Logo design trends are something mythical: almost everyone speaks and writes about them. But have you ever seen them in action? While so many creators are building up their tips on how you should better approach logo design, we’ve decided to check up what real businesses do and sum it up as nine major logo trends that will probably work in 2023.
So what’s going on in the industry? As with general design trends, every year, we seek significant trends for logo design, trying to help designers and entrepreneurs onboard fresh and distinctive brand identity. More or fewer colors, flat style or 3D, minimalism or maximalism — over and over again, it’s the same choice for everyone. The funniest thing is that even when the choice is made, nobody has a keen understanding of what an engaging modern logo should be like and keeps doing things their way.
In fact, every time there comes a powerful trend — as it happened a few years ago with reserved flower-based logos in Scandinavian style — there are always thousands of studios that overlook it. The same happens in other creative fields (or even outside the design industry), but logo design makes it particularly evident that any trend carries thousands of exceptions.
That’s why I recommend you to focus on something other than popular trends everyone’s about and see for yourself what’s what. To help you with that, we’ve explored hundreds of loud rebrandings of 2022 to make up an honest list of logo trends that most designers stick to. That must be of great help if you don’t know what to start with!
Logo Design Trends 2023: Overview
it: from indie projects on Behance to grand rebrandings of Google, Avon, or Peugeot. Similar to general graphic design trends, branding intensively adopted reserved typography and matched it with vibrant color schemes.
In 2023 logo design trends will likely continue the general tendency, and we hope to see the aesthetics mentioned above globally reinvented. However, we also expect the glorious comeback of typographic aesthetics in all possible forms. You’ll be amused to see that logo designers couldn’t withstand harsh minimalism and symbolism — instead, fancy fonts flooded the industry. Of course, we have seen lots of such concepts before, but this time inventive typography gas finally featured in real rebrandings of the real brands.
Along with that you’ll meet some of the well-loved logo design trends of the past two years: sketches, Art Deco-styled branding(and even more retro than you think!), and some shifts in the preferred color solutions.
Simplified Geometry & Basic Shapes
In 2023 you will hardly surprise anyone with a logo based on a complex logomark. Such logos are usually hard to remember, and target audience may find it challenging to build a bond between the company name and its graphic representation. This can be a huge problem for big businesses seeking to reinforce their presence and increase brand awareness. Therefore, there is a tendency for companies to refuse such logo marks in favor of something fundamental.
Basic geometric shapes are various triangles, circles, squares, dots, and lines, which bring logo designs to a simplistic image. In compensation, designers suggest using a vibrant, high-contrast color scheme (sometimes associated with a brand story even better than the logo itself). Or, on the contrary, switch to black & white and bring this minimalist effect to a maximum. Finally, negative space is another great way to adopt simple geometry and sustain visual interest.
The principle “Less is more” isn’t new in design, nor is this a stand-alone logo design trend. For example, last year KIA or Google redesigned their logos (which initially were quite simple and reserved) using simple shapes. This year a similar redesign from Citroën followed. And there sure will be more notable examples illustrating this primary logo trend.
It’s vital to note that the logo trend of basic geometric shapes doesn’t strictly refer to logo marks. In fact, it is about fonts, too — but this happens less frequently and is more associated with the global typography trends and the overall popularity of minimalist types.
Wordmark Logos With Vintage Vibe
As a design trend, vintage aesthetics comes and goes, but 2023 will be the first year to celebrate it as a full-fledged logo design trend. Actually, it was a surprise for many creators that logo design remained cold towards retro and vintage tendencies for so long. Indeed, we’ve seen countless elegant old-school fonts that would match wordmarks perfectly, but nothing happened until now.
True, we saw countless projects on Behance featuring retro or vintage-style typography. But most of these were concepts existing exclusively in designers’ portfolios and minds. Nothing worth our attention and nothing to do with real business’s needs. And then suddenly there goes one successful redesign after another, and they all feature typefaces that originated from the 1960s-1980s. And they look jaw-dropping. And get all eyes on them.
It’s an excellent sign for a logo trend to go beyond indie studios, small businesses, boutiques, salons, and individual creators and meet the broad community with its own vision of good design. For them, a good logo design should be understandable and memorable — these aren’t the features of a fancy designer’s stuff. That’s why even the fact itself that there is increased interest in retro design from real people means the world for this logo trend in 2023.
Searching for inspiration, it makes sense to check Behance projects. There are lots and lots of studios actively playing with experimental vintage typography and trying it for branding purposes — so you’ll probably come across someone who will share your personal feeling of perfection. On the other hand, as the world is increasingly interested in graphic design tendencies and logo design trends imposed by the industry’s leaders, we can count on some big companies to teleport their wordmark logos to the previous decades.
Symbolism & Minimalism Instead of Realism
There are multiple logo design trends related to simplifying logos and minimalism — and probably this one is the most illustrative of all. Every one of us has in mind the brand logos created as a genuine piece of art. Animals, florals, mythical objects and creatures, coats of arms — inside the logo, they demonstrate mastership and fascinating attention to detail. True, such logos really look striking (as long as the image is high-quality, of course), but they lose other types of logos from the point of responsive design.
You probably remember responsive logos, the term which was introduced around five years ago. These were the logos that could be adapted to the varying screen size or another medium. For this purpose, designers could remove the wordmark, simplify or hide the logomark. Today hardly anyone considers responsive logos as an independent phenomenon or trend. Instead, responsiveness is a natural feature of a logo, and the movement of symbolism and minimalism just proves it.
Realistic logomarks are pretty cumbersome and inconvenient, especially when placed on smaller screens or compact business cards. And here come the simplified versions or brand new minimalist logos, which save lots of designers’ time and effort. They make it possible to create a single logo design that will look well everywhere — or it will be less tricky to divide it into separate elements. Mainly, this logo trend isn’t about visual beauty and style but convenience. A symbol-based logo is far more flexible, and its delicate appearance is a bonus, not an end in itself.
Typography With a Twist
If you think that vintage outburst is the only fresh logo trend in 2023, let me prove wrong. Modern typeface aesthetic will have plenty of room to show all its aspects in logotypes, and we’ll finally see those fancy fonts in action! 2021 was announced as the year of experimental typography — precisely when we saw the first glitchy and wavy types. Since then, they remain all the rage, and large type foundries on Creative Market and My Fonts release one best-seller after another.
It took two years for logo designers to look at fancily-drawn letters and see how they could use them in projects. In fact, it was the same as with vintage logos. It all began with concepts, where creative minds played with the most outrageous types, color combinations, patterns, and graphics. Then followed the entrepreneurs who are always the first to try something new: hipster cosmetics brands, breweries, and street food. Then something impossible happened: Nucao, a German chocolate brand, switched from an understandable and highly legible sans serif logo to one featuring an experiments type. I knew it was a milestone.
Nucao isn’t the only company that gave a go to experimental typography and apparently profited from it. There are more: deliveries, food producers, convenience stores, and other companies targeting broad audiences. Something massive’s happening and proving that fewer people fear fancy branding, and well, fewer branding designers and businesses fear logo trends.
While bold experimental typography isn’t a trend for everyone, sans serif fonts are the story that everyone knows and understands. It’s been quite a while since designers refuse fancy scripts and serifs in favor of sans serifs. This process has already slowed down a little. But as there is a general tendency, we can state that it’s still a logo design trend for 2023 — which, by the way, is supported by the popularity of simplified logos and basic geometric forms we wrote about above.
The motivation to refuse fancy fonts is extremely simple — it’s much easier to work with sans serif fonts. Adapting them to different screens and canvas sizes is less complicated, so they fit responsive logos more. What’s funny is that a couple of years ago, we observed an opposite process: many companies switched from sans serifs to serifs, as the retro design was hugely popular. Today, despite retromania slowly getting back on stage, the healthy pragmatism is still there, and we can be sure to see lots of reserved sans serif text-based logos as we did in 2022.
If you think that a sans serif logo is boring, it’s likely that you haven’t sensed the incredible variety of fonts with tons of geometry features, weights, color solutions — as well as outline styles and lowercase-letters-only logo designs. We’ve even seen some sans serif to sans serif rebranding which look jaw-dropping and attract attention better than the most exquisite script type. So don’t be skeptical!
Scribbles, sketches and doodling are one of the most distinct logo trends 2023. Although it seems that freeform drawing has already exhausted itself, recent projects demonstrate right the opposite. The key to its revival is the steady interest in a designer’s personal approach to the brand. And apparently, there’s hardly anything better for that than fast sketches, cartoon characters, and shapes drawn in a unique style.
Be prepared for more scribbled elements in logo design as well as amusing cartoon logos, and fast-drawn mascots in corporate branding. Hand-drawn logos, produced in a fast and unpretentious manner are welcome too, and we’ve already seen projects and teams that have their brand name written this way.
All of the metioned logo designs will be celebrating the raw, unfinished look. And even if you are a passionate lover of clean minimalism and traditional logo aesthetics, for some brands, such a throwback from the mid-2010s will be the best way to deliver their aesthetics.
Muted Colors & Gradients
Practice shows that the work with color and the choice of the color palette for a logo is a very personal story, and it’s usually hard to track the global tendency or any logo trends associated with particular colors. Someone prefers black & white logos. Someone chooses monochrome, nude or earthy colors. However, if we look at big brands, we’ll be able to define a shift from saturated to muted colors.
Bright colors are capricious and hard to work with. They attract too much attention, and there can be pretty much trouble in implementing them into the brand’s design system. Abbyy or Creative Cloud show an example of ultimate color proficiency, and the saturated tones look natural on their websites, social media or printed materials. But isn’t the survivorship bias? While some companies diligently maximized saturation and played with neon palettes, others opted for muted colors — and for good! Just look at the new identity for Baskin Robbins, a company that also tried itself in vibrant logos last year. Looks like a sign for a logo designer to start with soft colors and switch to vivid ones only in case of emergency.
Another aspect of this trend is gradient logo design, which started gaining momentum not so long ago. It seemed that designers would never get back to them. But then, in 2020, followed a whole series of redesign projects centred around gradient logos, from two-color gradients of Facebook Messenger or Avon to a gradient rainbow of Discovery channel and Adobe’s main logo. So in 2023, I am looking forward to more gradients, and I wonder if they’ll go muted in simplistic style, too.
Hand-picked cases:
Fiasco of Tall Logos
Tall logos were one of the most promising logo design trends last year. Narrow and vertical, they opposed themselves to the popular horizontal, square, and circle variations. Rotation alone inspired hundreds of designers at least to play with them. And as we could see from multiple Behance projects, their aesthetics was exceptionally suitable for fashion companies, boutiques, creative studios, and big brands that seek to be on edge.
Sounds lovely, right? However, reality crashed tall logos pretty fast, and now designers mostly strive for traditional designs for their logo marks. That’s quite a surprise for everyone, as this logo trend brought everything modern design craved: 1930s retro designs, Art Deco aesthetics, clean lines, and lightweight typography. And even though everyone knew that tall logos were a very niche solution, the design community still placed their hopes on them.
While most logo design trends in 2023 approve the riskiest experiments, here we have a return to the roots. Circle and square are back to the top, standing for traditions in graphic design. Or rather for the ease of use, as tall logos have proven cumbersome and unviable outside Behance. They demand too much space, hardly match with other elements, and adapting them to small screen sizes or business cards is so much pain. Trends are made to improve design work, not to sabotage it.
Long story short: if you are considering a logo mark, make it circle or square. Or freeform (but still compact). And if you want something special, check other logo trends: like experimental typography or gold foiling.
While top logo design trends in 2023 have grown around typography and its hugest breakthrough, let’s not underestimate the role of color palettes and materials in brand identity. Last year all eyes were on black-and-white logos. This year, we’re moving away from the monochrome and rediscovering the timeless classic (again!): gold foiling.
The trend isn’t new, and we’ve seen lots of gold in numerous projects already. On the other hand, gold is the legacy of tall logos and vintage aesthetics, and its introduction is more than logical. Besides, with the recent rebrand of the Toblerone logo, where designers removed the iconic mountain, chose an Art Nouveau font, and still preserved the finest gold shading, we can keep our hopes for gold keeping (and even gaining) positions.
Gold is traditionally associated with expensive logos: jewelry, hotels, and boutiques, where it goes as delicate logo marks and thin letters. And it’s questionable whether it will ever be common within down-to-earth businesses. Of course, product designers do their max to popularise gold foil embossing in their patterns, logo mockups and text effects, there is no general tendency yet. Time will show.
Logo Trends to Leave in 2022
Obviously, no clear boundary would separate the logo design trends of 2023 and 2023. Most of the trends at their peak have been with us for quite a while, so you shouldn’t expect any global changes.
However, we can safely say that, for example, negative space or 3D, which were extremely popular before, are unlikely to become the main character of the logo design this season. There have been quite a lot of them in the past few years, so the community has tired of it. The same happened to animated logos, one of the most promising logo trends back in 2021. By itself, animation continues to arouse the audience’s attention, and this is a winning technique for branding presentation — but unfortunately, it didn’t prove viable. Since animated logos are applicable only in digital design, the inability to go out to the masses played a cruel joke on them, and the main feature — animation — became a disadvantage.
Finally, the fate of any trend is determined by many factors: from the social environment to separate tendencies of the digital world. Art Deco, Scandinavian design, or Boho failed to make a fresh appearance in 2022, as many businesses and creators were craving pragmatism from one side and a new artistic vision on the other. Consequently, the same can happen to any of the trends on the list, and up to customers to decide what a successful logo will be like in 2023.
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