The Logo Design and Branding Trends of 2019

Psychologists and other experts frequently tell us that there exists no one way to live a good life, and, as more research emerges, trend followers are reporting that the same principle applies to logo design and branding pursuits. Through the Logo Lounge’s 2019 Logo Trend Report, businesses and prospective entrepreneurs can enjoy an immersive look at the creative means that their actual and possible peers are using to excel.

Issued on May 30, the analysis by Logo Lounge founder Bill Gardner is long on insightful observations and visual reflections on what comprises companies’ creative efforts, with his poetic prose giving ample evidence to back the report’s point that “Modern culture continues to shift the ways we interpret symbols and how we visually prioritize in context, setting topsy-turvy the relationship between identity and application.”

With so much pressure, both self-produced and industry-created, to stand out, which marks are people using to mark themselves as icons in their respective fields? Gardner answers that by addressing 15 logo design preferences, offering four examples for each.

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— logolounge (@logolounge) June 4, 2019

A seasoned pro could inspect the representations and maybe find at least 15 more themes that businesses have been using in 2019, such is the plethora of concepts out there. In terms of what Gardner tackles in Logo Lounge’s  17th examination, we want to devote some space to two trends that might seem as if they are opposites in a way—namely, holes and periods—to tap into the psychology of companies’ decisions.

For the former, the writer posits that “These fields were not designed to hide but to illustrate for the consumer an incompleteness that only they can solve.” What an explanation! By relying on open expanses in their logos, according to Gardner, enterprises are rejoicing in the idea of being incomplete and serving as some sort of puzzle through which consumers can find themselves. That might be an overly cerebral explanation for many end-users, but through it, the Logo Lounge founder is reaffirming the belief, through a design, that we do not need to have all the answers to enjoy something—in this case, a visual lure.

Much like with color psychology, a topic that we have devoted time to, shape analysis can prove a riveting experiment. Four sections after covering holes, Gardner gives periods some play, and while those punctuation marks give off a definitive feel, he lucidly offers that their numerous uses show that “It’s the designer that flips the significance of a word or a name by considering the period outside of traditional context that sharpens the wit of the conversation.” That’s another intelligent way of saying that well-chosen logos and brand identifiers invite observers to find personal meaning in their repeated interactions with a brand. While nothing is wrong with coming to a concise conclusion about what a logo means to someone, that variable feel seems to be what companies are going for in 2019.

Other design sensibilities in the report include orphan shadows, zip tone, gradient breaks, Morse shade (described as "a concentric string of hyper-effective dots and dashes"), wings and doors, among others. What are your takes on the 15 represented design possibilities? You can check them all out—with visual examples of each—here.