Logos have to walk the tricky walk of being simple, yet comprehensive at the same time—i.e., instantly recognisable and communicating the brand’s essence. Some logos do this very well, but many don’t. After poring through thousands and thousands of logos, we asked Gardner and the LogoLounge judges what graphic devices were trending this year and if they felt they were effective for their intended audiences. Here’s a glimpse at the 15 logo trends in five categories, including Surface, Form, Object, Dimension and Line.
1. Shadow Breaks are these instances in which designers use a shadow to create a dimensional break, rather than a hard-line break.
2. Fades have become quite popular this year, where parts of the logo interlace with paper or the surface they’re on.
3. Rising Colour is really about the intensity of colour when it is placed over itself.
4. Simplicity in form is a return to basics. The little movie camera comprised of the heart and the rectangle and the two circles on top says this is about somebody who loves movies or filmmaking. If I were just to take those same shapes and cast them out on the table like a cup full of dice, you’d never make that connection. It’s kind of brilliant how simple it is.
5. Simple Overlay is an old trick that has come back in a big way to really communicate transparency.
6. Multicentric logos were in abundance this year. The concentric stripes and circles seem to evoke that idea of broadcasting—where something starts at a central point and communicates outward. These marks also tend to have monoweight lines.
7. Ellipsis in speech bubbles are having their moment in the sun, and Gardner says there’s some psychology behind that.
8. Text Boxes are another way to call out words in a different way. Instead of placing words in a solid form like a crest, designers are creating new meanings by incorporating a block of colour or reversing the text and background to create a logo.
9. Yin and Yang have symbolic references dating back centuries.
10. Pasta Bends are a newish category in which designers are trying to create a new, perhaps more realistic rendering by adding three-dimensional characteristics using highlights, gradients, and shadows.
11. Wrapped logos are really like hidden figures that reveal themselves underneath something else. It’s this idea of an integral component lying underneath that becomes part of the greater whole.
12. Microlines work together to complete a form that almost appears as a light four-colour process.
13. Doubles is the idea of drafting two components in a single line that are interlinked with each other.
14. Wings give the impression of something being uplifted, giving the logo an ethereal quality. These multiline logos have an aspirational sense and create a sense of flight.
15. Colour Split is part of a new evolution, expanding on the monoline approach and using color to create a new dimension or twist.
REFERENCE: https://goo.gl/2HpzK1