A few decades ago, logo’s main purpose was to demonstrate the brand of a company in printed media like leaflets and newspapers. Nowadays with the entrance of Internet, things have drastically changed. Today’s logos have to work in a wide range of platforms with different dimensions to serve their purpose—from static P.Cs to mobile devices like smartphones and i-Pads.
When it comes to responsive web design, some logos don’t pretty much work and are “doomed” to re-size their dimensions to fit each platform. Some others though are so simple and flexible that they don’t have this issue.
And if you previously thought that complex logos are necessarily the most successful, think again—the most recognizable logos in history of the net are on the simple side: Google, Facebook,Twitter, Apple, and the list goes on.
This has been the subject of much speculation, but the main reason is almost evident: the human brain is wired to remember simple logo designs and patterns. That means getting rid of jumbled multiple letters, fonts, shapes or colors that don’t really add anything to the logo’s appearance.
Some giant companies like Google, Twitter, Spotify, Nike, and Facebook have even attempted to make their logo’s even more simple over the years, even if it means to remove only one line or letter. The changes as we can see from the pictures below are subtle, but are still significant.
In the case of Apple, the change was very drastic: at first it was a medieval picture showing an apple tree and young man studying under the tree, which was quite “artsy” for a logo, but it was replaced a year later with the famous logo of apple—a big simply designed and bitten apple with multiple colors. The color combo may have changed over the years, but the basic shape remains the same: simple, fresh, modern, and flexible.
Here is another example:
Here we can see two logo approaches for plumbing services. The first looks too complex and “old school” (we bet you won’t even remember that it has two toilets, two sets of tools, etc) and the second is a simple yet modern looking logo that is clear and doesn’t distract the average person. It’s no rocket science to figure out which one is the most successful.
If your company’s logo is too complex, old-school, or inflexible for working in various platforms, we can help!! Our team of web designers car re-design your logo to its fullest potential and make it “work” across various platforms for the years to come.