As an integral part of every company’s branding strategy, a logo can speak volumes about the brand. Since brands are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of visual branding, they strive to come up with creative and characteristic logos that would be easily recognizable, channeling the right brand message and associations every time a consumer spots it among other visual materials. Logo design is a flourishing field, but it’s also changing – here are top 8 logo design trends predicted to grow and blossom in 2016.

New Logo Design Trends

1. Typography and Script: There’s no denying it – 2016 will be the year when typography will gain a new and really intense focus. More often than not, logos will be just company names – but scripted in a unique and captivating way. Companies will use their logos to reinforce their brand message and help it resonate with consumers. Special attention will be paid to fonts that offer some truly unique and personalized script styles.

2. Dual Coloring: Mono-colored logos are giving way for more eye-catching alternatives – in 2016, we will witness the growing popularity of dual-colored logos. Brands that want to look fresh and innovative are likely to add a dash of color to their simple white or gray typographic logos. This kind of color combination will work for compound company names, for instance – coloring one part of the name will simply help consumers to read and remember it.

3. Low Polygon: Low polygon is a design technique that until now has mainly been used in backgrounds and wallpapers. In 2015, it will start to get really noticeable in logos, as well as icons. Its characteristic 3D quality makes logos literally pop out from the page or screen, ensuring that viewers notice and remember them.

4. Negative Space: This trend can be situated within the aesthetics of the king of design principles, minimalism. As we’ve all seen in recent years, adding embellishments to logos isn’t always a good idea – instead of making things complicated, the use of negative space can produce more coherent and interesting logos. This goes especially for black and white logos – spicing them up with a negative space design can be very rewarding.

5. Overlapping: Another minimalistic trend that will gain steam in 2016 is overlapping. It’s basically a technique used when two design elements overlap each other – designers can use shading to create a logo design with more depth. Shadowed logos look very interesting – such a small detail as shadow can take a logo from simple to sophisticated, adding a small touch of elegance to every logo design.

6. Calligraphy and Hand Lettering: The trend for logos that look ‘hand made’ will blossom in 2016. We’ll see more and more brands turning to calligraphy professionals for creating custom made logos, marketing materials and event invitations. This trend is already visible in the fashion industry, where brands use calligraphy in fashion show invitations, emphasizing the professionalism and creativity behind the brand. It’s only natural that this tendency would spread to logo-making as well, allowing designers to adopt a more creative approach towards designing logos that captivate consumers.

7. Gradients: Mesh tools and colorful gradient logos are becoming a favorite of the tech industry and we’ll surely see more of them in 2015. They’re simple, sophisticated and modern – the unlimited color range and  possibility of creating soft, innovative shapes proved to be more than attractive to many logo designers so far.

8. Vintage: Just like calligraphy and script fonts, vintage logo designs are highly decorative and can work well for businesses like restaurants or music clubs. Well into the 21st c., our fascination with vintage can only grow – vintage logos are charming, simple and one-dimensional, essentially standing for values like tradition, quality and trust. It’s no wonder than 2016 will be very kind to vintage logos.

Just like in case of any other design element, logo trends come and go. All trends listed above are already present on the design scene and the future looks bright for them. It’s more than likely, however, that in the near future logo designers, challenged by all sorts of creative strategies brands use to engage consumers, will come up with new solutions for evocative logotypes.

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The article was contributed by Isabel Wiliams has a strong background in logo design. She is passionate about new technologies, internet science and anything tech-related. She believes in their potential to empower businesses and individuals. She works at http://www.bizdb.co.uk/, a free online company check platform, as a tech project manager.