The Seven Types of Logo, and How to Pick One

Logo type is usually presented as a style choice. It is closer to an engineering decision: each type is good at a specific job and bad at others, and the right one is mostly determined by how long your name is, how well known you are, and where the mark has to appear.

1. Wordmark

The name itself, set in custom or heavily adjusted type. Google, Coca-Cola, FedEx.

Good at: teaching your name, which for a new business is usually the priority. Nothing builds name recognition faster than a mark that is the name.

Bad at: small square spaces. A wordmark cannot be an app icon or a favicon.

Right when: your name is short and distinctive, and you need people to learn it.

2. Lettermark (monogram)

Initials. IBM, HBO, CNN.

Good at: making long or awkward names usable. Works in square spaces.

Bad at: meaning anything on its own. Initials are also crowded — most two and three-letter combinations are in use, which creates trademark difficulty.

Right when: your full name is too long to set well, and you have another channel teaching people what the initials stand for.

3. Pictorial mark

A recognisable object, simplified. The Apple apple, the Twitter bird, the Shell shell.

Good at: memorability and instant meaning. Concrete images are remembered far better than abstract ones.

Bad at: flexibility later. If you pick an object tied to one product and then expand, the mark starts arguing with the business.

Right when: there is an object genuinely associated with what you do, and you are confident it will still describe you in ten years.

4. Abstract mark

A designed shape with no literal referent. Nike's swoosh, Adidas's stripes, Pepsi's globe.

Good at: ownability and longevity. Nothing to outgrow, and nobody else has it.

Bad at: communicating anything until people are taught. That teaching costs exposure — which is why abstract marks are associated with large budgets.

Right when: you have repeated contact with the same customers (an app, a subscription, packaging they re-buy) doing the teaching for free.

5. Mascot

An illustrated character. KFC's Colonel, the Michelin Man.

Good at: warmth, personality and a huge amount of downstream content — a character can be posed, animated and reused endlessly.

Bad at: formality, and small sizes. Detailed characters need a simplified version for icons.

Right when: you sell to families or consumers, and want a brand people feel friendly toward rather than impressed by.

6. Emblem

Text locked inside a shape. Starbucks, Harley-Davidson, most universities and football clubs.

Good at: heritage, authority and craft signalling. Excellent on physical goods.

Bad at: scaling down. Text inside a badge becomes unreadable quickly, so an emblem almost always needs a simplified companion mark.

Right when: your value is partly tradition or craft, and physical application matters more than screen.

7. Combination mark

A symbol and the name locked together, usable separately. Burger King, Doritos, most modern identities.

Good at: nearly everything. You get name-teaching from the wordmark and a square-capable icon from the symbol, and you can retire the wordmark later once the symbol is known — which is exactly what Mastercard, Nike and Apple all eventually did.

Bad at: nothing much, which is why it is the most common choice.

Right when: you are unsure. It is the safe default for most businesses.

The shortcut

Ask where the mark has to work on day one. If the answer includes an app icon, a social avatar or a favicon, you need something square-capable, which rules out a pure wordmark. If the answer is signage and packaging, an emblem or combination mark is in play. If nobody has heard of you and your name is good, a wordmark or combination mark will work hardest.

You can see all seven as real client work on the work page.