Have you given the value of a distinctive logo any thought? Does psychology have anything to do with how logos are made? There must be a link, no doubt about it!
A logo represents the qualities of a firm in a more meaningful way than merely as a pretty picture. In other words, since the logos cannot communicate, the actual magic takes place in the mind.
Design psychology
Design psychology has a significant impact on a logo’s success. The fact that creating a logo seems tough, nevertheless, is precisely due to this psychological element. The average viewer isn’t consciously searching for meaning in every logo they see, therefore the logo needs to grab their attention to evoke an emotional reaction from them. Additionally, it is not necessary to worry about adding behavioral science expertise to the list of tasks for logo designers because they already have a lot on their plate in terms of their understanding of design, sketching, and software.
Thankfully, you don’t need a degree to include psychology in logo design. We’ve written this guidebook to cover the main concepts, which are simply a few basic ones that you should be aware of.
The underlying message of the logo is that before applying psychology to design communication, it is important to consider what a logo expresses.
These are some general questions that a logo aims to answer, while the specifics will vary from brand to brand:
Personality: What distinguishes a brand from a business and who are the people who create its products?
Authority and professionalism: Why should a potential customer believe that a brand is credible?
Market value: What distinguishes the brand from its rivals?
Every brand will also have unique characteristics that it wants to convey through its visual identity. These originate from the brand’s mission statement, core values, and target market.
All of this information is intended to be conveyed through a logo utilizing simply visual elements. Fortunately, a logo cannot function on its own. It is a good idea to brush up on your brand psychology because it is all a part of a wider branding endeavor.
Our first fundamental psychological concept is applied in this situation: pattern recognition. It helps when those patterns are purposefully fostered because the human mind is designed to notice and remember them. In the realm of business, a potential client will frequently come into contact with a brand (these are sometimes called touchpoints on the customer journey, and the logo is just one example). The more consistency customers notice in those interactions, the more those characteristics will be perceived as part of the same branding strategy.
The elements of design
A collection of various components that come together to form a composition—are used in logo design. These include things like color, fonts, shapes, and other things. When creating a logo, you must take into account the psychological associations that each of these components possesses.
Symbols are figurative allusions to particular things or pictures that have significance. The majority of the time, symbols rely on references, which makes them highly cultural. Because of Ancient Greek traditions, the olive branch, for instance, has come to represent peace in the Western world (even though we no longer practice such traditions, which only serves to highlight the potency of symbols). An icon-like function can be achieved by a symbol in a logo, serving as a subtly symbolic representation of intricate concepts.
Every element, from a logo’s lines to the full silhouette, is a shape. Given that general shapes are typically what people see initially (especially because most people aren’t paying close attention to your brand), it’s critical to take into account the numerous meanings shapes might convey. Shapes affect how a logo feels, including whether it is weighty, energetic, mechanical, stable, etc.
Some of our most visceral, emotional emotions are caused by the psychology of colors. Consider how freshly painted walls can transform a room’s mood from gloomy to upbeat in an instant. Similarly, due to evolution, certain hues can determine whether a meal appears delicious or toxic. Three or fewer colors are normally allowed in a logo design, and these are frequently employed in additional settings to strengthen company identity.
Beyond the actual text, the font style communicates something. Serifs, sans serifs, script, handwritten, and decorative typefaces are among the five main categories; similar to symbols, their psychological connotations are strongly influenced by their historical applications. Nevertheless, a brand name or tagline’s font choice can give the impression that it is classic, modern, elegant, or even unique.
Principles of psychology in logo design
Knowing how a logo’s components interact is one thing. But creating a logo requires combining all of these elements into a single, unified arrangement. To do this, you must decide what brand message you want your logo to portray and make sure that each element you utilize supports that message.
During the logo design process’ sketching stage, psychology frequently enters the picture. Sketching is a type of thinking even though it is the act of drawing. The designer is using the details in the brief to generate viable ideas that will appeal to a market while staying true to a brand.
Concept of Gestalt
The brain arranges complex forms according to gestalt theory. The six gestalt principles may be employed in logo design to make sure that forms are utilized to their fullest extent and that the design’s intended message is communicated. Designers will thus have a hard job psychologically enticing spectators if the overall form is confusing and ambiguous.
Let’s study the Gestalt principles while keeping in mind the concepts of perception discussed above.
- Simplicity: Even when a shape is composed of numerous different shapes, we see the simplest version of that shape according to the principle of simplicity. Although crucial, the law of simplicity is not as straightforward to articulate as other Gestalt principles.
- Proximity: The term “proximity” describes how close things are to one another. Although clustering stuff into a single region might have a strong proximity effect, the strongest proximity interactions are between overlapping subjects.
- Similarity: Humans naturally associate similar objects. Regardless of how close together the parts are, gestalt visually groups comparable elements. They can be categorized based on size, shape, or color.
- Common Fate: This was not previously included in the gestalt theory, is now taken into account. In UX design, it cannot be ignored for its utility. This principle states that people will group items that move or point in the same general direction.
- Continuity: Regardless of how the lines were drawn, the rule of continuity states that while inspecting lines, the human eye will always follow the path that is the least rough.
- Closure: One of the most intriguing gestalt concepts is closure, which I also addressed at the beginning of this article. It alludes to the idea that your brain will fill in any blanks in a design or image in order to make the whole.
Effect of Von Restorff
According to the Von Restorff effect, people are more likely to recall the outlier in the group than a homogeneous group. Each industry will undoubtedly have broad logo trends that are widespread and ultimately generic when it comes to design. As an illustration, bank logos frequently represent security and are often blue or have imagery like shields or structures. While there is nothing wrong with capitalizing on such characteristics, a bank logo that does so in a fresh way is sure to win over potential customers.
A logo should accurately represent your company to the public while also setting you apart from competing businesses. When someone sees your logo, they should be able to tell whether they want the product and whether they want to purchase it from your business. You can accomplish that with the use of logo design concepts.
- Simplicity: A logo’s ability to withstand the test of time, as well as its ability to be duplicated and used repeatedly, depend on its simplicity.
- Originality: For people to remember your logo, it must be distinctive enough to grab their attention.
- Versatility: Large-scale work is required for your logo. Think t-shirts and bumper stickers when you picture them adorning all of your goods, store signage, digital advertisements, and much more. Your logo must be adaptive and versatile to be used anywhere. Make sure your logo looks fantastic in every single location you can think of where you’ll want to utilize it.
- Scalability: In the same vein, your logo ought to be flexible in terms of size. In keeping with the adaptability principle, we already know that your logo needs to be scalable so it can represent your brand wherever it is used.
- Balance & Proportion: People find balanced patterns to be lovely. A well-balanced design will achieve harmony among the numerous components that make up your logo.
- Timelessness: A classic logo will still look nice ten years from now. When creating your logo, steer clear of passing trends and opt for a timeless appearance. In your industry, psychedelic logos from the 1970s might be popular right now, but they might become stale in a year.
Conclusion
Even though a logo is just one image, a lot is going on behind it. The effectiveness of a logo design depends on a combination of psychological factors, strategic planning, artistic drawing talent, and aesthetic taste.
But despite how complicated it all seems, psychology simplifies the process of creating logos. The use of psychology in logo design functions as a compass. Psychology provides us with solid guidelines on which to base our assumptions and make plans rather than relying on educated guesses about what would appeal to an audience. Because of this, it’s crucial to deal with a designer who is familiar with human behavior if you want to receive a fantastic logo design.
