2021 Logo Design Trends

Let’s be real, this decade is already in need of a major facelift. Maybe your business is too, or perhaps you’ll begin this new year by starting a small business from scratch. If you’re wanting to make 2021 your year and smash your branding out of the park, you’re going to want to create your own logo for this next chapter. Your logo, small as it may be, is the main face of your brand. Eventually, it will become the most recognisable part of your business, used across various marketing assets such as your website and business cards.

The most exciting part about making a new logo is that design trends come and go, meaning you’ll have no lack of stimulating new ideas to help visualise your brand in the best way possible. We’re approaching an encouraging time in the design world where brands and designers are working together to harness the changes of the past year. We foresee logo designs in 2021 exhibiting an uplifting message while implementing new visual tools and revisiting popular concepts from the past. To help you get the ball rolling, we’ve put together a list of the hottest logo design trends that are set to soar in 2021.

Wordmark Logo Design

A wordmark is a distinct text-only typographic treatment of the name of a brand used for purposes of identification and branding. By incorporating your own stylised font, wordmark logos are known to be big news and always pushing the boundaries. Combining your brand with this design style in 2021 is going to be a design trend that you will see appearing consistently for years to come. Why? Because a well-designed wordmark logo does the job, confidently and with minimum fuss.

Hand-Drawn Imagery

Since the start of the digital era, the majority of logo design uses the accuracy made possible with computer aided technology. For example, 2020 saw many logo variations implementing vector illustrations. Every once in a while however, the design world revisits the days when logos were made by hand. Logo design in 2021 will see more brands using hand-drawn images. It’s not purely nostalgia that designers are after, rather it’s the imperfect traits of hand-drawn images that make this technique so appealing to brands. In 2021, brands will embrace the chance to humanise their designs by incorporating the intimate and whimsical nature embodied by this style. When thinking of a certain style for your logo, this might be the right direction for you if you are wanting to portray the authentic character of your brand.

Simplistic Geometry

Shapes are the building blocks of imagery. But while primitive shapes such as triangles, squares and circles are often phased out once they have laid their groundwork, there is power in their pure simplicity to be arranged into a greater artwork. The designers of 2021 are taking advantage of this power in simplistic shapes by adhering to logos of calculated restraint, allowing them to take liberties elsewhere, such as in richly saturated colours. An added feature of this approach is that layering can create an illusion of structure and depth. Through pure shape language, designers are able to create logos that are memorable, joyous and bright all at the same time.

Analogous Colour Schemes

Technically speaking, analogous colours are the hues that sit next to each other on the colour wheel. In 2021 we predict that a number of brands will start to move away from bold contrasts and transition towards a subtler visual theme, making use of analogous colour schemes. If this sort of design is peaking your interest, first choose a primary brand colour as your base and highlight it with its neighbouring colour, muted tones or neutral hues.

Authentic Portraiture

It is a well-documented fact that people intuitively seek out other faces. That is why portraits are useful for establishing an emotional connection in design. The more authentic and recognisable those faces are, the deeper the connection you will build with your audience. For this reason, more designers in 2021 are turning to authentic portraiture that reflects diverse cultures, genders, races, age groups and more. In contrast to the homogenous representation that too often overcrowds the media, this approach creates an authentic and real impression, which helps people connect with a brand in an instant. These portraiture logos can range from simple, flat character portraits to detailed illustrative techniques that highlight flaws and wrinkles. At the end of the day, whether a logo is telling a story about the people behind the brand or the people whom the brand serves, people are the point.

The 2021 Logo Design Trends are an exciting opportunity to rebrand this young decade. With trends that focus on revitalising minimalism and classical compositions, from simple shapes and symmetry to authentic art, the logos of this year seem to be striving for a kind of purity. Interested in creating a new brand identity for your business through the power of logo design? Please get in contact with our team! We’d love to hear from you!