Minimalist Logo Design: When Simplicity Is The Right Choice.

There are plenty of competing ideas about what makes for the perfect logo design. One of the trending favorites is minimalism. There’s always been a sense of minimalism in the category of logo design since the brand identity must look good at scale from a small logo on a web design to an enormous billboard in Times Square. So what separates a touch of simplicity from a true minimalistic logo design?

The difference between an industry-accepted natural tendency toward minimalist designs and a direct approach is like beauty, it’s in the eye of the beholder. The question will never be a unanimous decision from the panel that judges minimalism. It is an individualist decision for every person inside and outside of the company.

What is a Minimalist Logo Design?

Now that we have stirred the pot, we can give you a definition of what people look for from a minimalist logo design. Internally, it can start as a brand strategy. For any brand effort, figuring out what the purpose of a company is, and its essence is at the core of logo design.

If a brand has a minimalistic theme threaded throughout the organization, it will seek to reduce any abstract effect found within its logo.

The impact of a logo defines a company’s brand identity. Case in point, what’s at the heart of the logo and package design of some of the most popular brands, like Nesquik? The rabbit? The chocolate milk? How about the font itself?.

A few years back, Antrepo came out with a few designs of famous brands that eliminated all the noise and got down to the core of what made the logo really click. The result? Really effective, but to whom?

Notice how the logo itself appeals to a different consumer when stripping away the colorful imagery? We do not find Nesquik brand identity within the logo, but more so in their packaging color scheme. Perhaps it is time for a logo and packaging refresh?

It’s interesting to see how many (or how few) elements we need to make a logo effective. We have further discussed this topic in our minimalist packaging design article. Whether or not you choose a minimalist theme, your company’s brand message and logo strategy are crisp and flourish-light.

Ready for Some Logo Design Tips? Let’s get started.

Maintaining Simplicity in Logo Design

A logo style is rarely effective if it isn’t clear and simple. This doesn’t mean we’re going to set any limits on brush strokes or anything, but if your minimalist logo is getting into the original Apple logo territory, someone simply has to stop you.

Every logo needs a core; the core is what the logo actually is without all the bells and whistles. This includes the brand colors, the font, and possibly the brand name. A young brand will have to incorporate additional elements in order to delineate what the company, product, and philosophy is all about.

As the brand ages and its vision becomes more well known, then the logo can become cleaner and eventually pared down to its barest essence. Look back at history and you notice that as time went on, established brands trended toward a minimal logo design.

We would love to have a time machine that let us go back in time so that we could hear the conversation between Steve Jobs and the logo designer Rob Janoff who told him, “you get one logo, and that’s it!”

We can assume that since Steve had been moving towards a less is more approach, he pitched the idea of simple to Rob. We can also assume that he was nervous about his idea of simplicity when the designer was only going to give him one option to choose from.

How a Minimalist Logo Design Impacts Product Packaging

As a packaging design agency, it only makes sense to discuss the impact that a minimal logo has on packaging design. It looks silly to have a minimalist logo design sitting front and center on a label that is bright and built to pop. Unless you amend your minimal logo with effects such as a foil finish, we almost guarantee that the consumer will not acknowledge it.

So, if you must carry your brand identity forward, then you will need a negative space between your logo and packaging design. Otherwise, push the “need to be known” over to the side of the packaging so that it’s out of the way of your loud design.

Of course, if you have a minimalist packaging design alongside your logo, then keep the same theme. Try not to make the mistake that Nestle makes where the logo alone speaks to a different audience than the product itself.

How a Minimalist Logo Design Impacts Website Design

Branding your logo design on your website is more than where it sits on the header menu. Your brand carries the logo throughout your site, including, as we previously discussed, your product packaging. If you are aiming for a minimalist design, consider how it will affect the totality of your web design.

A minimalist logo design is not a standalone imager. Since we will include it in almost every advertising and branding graphic design you create, you need to be sure that a minimal logo will not interrupt the other aspects of your brand’s visibility.

Considerations For Your Minimalist Logo

There are three key aspects you need to get right if you hope to create the perfect minimalist logo.

Finding The Right Logo Shape

Different from minimalist packaging, consumers understand a minimalist logo to have straight edges, curvy, or a combination of both. Hiring a focus group that reviews a wide range of logo designs will tell you what consumers consider to be a “modern logo.“

Not one of them will have the same shape. Test your design element against other styles to see which outperforms the rest.

Sticking With Brand colors

Unless for some rare circumstance, like it or not, your logo incorporates your brand colors. This is especially true if your product name includes a color of some sort, such as “Red Bull,” “orange juice” or “Maroon 5.”

When choosing colors for your logo, stick to color families that are appropriate to both your brand identity and your demographic.

• Earth tones if your brand is environmentally friendly;
• Pastels, is geared toward parents of newborns
• Bold and eye-catching colors if marketing your product to children.

You can, if you like, be creative in terms of color selection, but there are still a few hard and fast rules. If you manufacture baby furniture and your brand colors are black and gunmetal grey, be aware that parents of emo or goth newborns are a niche market.

Keep your brand colors relatively simple and include enough white space. Select a color palate that a multitude of printers can easily accommodate and stay true when viewed on different browsers.

Minimalist Font Options

Helvetica. Nuff said.

Just kidding. There are hundreds of fonts out there in the world, all yours for the taking after paying a modest fee.

When choosing a font, clarity is the most important quality. You want your customers to read your brand and product name, and if you must sacrifice some artistry, so be it.

Brand name or no brand name?

Hard to say. Honestly, it depends upon whether your product and brand name are, well, good. If your product name is Qsymia, we suggest going with a symbol.

You have a choice; you can turn your brand name into a simple logo, or incorporate your brand name into a logo and symbol combo and then eliminate the name from the badge or not as you choose once your brand becomes known. Just be aware that your brand will probably never become known if symbol recognition alone is possible.

Oh, there’s Mcdonald’s, Apple, Nike, and Pepsi, but those were billion-dollar efforts in order to create the perfect logo. Now, if your graphic designer has fabricated a totally fly, clean, and distinct symbol that will surely become your business’ badge from now until the end of time, then don’t waste it. Otherwise, when in doubt, include your name on your minimal logo.

Minimalist Logo Designs

So, what have we learned today?

First, we learned a logo must be a simple yet cohesive symbol around which we add other elements, then eventually, remove.

Second, we learned that a pastoral etching of Sir Isaac Newton under a tree doesn’t count as a logo.

Third, we learned that a crisp, readable font is one thousand times better than any sort of elaborate, barely legible, swirly script.

Most importantly, we learned that if a new parent shops for baby furnishings made entirely of wrought iron and slabs of granite, then the Department of Social Services should probably realize that fact.

Minimalist Packaging Design Agency

Is your brand considering a minimalistic logo? Before you execute a minimal design for your new logo, talk to our team first. At SmashBrand Our packaging design company can also help you with logo design. Our proprietary logo testing process makes certain that your packaging performs at its peak.