I read an interesting blog post today on logoorange.com about 2008 logo design trends. It brought to mind my own personal thoughts on logo design that I thought I’d share here. Let me start by saying, I find logos to be one of the more challenging design projects to undertake as there is so much importance that lies on a corporate logo or identity. It’s pretty amazing how something that can be so small and unassuming can define an entire company and has the power to make a company either thrive or die, and anything in between.

My first reaction to this article, while interesting enough, is that I believe a logo is one area in design that you can not and should not follow a trend simply to “follow a trend”. Don’t get me wrong, there are very good reasons for following trends in design, and even in logo design, but if you are approaching a logo design project with the thought of following a specific trend simply because it’s the “new thing” or the “popular style”, you are going about designing the logo all wrong. In my opinion, logos first and foremost need to communicate the corporate name, and attempt to give a definition of what the company does. The latter probably being the more difficult part, but some kind of hint as to at least the industry that the company supports or is in should be communicated. Sometimes, staying within a design trend or style can accomplish that, but generally I don’t believe that is the case. A third scenario is to design the logo as a play on the word name of the company (i.e. Apple’s apple), but this is more about brand recognition and name awareness, or to use the logo as a standalone element. While doing this doesn’t always communicate the industry that the company is related to, there are legitimate reasons for doing this.

In addition to communicating the name and purpose of the company, the logo should be scalable and reproducible on various mediums, and as noted in the linked article and the comments from it’s readers, that is not always achievable with these “trends”.

Don’t get me wrong, design trends are very important to a designer, and good designers should always be aware of where the trends are heading, but especially with logo design, they should be a secondary thought. The main goals of a logo need to be met first and if this can be accomplished by following a style trend – great. All I’m saying is don’t let yourself get locked into a specific design style just because it’s the new, hip, up and coming thing. Trends are just that, trends… they tend to change often while corporate logos should be timeless, and for a corporate logo to be successful, it should be able to far outlive the latest trend.

All that said, I do actually recommend reading the article, and also the comments. There is some interesting information for logo and identity designers.

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