From logos to brands, doing more with less has been a staple of modern culture that has also permeated marketing and advertising. Brands all over want to convey as much of their marketing message as possible with the least amount of words or design ‘content.’
So, if you’re looking to be the best logo design company or an individual who wants to be an expert in branding, you will have to understand the popular trends taking place.
The Idea of Less Is More In Its True Form
Minimalism is a design approach that emphasizes simplicity and uses minimal elements to convey a message or idea. When applied effectively to logos, minimalism can create memorable and impactful brand identities. Minimalism conveys the most information possible with the least amount of content for it, but that doesn’t mean it requires less effort, either. That’s because it is not necessarily minimal in a literal sense but minimal in a way that the frame, logo, image, or video is not too ‘busy looking.’ That does require plenty of work to get right.
Minimalist logos are stripped down to their essential elements, avoiding unnecessary details and complexity. This simplicity makes them easy to recognize and remember. Think of it like the simplest fraction that cannot be solved any further. If there is a shape, the shape is the point of focus. If there is a color, that color is the point of focus. It’s simple and makes use of it effectively without beating you over the head with the metaphors and references made there. The simple shapes, typography, and color communicate the brand’s core values and identity.
Minimalism is All About Contrast
In any minimalist design, there are often two elements to an image or logo. These elements can be used to create contrast, one of the most effective design elements. Snow is white, and putting a black silhouette against it showcases excellent contrast. However, snow also represents change, purity, innocence, and a number of things. The contrast uses those representations to create a message.
Need to showcase a brand bringing change? Use snow as the changing seasons and make it the backdrop of your product, presenting how that brand will bring a new era to the market. These do not wholly represent the minimalistic modern designs, but the contrast does bring out that essence into it.
At times, minimalism can even feel as if it’s contrasting to the point of being contradictory. For example, removing personalized elements and ‘clutter’ can also remove uniqueness and personality, but modern minimalism is touted as more personal than traditional minimalism’s rigidity.
The Brand Feel
There is a certain vibe that minimalism brings to brands. The kind of design that modern minimalism loves is to remove adornments from the logo and only add what is necessary. However, in contrast, it creates a more premium feel. It gives the idea that the brand doesn’t need to stand out because the name alone carries more weight and that presenting it in any other way is unnecessary.
From premium spas to fashion brands, some of the most well-known and successful ones regularly put minimalism (and modern minimalism at that) in their brand logos and identities. This isn’t just in their logos but also in their physical locations, which can sometimes benefit them as a whole. A spa, for example, feels better if the environment isn’t too busy.
Minimalism also helps a brand showcase its growth and recognition. For example, Apple is a boutique company rather than a tech company, and its logo is as simple and minimalist as it gets. However, they also don’t need it to be anything else because the apple symbol has become synonymous with the brand, making it easier for consumers to identify and associate with it.
Minimalism in Logos
When it comes to logos, even the best logo design company will only have one type of design in mind when a client wants something that is ‘minimalistic,’ and that is the quintessential modern logo: the brand name in wide, thin fonts, plenty of whitespace, and the logo of the brand itself. Minimalist logos often use clean and simple typefaces. The choice of typography should complement the overall design and reinforce the brand’s personality. Typography can be used alone or in combination with a symbol or icon.
The use of negative space is also common, and effective use of it is a hallmark of minimalist logo design. Negative space refers to the empty or unused space in a design, and when incorporated effectively, it can create secondary images or meanings within the logo, adding depth and intrigue.
Minimalism is best communicated through business cards, where the face of the card shows off the minimalism and might only have a QR code or a link that leads to a page of information. Sure, it is an extra step, which is why it is important that these designs are classed as ‘modern’ minimalistic designs and not in general.
But that is not the only example of where minimalism comes in, such as in billboards. A simple, clean design can also scale well, ensuring the logo remains recognizable whether it’s on a billboard or a small business card, though that depends heavily on the design itself. Now, billboards can be called the opposite of minimalism simply because they’re huge, and often more than one billboard shows the ad. However, modern trends have added that contrast to billboards by using their gargantuan sign to communicate the brand’s minimalism further.
Designing for Scale
More ironically than contradictory, billboards convey a minimalistic message. Their size makes the whitespace in the design even more apparent. However, that doesn’t work for every scale.
For example, a white background with tiny black letters as a logo works on a business card, but do the same on a large advertisement screen, and suddenly, it becomes an eyesore. That is why it’s so important that scale is understood and conveyed and that the logo is used in a manner that works best.
Now, brands still add minimalism, but not wholly in that modern sense. For example, among many workable billboard design tips, one that many brands incorporate are that they use minimal information and maximum messaging of the brand–but they do not use modern minimalistic designs.
Aesthetics and Colors
Minimalist logos typically employ a limited color palette, often consisting of one or two colors. Not only does it serve the core idea, but it also gives ample opportunity to add in some contrast, though that is often limited to opposite colors. Other than black and white, as an example, there is often a limited capacity for using colors alone as contrasting elements, so they can also be used in different objects. This simplicity not only adds to the logo’s minimalist aesthetic but also makes it easier to reproduce in various media, though the scale is arguable.
Modern vs. Traditional Minimalism
We have made some distinctions here in modern minimalism versus the traditional minimalist approach, but what exactly separates them? They share many principles with traditional minimalism but also incorporate some contemporary considerations.
While there is significant overlap between modern minimalism and traditional minimalism, there are also distinctions that set them apart, but they are so intrinsically linked that it’s hard to discuss one without the other, alluding to the fact that many ‘minimalist’ examples of logos and designs do not fit into the exact modus operandi of the modern minimalist styles of logo designs overall.
One of the distinctions comes from contemporary design elements, such as bolder colors, innovative materials, and a greater emphasis on technology. It can also incorporate elements of other design styles, like industrial styles, to create a more eclectic and personalized look. Industrious designs use muted colors, too, but minimalism makes it look more premium than that through other elements such as boldness and sleekness.
A better way to exemplify it would be that modern minimalism keeps the industrious look but removes the clutter from it. Think of the ultra-clean modern homes that are made with full-length glass panel windows, whitewashed floors, beige living room furnishings, etc.