Typically, this comprises three elements. This simple trick creates a sense of balance and order. In logo designs, this means that whatever element is in the center is where your focal point should be. 

Needle Records is a good example of a brand that has successfully used the rule of odds in its logo.

Putting It All Together: A Logo Lockup

A logo lockup refers to a specific arrangement of different elements of a brand's identity. This usually includes the primary logo, the brand name, a tagline, or other graphic elements. It ensures consistency and cohesiveness in how the brand is presented across various platforms and materials. 

Let’s break down the key components and considerations of a logo lockup:

1. Primary logo: The main visual symbol representing the brand.
2. Brand name: The name of the company or product, typically in a specific typeface.
3. Tagline: A short, memorable phrase that conveys the brand’s essence.
4. Graphic elements: Additional visual elements that support the logo, such as lines, shapes, or icons.

Purpose of a Logo Lockup

• Consistency: Ensures the brand looks the same across different media.
• Recognition: Makes it easier for consumers to recognize and remember the brand.
• Professionalism: Presents a polished and cohesive image.

Types of Logo Lockups

• Vertical Lockup: Elements are stacked vertically.
• Horizontal Lockup: Elements are placed side-by-side horizontally.
• Combination Lockup: A mix of vertical and horizontal arrangements, depending on the context.

Guidelines for Creating a Logo Lockup

1. Hierarchy: Ensure a clear visual hierarchy where the primary logo and brand name are prominent.
2. Spacing: Maintain adequate space between elements to avoid clutter.
3. Alignment: Align elements in a way that looks balanced and cohesive.
4. Scalability: Ensure the lockup works well at different sizes.
5. Flexibility: Consider different versions of the lockup for various applications.

The Anatomy of a Logo: Our Final Thoughts 

A great logo is easy to look at, simple to understand, and memorable. While overthinking your design will just make everything overly complex, you still need to apply all the anatomy of a logo that we’ve covered here to achieve a logo that communicates everything you want it to. 

It’s important that you familiarize yourself with all of the parts of a logo’s anatomy before you set out designing. That way, you have more likelihood of creating a cohesive and lasting design where all the elements work together to make a whole. 

However, if you feel that this isn’t for you, and you’d rather spend time on growing your business, that’s OK too. With LogoMe you can take the headache out of designing your logo. That’s because it uses advanced AI to create attractive custom logos that showcase your brand identity in just a few clicks. 

Are you interested in creating a logo that speaks to your audience? Visit LogoMe to get started.