The psychology of logo design is one of the most oversimplified aspects behind the process of creating a logo. It’s usually associated exclusively with the choice of colors but is actually much more than that.

While “logo design” refers to the activity of creating a logo, and the term “logo” is used to refer to any symbol created for the purpose of identification, the “psychology of logo design” is the study of any meaning that can be seen in a logo other than the meaning of identification.

In this article, I’ll cover the essence of the topic, bring my own personal perspective to the discussion and hopefully help to create a captivating debate around the subject.

Defining psychology in the logo design process

Before proceeding any further we must take a step back and understand the precise meaning of “psychology” in the logo design process.

Bearing that in mind during the design process, will help you gain at least to some level, control of what this extra meaning is going to be. Essentially, what you need to remember is that every attribute that allows creation of additional meaning, can be used to create meaning, and will eventually — whether you intend it or not — be used to create meaning.

Here’s a curious fact that helps a lot to understand what I’m talking about: The term “logo” derives from the Greek word “logos”, which literally means “word”. So when you’re designing a logo, think in these terms, you are actually creating a visual “word” that will be used by people to identify the business for whom you are creating the logo.

The spelling of “logo” in Greek.

People will understand and interact with your logo, the same way they do with words: from their own personal perspective. Which is ultimately led by their own cultural views and personal experiences. If people with distinct levels of education see different meanings for the same word, the chances are they will do the same with your logo.

What you want to do is to think of each part of your logo as an attribute, and then reflect on what each attribute might mean and how people will interpret it. The more time you spend working on the meaning of these attributes, the more control will you have on what people understand when reading your logo.

Since every potential attribute of a logo is virtually infinite, and renders the writing of this article an impossible task, I’m going to focus on the two most common attributes people use to create added meaning: color and shape.

 

What is the role of color?

The role of color in the psychology of logo design is often misunderstood, usually by the clients themselves, but not without reason. Considering the sheer amount of articles on the web stating that red is “this” and yellow is “that”. It becomes self-evident the result is going to be catastrophic. The oversimplification of the meaning of color is the main generator of this typical briefing: “I want my logo red, yellow, green, purple and brown because…”

Somewhere, in a mystical place, a fairy dies every time I hear this sort of request.

Yes, colors do have additional meaning, but they aren’t set in stone. People have been giving meaning to colors throughout the centuries, and the continuous process of attributing the same meaning to the same colors again and again is what ends up solidifying it.

Choosing the right color for your logo is going to get you one step ahead in the added meaning game, but beware; different colors have different meanings in different societies. The image below show the most common interpretations people give to colors in western countries.

But please don’t take this at face value. My main advice when picking a color for your logo is to pick just one. That’s it, just one color.

Choosing a single color gives you more control of what people will see in your logo, and on top of that, you can also use it as your branding strategy. With time people will start to associate the color with your brand. Check out these examples:

One final piece of advice before I proceed to the next point. Whatever color you choose, make sure that your logo works well in black on a white background, and also in white on a black background. Why? First because that’s good practice and is going to help you build a strong identity, but from a psychology point-of-view, whatever meaning you are adding with color, should always be complementary, and never essential to the understanding of your logo.

 

What is the role of shape?

From a psychological perspective, there’s nothing more relevant than shape. The human brain is hardwired to understand and memorize shapes. It’s the way we learn things. A distinctive shape is remembered long after we have seen it. Do you remember the shape of Nike’s logo? The McDonalds sign? Or perhaps the Olympic Games symbol?

We often create a big distinction between type and mark, but if you think about it, letters are nothing but shapes we associate with a meaning and a sound. When designing a logo, you should work on the shape of each letterform individually, looking to add meaning to the finest of details. Following this recipe often results in a powerful and memorable logo.

Let’s take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of the psychology of shape in logo design.

The good

Can you see an arrow in the Fedex logo?

This is one of the best examples of the use of psychology in the design of a logo. The arrow shape created by the negative space formed by the letter “E” and “X” is as far as my opinion goes, the work of a genius, I wish I had designed that logo myself.

Lindon Leader knew exactly what he was doing by adding a hidden arrow in the Fedex logo. In an interview he said: “I thought that, if I could develop this concept of an arrow it could be promoted as a symbol for speed and precision, both FedEx communicative attributes.”

More often than not, designers are guilty of designing with only aesthetics in mind, and this is the main reason behind some of the most disastrous logos ever designed, but when the psychology of design is taken in consideration, that’s logo heaven.

The bad

Done! Once you see that, you can never take it back.

This is a very interesting case. Pepsi paid $1 million for the design of a new logo, which was created by the brand strategy agency Arnell Group. The image above shows what San Francisco-based artist Lawrence Yang thought when he first saw the shape of the new logo.

If only they had thought about that before!

Here’s where I get back to my initial statement, everything that can be used to create meaning, will eventually, whether you want it to be or not. Even if you pay $1 million for the design of your logo, you’re not safe. However thinking about the psychology of shape during the design process may save you some pride.

The ugly

Please, for goodness sake, if not for anything else, and even if you dislike thinking beyond the aesthetic, pay attention to the psychology of logo design to avoid this sort of disaster.

With a logo like this I wonder what else these doctors specialize in.

According to researchers from Ohio State University men think about sex an average of 20 times a day, and women just about 10. Considering this fact alone, it becomes blatantly obvious that if your design leaves enough space for a naughty interpretation, people will see what you don’t want them to see.

If you don’t think about that during the design process, you deserve to be misinterpreted.

 

A case in point (Twitter’s new logo)

One recent example of the application of psychology to add value in logo design, is the new Twitter logo. The new version was simplified, retouched and re-angled. Now Larry the bird, is looking up; denoting growth, looking into a bright future, as a potential Twitter IPO must be in sight; and in a much more distinctive shape, rendered more memorable.

But there’s no escape, as people interact with the new logo, new meaning is created.

Gizmodo reader Ben Flores uncovered a new meaning for the new Twitter logo.

 

Is there anything else?

Yes. If there’s one very specific situation where the psychology of logo design is more effective than any other is when designing a logo for a young audience. It seems that as we get older, we tend to develop a sort of shield to protect us against a never-ending stream of marketing shenanigans, but that’s not the case for young consumers.

This is where the psychology of logo design becomes controversial. As we design logos for companies, products and services aimed at children, we must maintain a certain level of integrity, and avoid overusing techniques which are designed to manipulate.

 

Conclusion

There are very few things that are more relevant to my design process than what feelings and emotions my work will evoke in viewers, more specifically the primary target of my clients.

Choosing the right combination of color, type and mark can easily become a purely aesthetic exercise, but is when you give the time to think about the psychology behind the design that the best work tends to come out.

 

Have you ever communicated something you weren’t intending to? Is there a point at which using psychology to affect our audience becomes unethical? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Written exclusively for WDD by Ray Vellest, a London-based brand identity designer working with organizations and individuals from all over the world. Ray’s approach to identity design position his clients as leaders of their industries while creating a valuable long-term asset for their businesses. Follow @rayvellest on Twitter to keep up with his latest updates.

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Hi everyone, after a hiatus of almost three months without writing any tutorial I’m finally back and, as usuaI, I have a good exercise to share with you guys. Today we’re going to draw this badass hip hop character that I got inspired by comic book artist Jamie Hewlett and graffiti artist Pose 2, who already worked with aesthetics influenced by hip hop.

So, I hope you guys have a good time and enjoy it. But I recommend you to install the following fonts before proceeding: San Locisco, THe Black Bureau and Ghetto Wolves. You can get them at Legacy of Defeat, the font fabric from our buddy Hydro 74.

This is a quite advanced tutorial it’s highly advised to use a tablet, or some of you may find yourselves a bit lost on some parts. If that happens, don’t worry, and use it as a reference. The idea is to to share and be helpful. If you have any doubt, feel free to contact me any time.

Sketch

So before going to Illustrator, I decided to do a few sketches so I could have a better idea of the position, direction and structure of the character.

First of all I drawed the main structure using geometric shapes so I could render it into something more detailed on the following.

I detailed the sketch a bit more, as usual, the more elaborated your sketch is, more well done your final piece will be. I decided to don’t use the cap I did on this sketch, as it looked more menacing without it.

Ok, now open Adobe Illustrator and make a new document (command + n / ctrl + n). Make a 10 x 16 cm CMYK white canvas.

I pasted the last sketch into the new canvas so I could use it as reference. Then create a new layer (command + L/ ctrl + L) to start with the head.

Head

Using the pen tool (P) trace around the head.

With the previous tool do the same thing with the mouth, you can use strokes on it, although I’m not a huge fan of this method, I prefer to create a separated path for it. Right after, add some some grey and two paths with white fill inside of it. Then make the classic divisory of the teeth with black fill.

With the ellipse tool (L) I did this nostrils.

I traced the eyebrowns with the pen tool (P) using a balck fill, give some attention to this as it’s going to be important for the facial expression.

As you may notice, I’m using two kinds of white in order to give depth to teeth and eyes. So first I draw the grey part, later I added loads of wrinkles around it using the pen tool (P).

Also added this simple detail between the eyebrowns.

Here’s what I was talking about, make the white fill but scale it having in mind the depth you want to give.

I wanted to give some volume to the eyebrowns and nose, so made this grey shapes over them.

Now I added tons of wrinkles to make his facial expression more interesting and fluid, thi may take you sometime and observation, but here’s the walk thru.

The ear needs some special attention, as it’s complex part of the body.

Let’s draw some classic “attention triangles” on the side of the head. Draw them with the pen tool (P), make first a black layer, then a red layer. Make also a reflex and a shadow on them.

Golden jewelry seemed to fit with to this character, so I decided to give him this golden earring. Make first the yellow fill, then a darker one, a brighter one and the lights.

Ok, now remember the trace we did around the head on the beginning? Select it and fill it with brown color.

Select the brown path and go to Object > Path > Offset Path and set to create this black fill around the head.

I added this dark circles below the eyes so it would look a bit more agressive. Just put this red fill and a lighter one behind the wrinkles.

Here comes a trick part: I like to insert some volume on the face so I had to understand the scene light, so I did this light parts all around the face, respecting the wrinkles and structures of the head. You can do it eithher with the pen tool (P) or the pencil tool (N).

Some of you may be a bit lost at this point, so here’s a brief explaination of this technique: I use to call it “hard gradient” as I get three color tones of the same scale and use them to ehance the shapes. So I think you already know what we’re going to do next, yep, add a lighter layer of brown.

Ok guys, I think we have it, let’s skip to the body.

Body

Fist of all make a new layer (command + L / ctrl + L). We’re going to pretty much the same thing we did before, so let’s first trace the whole body silhouette.

Now let’s trace the arms.

You can draw the collar using a brown fill and a black stroke. We’re going to enhance it later.

Turn the body trace into a orange fill, it’s nice color for a Tee, don’t you think? hehehe. Do the same thing to the arms.

I made the strokes around the body “manually” using the pencil tool (N), as I was afraid that it could interfer on some aspects later.

Let’s return to the collar, let’s add a extra line and draw some stripes, you can use the brush tool (B) for this task.

Add a lighter color for the tee.

Add some more strokeon the arms using the pencil tool (N) or the brush tool (B) If you prefer.

Following the same procedure, I did this wrincles all around the Tee, this make take you some time depending of the tool, I rather do them using the pencil tool (N).

A badass without defined muscles it’s not a badass. So let’s pump this guy.

And here let’s apply that previous hard gradient technique.

See how interesting the results we get.

Now I added a couple of tattoos like this barbed wire, after I had the whole structure I used the color burn mode on the transparency panel so it would mix better with the skin.

I hope you downloaded the San Locisco font I told on the beggining, anyway I wrote “Gangsta” and break it in outlines (command + shift + o / ctrl + shift + o) and make a envelope mesh with it (it’s a panel on the top next to transform and opacity, usually on the right side).

Set the panel like the one below. Then add the same blending mode to it (color burn).

So, I decided to apply the same hard gradient technique on the tee, creating this lighter orange color fill between the wrinkles, I suggest you to use the pencil tool (N) for the task.

I really dig those old school hip hop tee’s with big numbers, so I applied this one using a Museo Serif then applied a overlay blending mode on it. You don’t have to use this specific font, just one with some big serif numbers.

I repeat the same process with the quote “Thug Life” on the top of the Tee.

Our badass needed more gold, so I added this golden chain, like the classic rappers from the 80’s. This is quite easy If you already undertood the logic of this illustration, basically I did the chainrings using the pencil tool (N) than added the shades and lights one by one (yep, a bit boring, but can’t complain about the result).

So, here’re our badass, let’s just add a final touch to it.

Letters

I used the Black Bureau font here, turned it into curves. Then give it a golden gradient, adjust on the gradient panel to get te same fill color. use dark yellow on the stroke.

I also applied this light gradient using a clipping mask, I think you already know how to do it, just duplicate the font shape and put it on front, then select both gradient and the font shape and press command + 7 / ctrl + 7.

I also applied a offset path with a black fill.

Using the star tool, click once on the canvas and configurate it to create a 4 point star with the settings bellow. Distribute them along the letters, like a classic “bling-bling”.

And here it is guys, hope you enjoyed besides all the difficulties, see you next time.

Conclusion

Download the Adobe Illustrator File

Download the Adobe Illustrator file used for this tutorial