Learn this method well, you can solve 80% of Logo design problems

Addition is the most mainstream design method in logo graphic design, which is to combine two or more graphic elements into a new graphic. Every designer who has made a logo should have used this method.

Not long ago, a friend sent me a new logo designed by his company and asked me what I thought of it. His company is called Dazhi Culture, which mainly deals with education-related businesses. The logo he sent me looks like this:

I won’t comment on whether it is good or not. What I want to say is that addition in logo design is not simply adding several elements together. There are actually many things to pay attention to. Let me share some of my own experiences.

What are the more mainstream additions?

1. Add the first letters of the brand name

It can be the addition of uppercase letters or lowercase letters. The key is to see which form is easier to combine into a high-quality graphic. The commonly used combination methods are:

Overlay, such as the LV and Yves Saint Laurent logos.

Shared strokes, such as the clothing brand UR.

The same approach was used in the logo recently designed by Chan Yau Kin for the Open University of Hong Kong.

Fusion, for example, the logo of Bank of Communications uses the first letter C as the negative form of the letter B.

For example, the Li Ning logo combines the first letters L and N into a shape that resembles a fluttering red flag.

Creative combinations, such as LG’s logo which uses L and G to form a smiley face.

The Volkswagen logo uses V and W to form a shape similar to three victory gestures.

2. Add the abbreviation of the brand name

This method is suitable for relatively concise text, and is usually the addition of two words. The addition combination is similar to the addition of letters. For example, the logo of Peking University is composed of the two words "北大".

The logo I designed for the Beibu Gulf Art Institute during college was a combination of the Chinese characters “北” (North) and “艺” (Art).

3. The first letter of the brand name plus an element representing the industry attribute

There are many brands that use this approach. For example, the TikTok logo is a combination of a lowercase letter d and a musical note.

The logo of Ele.me is a combination of the lowercase letter e and the Pac-Man graphic.

4. The first letter of the brand name or keyword plus elements representing industry attributes

Typical representative cases are the logos of Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which are respectively composed of the Chinese character "中" (China) and the Chinese character "工" (Industry) with a copper coin graphic.

For example, the logo of China Southern Power Grid is made up of the Chinese character “electricity” combined with wires and poles.

5. The elements mentioned in the brand name plus elements representing industry attributes

For example, the Xigua Video logo is designed by combining a watermelon graphic with a video symbol.

The logo of Beike is a combination of a shell graphic and a house graphic.

6. Add the elements representing industry attributes

For example, the logo of NetEase Cloud Music is a combination of a musical note and a record.

For example, the logo that Cong Ye designed for a jewelry brand before was a combination of a four-leaf clover and a starlight graphic.

What are the considerations for using addition to design a logo?

1. Aesthetics

The most basic requirement for logo design is to be beautiful, because this symbol represents the image and spirit of a company or a brand. In addition, this symbol will appear in most of the brand's internal and external materials and media in the future. If the logo is not good-looking, it will affect all other designs.

How can you make the logo graphics you design look good? Improving your own aesthetic taste is of course the most important thing. For example, you should look at some excellent logo design works every day, and you can also look at more graphics and pattern works, etc. Of course, this is a process that requires gradual accumulation.

If you want to quickly know whether your logo design is good-looking or not, you can put your logo together with many excellent logos. If your logo is obviously not "fitting in", it is probably that your logo design is not good-looking or professional enough. Then you should continue to try other graphic combinations, or optimize some details that affect the beauty of the graphics, such as lines, contours, colors, etc.

For example, a few years ago I designed a logo for a clothing brand called "Yinmo". I also used addition. I combined two elements related to the brand name: the treble clef and the eye. At the beginning, I combined them like this:

But I felt that the shape was not very beautiful, so I tried other things:

This combination feels better, but the proportions of the graphics and the details of the lines are not in place, so I continued to optimize it and got the final solution:

2. Must have industry attributes

For example, the logo of Dazhi Culture listed at the beginning of the article is just a simple addition of the letters "D" and "Z". How can such a graphic be said to be the logo of Dazhi Culture? Any brand that starts with the letters D or Z can do this.

Therefore, the newly designed graphics must have the temperament and characteristics of the industry. For example, Li Ning’s old logo is composed of its brand initials L and N. The combined graphic is very dynamic and simple, which fits the attributes of a sports brand, rather than just using two simple letters added together.

If the logo is simply composed of letters or words, the font of these words must be consistent with the temperament of the industry. For example, the LV logo is a simple addition of the brand's initials and has no other profound meaning. However, because the Roman font it uses has the qualities of elegance, high-end, and classic, and the graphics are also good-looking and unique, their logos are generally in line with the industry attributes.

Another way to deal with it is to incorporate an element that can reflect the nature of the brand's industry in addition to text. For example, the LG logo uses the brand's initials L and G to form a smiley face, which means warm service and customer first, which gives the logo connotation.

The logo I designed for Beibu Gulf Art Institute was originally designed as follows:

Although the characters “北” and “艺” are perfectly combined, the temperament of the graphic has little to do with the Academy of Art. So later I added traditional circular patterns on this basis, which enhanced the feeling of traditional art.

3. Recognizable

The main elements integrated into the graphic should be clear and easy to identify, not just for the designer. Some designers integrate five or six graphics into the logo to make it as meaningful as possible, but no one can see any of them. This is unnecessary because a graphic with too many elements can easily become a "strange beast". In addition, the more meanings a logo has, the better. If the meaning is accurate enough and the recognition is high enough, then one or two are enough. Otherwise, it is futile to use more.

For example, the logo of Bank of China, the Chinese character “中” represents China, and the copper coin represents the bank. It is simple, easy to understand and recognize.

For example, Nike’s logo is a check mark.

Some time ago, Chimelong asked us to help design a logo for the "Fantastic Animals Live Studio". I also used addition. The idea was to combine animal paw prints with video playback symbols. The initial plan was like this:

In order to take care of the complete circular outline, I placed the entire palm print graphic inside the circle, but this resulted in the triangle graphic not being in the center of the circle, thus weakening the recognition of the video playback symbol. So later I moved the entire palm print graphic to the right and out of the circle. This not only enhanced the recognition, but also made the entire graphic more special.

Addition can make the design of logo graphics more logical and traceable, which can increase the rationality of logo design, so it is very popular with designers and customers. However, addition is only a means rather than an end. Therefore, when using addition, don’t forget some principled issues of logo design, such as: aesthetics, simplicity, relevance, originality, etc.