Logo & Icon Design

Logo and icon design often goes hand-by-hand, but is separated with some fundamental thoughts behind them. Logos are traditionally representing an unique entity and icons on the other hand are aiming to be non-unique and aims to give a common understanding what is visually presented in that view.

When creating an effective logo it is good to give thought to the visual presentation and what values you are pursuing with it. In example when you want something that should visualize a stoic image then using hard corners or bulky shapes and if you want something that is more dynamic using wave shapes is often the best way to approach this type of symbolism.

Thinking the function behind the icon is the key to approach it’s design and how it example fits into the other existing icons. The best example on this topic is perhaps the traffic signs and how they are effectively working without having a single word on them, with few exceptions of course. Once you have constructed a consensus of the icon set and see a new added icon with them, it is easy to automatically connect that new icon with the others.

It is often very hard to get the best logo or icon set with the first try, but once the asset has gone trough the first round it starts to provide comparison value how to iterate further. Also even once the logo or icons has been iterated few times to become the approved version after several years they can become subject for redesign.